[14444] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
FYI France: the new Provenance database at the BMLyon
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jack Kessler)
Tue Jul 16 19:01:19 2002
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2002 18:41:31 -0700
From: Jack Kessler <kessler@WELL.COM>
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Reply-to: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU>
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FYI France: the new Provenance database at the BMLyon
The new "Provenance" database at Lyon,
http://www.bm-lyon.fr/ ("Bases de donne'es")
(to scroll through lists on the site -- the lists
currently appear only partially in their windows -- type
the first letter of the item sought and click on "envoyer")
which was announced on June 25, promises to be a very useful
digital library addition to the growing international offering of
online rare book tools and materials.
It's also fascinating: they have mounted the full exlibris
online -- you can read the,
"Dominici nuptij de Rubiano 1476 Morantis Rome In domo
Casarella, No[n] amplius tui sed mej Eua[n]geliste
oliuarij de Mo[n]tepolo in Sabinis et Ciuis Romani..."
etc. onscreen in the original, print or manuscript versions, in
good images which can be enlarged for very legible detail...
The Bibliothe`que Municipale de Lyon, which houses one of
France's finest collections of rare books, ancient manuscripts,
and incunabula, also has been a leader in the country's
development of online and digital media. The BMLyon's current
"Virtual Expositions" include, for example,
* Du sang a` la une : La belle e'poque du fait divers
dans la presse illustre'e
* Des "Petit Chaperon Rouge" : dans la fore^t du conte
* Prophe'ties pour temps de crise : Interpre'tations de
Nostradamus au fil des sie`cles
and BM Lyon databases exist online now for, among others,
* Enluminures -- 12,000 images from 457 documents of the
5th through 16th centuries, manuscripts and incunables
and Renaissance books;
* Ecrivains Rho^ne-Alpes -- bio - bibliographies of 200
local writers of autobiography, fiction, poetry,
mysteries, science-fiction, theater;
* Estampes -- the BMLyon prints collection -- Albrecht
Du:rer, Lucas Cranach, Jost Amman, Adrian Collaert,
Thomas de Leu, Davent, etc. ;
* Affiches -- a thousand posters, from the lae 19th
century through the first half of the 20th -- art,
exhibitions, advertising, announcements of publications
and of shows, also official proclamations and propaganda
from the two world wars.
Now comes "Provenance", to this already - superb online offering:
the origins, of the BMLyon's justifiably famous collection of
rare books --
"From their mid - 15th century beginnings, printed books
have borne the identification marks of the individuals or
institutions which have held them: precious bindings,
coats of arms, a manuscript or printed ex-libris,
readers' notes, annotations of every kind, etc.
"The database 'Provenance' displays these marks, which
have enable the identification of previous owners and
readers of works now held in the collections of the
library. Whether they were doctors, students, religious
officials, jurists, and whether they were celebrated
humanists or men and women who were little - known, the
marks left in their books permit us to retrace the
intellectual and geographic itineraries of these works
which they treasured."
Lyon is the place for this: a French city endowed with many very
old and now several very new outstanding "rare books" resources --
* The Muse'e de l'Imprimerie de Lyon
http://www.bm-lyon.fr/musee/imprimerie.htm
* L'Institut d'Histoire du Livre
http://ihl.enssib.fr/
* Provenance des Livres Anciens
http://www.bm-lyon.fr/ ("Bases de donne'es")
-- plus there are wonderful walks in Lyon which can take you down
by one of its two rivers, along the rue Mercie`re... where
Sebastian Gryphe and the others worked to churn out the first
products of this new media, occasionally throwing their old fonts
and tools into the river, from which they now have been removed
and preserved for your appreciation of the history -- remarkable
place for anyone interested in early printing, and in the
excitement of what in fact was a Silicon Valley of a previous
era's "transition in media"... also offering good food and wine
and chocolate, too... -- so, anyone wishing an introduction to
the history of printing, not only in France but also in the
world, now really can benefit from a stop in Lyon.
The "Provenance des Livres Anciens" offers a pretty interesting
oldest - exemplar, currently, one which can demonstrate the
richness of the information in the database:
Cote = "SJ Inc b 63" [Mots cle's]
Auteur : Torquemada, Juan de, 1388-1468 [*3 doc.]
Titre : [Expositio super toto psalterio. 1470 ]
Titre : Reuerendissimi Cardinalis sancti Sixti Expositio
breuis & utilis super toto psalterio
Editeur : Rom[a]e impressa ...: per honorabile[m] uirum
magistrum Vdalricum Gallum de Bienna, die Quarta mensis
octobris [4 X] ... Anno domini [1470]
Description : [204] f. ([a-c]10, [d]12, [e-m]10, [n]12,
[o]10, [p]12, [q-t]10, [v]8) ; 4°
Notes : Titre au colophon (f. [v]7r) qui donne la date de
publication : Rom[a]e impressa die Quarta mensis octobris
per honorabile[m] ... Anno domini [1470] en toutes
lettres. Espace pour initiale au début de chaque psaume
BMC IV, p. 21 Goff T-517 CIBN T-373 IGI 9866
Inf. locale : SJ Inc b 63 - Feuillets [l]3 et [l]8
manquent; le dernier feuillet est blanc (ne contient pas
le registre). Cf. BMC. Initiales enlumine'es et
encadrements peints avec motifs floraux sur f. [a]1r,
[a]3r (avec couronne), [d]2r, [g]10v, [k]2v, [m]5r,
[o]7r, [q]1r; autres initiales et pieds de mouches
ajoute's en bleu ou rouge, en alternance; initiales
imprime'es colorie'es en jaune. Relie' en cuir rouge
(XIXe sie`cle) a` grain long; cadre de roulette a` chaud;
tranches massicote'es; anciennes signatures manuscrites
au bas de quelques feuillets; pliures renforce'es avec
des bandes de parchemin dans chaque cahier. Quelques
annotations manuscrites anciennes dans les marges
Re's Inc 92 - Reliure veau fauve XVIIIe
SJ Inc b 63 - Ex libris manuscrits au colophon: "Dominici
nuptij de Rubiano 1476 Morantis Rome In domo Casarella";
"No[n] amplius tui sed mej Eua[n]geliste oliuarij de
Mo[n]tepolo in Sabinis et Ciuis Romani", ses armes et
initiales ajoute'es a` l'encre brune dans la couronne de
feuillage du 2e`me encadrement ([a]3r); "Non amplius tuij
sed mei Vincentius Massetus florentinus et Ciuis Romanus
Chirugs 1618; cachet de l'Ecole Sainte-Genevie`ve (f.
[a]1r); ex dono manuscrit de Charles de Lescalopier a` la
Socie'te' de Je'sus, 10 juillet 1841. "No. 25" inscrit en
rouge sur la me^me page Re's Inc 92 - A la fin page ms.
concernant Guichard de Monrozard (signature "Monrozard"),
chantre de la colle`giale S. Symphorien de Trévoux,
date'e 1601
Sujets : Bible. A. T. Psaumes--Critique, interpre'tation,
etc. [*8 doc.]
Collaboration : Han, Ulrich, ....-1480
Nuptius, Dominicus, actif en 1476
Olivarius, Evangelista
Massetus, Vincentius, actif en 1618
Lescalopier, Charles de, 1...-1861
Monrozard, Guichard de, actif en 1573-1601
Ecole Sainte-Genevie`ve (Paris) [*23 doc.]
Most wonderfully, perhaps, images taken from the works themselves
are provided online: the exlibris, as mentioned, annotations --
good thumbnails, which can be expanded to offer detailed
representations of the original. Scholars of various sorts may
find these to be extremely useful. Both scholars and mere
students, moreover, even the beginners, can experience the thrill
of seeing "the original": the database is image - oriented -- the
dull listing of "who owned what when", of most other provenance
accounts, is greatly enhanced here by reproducing the actual
handwriting of the period in online images -- very exciting, to
see the written script of the era in which the Torquemada was
read, and perhaps even of the actual Cardinal who owned it.
Very useful links abound throughout: in the entry just - listed,
for example, the square brackets lead to [* 8 doc.] 7 other
examples of "Bible. A. T. Psaumes--Critique, interpre'tation,
etc" in the collection -- or to [* 23 doc.] 22 additional
examples of the "Ecole Sainte-Genevie`ve (Paris)". Boolean
searching is available via "Ope'rateurs" on the main screen.
The records contain no metadata, yet. Greater effort has to be
devoted, by the international library community, to incorporating
all of the riches of international librarianship into the
metadata effort. The only way "the librarian as information
filter" ever is going to work, is via an extraordinary effort to
include everyone: the French, the Chinese, the Russians, and all
of the many others who maintain valuable collections and
information and now rapidly are bringing them to the Internet.
But standards efforts in other areas work well for the French, as
they have elsewhere. This BMLyon "Provenance des Livres Anciens"
project uses UNIMARC, and follows the IFLA UBCIM Programme
standards both for bibliographic and authority records, and
AFNOR rules for cataloging and headings.
Some of the finest libraries now are making their rare and
ancient book treasures available online -- bibliographic records,
now provenance information, increasingly images and texts of the
works themselves -- the Bayerische Staats-bibliothek, the
University of California's Bancroft, the many fine projects of
various national libraries and of the Research Libraries Group,
now the BMLyon...
Perhaps there is some hope, then -- perhaps -- that future
generations will know that there was a world of print, and of
ideas and of their presentation, which preceded the television
screen: a useful and at times critical antidote to any future
world of digital "information overload". The BMLyon's "Provenance
des Livres Anciens" will have helped significantly in this.
--oOo--
FYI France (sm)(tm) e-journal ISSN 1071 - 5916
*
| FYI France (sm)(tm) is a monthly electronic
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| scale "information overload", by Jack Kessler.
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--hjlm--
