Gianfranco Crupi

Il saggio è costituito da due parti, la prima delle quali, dedicata alla fondazione della Federazione italiana delle biblioteche circolanti cattoliche, è stata pubblicata nel precedente numero dei «Nuovi Annali», XXVII (2013), pp. 137-163. In questa seconda parte viene delineata la figura intellettuale di Giovanni Casati, che diresse la «Rivista di letture» dal 1912 al 1944, trasformando il periodico della Federazione in una rivista impegnata nella divulgazione della cultura cattolica. A questo impegno militante Casati fece corrispondere un intenso programma editoriale, che trovò espressione nella pubblicazione di saggi letterari, di manuali e opere repertoriali

The paper analyzes the Cosmographicus liber (1524) of the German mathematician and cosmographer Petrus Apianus: an innovative work in the astronomical, geographical and cartographic studies of the sixteenth century, also due to the presence of some mobile devices consisting of volvelles. In addition to reconstructing the context of mathematical studies in which Apianus operated, the essay describes the para-textual function and the functioning of the astronomical instruments incorporated in the book.

This issue of JLIS.it is made up of two separate sections: the first, as usual, lists essays and contributes of different nuances of library and archival science. The second hosts the papers of the conference Selling & Collecting: Printed Book Sale Catalogues and Private Libraries in Early Modern Europe, held at the University of Cagliari (Italy) on September 20-21, 2017. We decided to published some papers selected out of those presented at the conference; the theme is the core of the EMoBookTrade, a project devoted to investigating bookselling in Early Modern History and funded by the ERC. All papers did pass JLIS.it selection, and assessment steps and all of them successfully passed the peer-review.  JLIS.it decided to open to themes related to book and library history examined with innovative methods and an interdisciplinary approach: a novelty in the course of the journal we hope our readers will appreciate.

Questo volume raccoglie gli abstract degli interventi presentati alla conferenza AIUCD 2017. AIUCD 2017 si e svolta dal 26 al 28 Gennaio 2017 a Roma, ed e stata verra organizzata dal Digilab, Universita Sapienza in cooperazione con il network ITN DiXiT (Digital Scholarly Editions Initial Training Network). AIUCD 2017 ha ospitato anche la terza edizione dell’EADH Day, tenutosi il 25 Gennaio 2017. Gli abstract pubblicati in questo volume hanno ottenuto il parere favorevole da parte di valutatori esperti della materia, attraverso un processo di revisione anonima sotto la responsabilita del Comitato di Programma Internazionale di AIUCD 2017.

This contribution reconstructs the history of volvelle in movable books; books created for a wide range of different purposes (teaching, mnemonics, play, divining, etc.) including mechanical or paratextual devices demanding or soliciting the interaction of the reader. The investigation runs from hand-written books, considering some specific editorial genres, including calendars, books of fate, anatomical flap books, navigation handbooks etc.

Oggetto del contributo sono gli alba amicorum: un fenomeno culturale riconducibile a un’usanza nata negli ambienti studenteschi della Germania
riformata del Cinquecento, e poi diffuso nell’area mitteleuropea. Con l’espressione di alba amicorum si fa, infatti, riferimento
a volumi, perlopiù di piccole dimensioni, che raccoglievano
iscrizioni manoscritte di professori, colleghi di studio, amici e
personaggi che, a vario titolo, avevano avuto un ruolo nel sistema
delle relazioni intrattenute dagli studenti nei loro viaggi di
studio e di cui essi desideravano conservarne memoria o testimonianza
d’amicizia.

The paper examines the bibliographic genre of the collections of loci communes, better known in the Anglo-Saxon world with the expression of commonplace books, heirs to the fertile and flourishing tradition of ars excerpendi, i.e. the art of compiling collections of extracts and reading notes. In particular, we analyze the indexing system devised by the English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) and the word-subject coding device: an algorithm that governs the order of texts, thus relieving memory of such a quantity of data that it is inevitably subject to forgetfulness. KEYWORDS Commonplace books; Ars excerpendi; John Locke. CITATION Crupi, G. "John Locke's algorithm and the commonplace books." JLIS.it 12, 1 (January 2021): 63−72.

L’autore dà notizia della scoperta del catalogo della biblioteca di don Giovanni Casati (1881-1957), protagonista indiscusso della Federazione italiana delle biblioteche circolanti cattoliche e tenace promotore della cultura cattolica nella prima metà del Novecento.
Il catalogo della biblioteca, costituito da 11.913 registrazioni bibliografiche,
raggruppa una considerevole varietà di soggetti e materie e rappresenta una preziosa fonte di studio per la storia intellettuale delle biblioteche circolanti cattoliche e dei canoni culturali tra Otto e Novecento.

The paper analyzes the Cosmographicus liber (1524) of the German mathematician and cosmographer Petrus Apianus: an innovative work in the astronomical, geographical and cartographic studies of the sixteenth century, also due to the presence of some mobile devices consisting of volvelles. In addition to reconstructing the context of mathematical studies in which Apianus operated, the essay describes the para-textual function and the functioning of the astronomical instruments incorporated in the book.

This contribution reconstructs the history of volvelle in movable books; books created for a wide range of different purposes (teaching, mnemonics, play, divining, etc.) including mechanical or paratextual devices demanding or soliciting the interaction of the reader. The investigation runs from handwritten books, considering some specific editorial genres, including calendars, books of fate, anatomical flap books, navigation handbooks etc.

The Orbis sensualium pictus (1658) by the Czech philosopher and educationalist Jan Amos Komenský, most commonly referred to with his Latin name Comenius (1592-1670), is the first illustrated school textbook. It is the end result of a lengthy and articulated philosophical and linguistic reflection, and it’s conceived by its author as a small encyclopedia of basic knowledge of the world where pictures function as a learning aid by virtue of their logical pairing with words.The image in the Orbis is not servile to the text, but rather acts in a complementary and integrated semiotic system and becoming in Comenius’ vision, a revolutionary, ludic, didactic instrument to help children learn about the world through «lusum & iocum» i.e., enjoyable passtime and play. The paper recontructs, in the light of Comenius’ complex body of treatises, the process of philosophical thought that led him to elaborate the concept of «visible» and reflects upon the role of the intellect in the elaboration of information acquisition through sensory perception.

This contribution reconstructs the history of movable books, books created for a wide range of different purposes (teaching, mnemonics, play, divining, etc.) including mechanical or paratextual devices demanding or soliciting the interaction of the reader. The investigation runs from hand-written books to the most courageous paper-engineering experiments of the 20th century Avant-Garde, considering some specific editorial genres, including calendars, “libri di sorti”, anatomical books, navigation handbooks etc., and animated children’s books. In particular, it demonstrates how the happy season for animated paper production and publishing of the 19th century would not have been possible without the scientific inheritance of optical studies and vision sciences, precursors a short time before the invention of the Lumière brothers (1895). The study also examines some literary works using combinatorial mechanisms, experimenting the semiotic potential of expressive codes and very different techniques and materials: the reference is to books of Futurism and Dadaism, the “artists’ book”, and other avant-garde texts from the second half of the 20th century.

This contribution reconstructs the history of movable books, books created for a wide range of different purposes (teaching, mnemonics, play, divining, etc.) including mechanical or paratextual devices demanding or soliciting the interaction of the reader. The investigation runs from hand-written books to the most courageous paper-engineering experiments of the 20th century Avant-Garde, considering some specific editorial genres, including calendars, “libri di sorti”, anatomical books, navigation handbooks etc., and animated children's books. In particular, it demonstrates how the happy season for animated paper production and publishing of the 19th century would not have been possible without the scientific inheritance of optical studies and vision sciences, precursors a short time before the invention of the Lumière brothers (1895). The study also examines some literary works using combinatorial mechanisms, experimenting the semiotic potential of expressive codes and very different techniques and materials: the reference is to books of Futurism and Dadaism, the "artists' book", and other avant-garde texts from the second half of the 20th century.

Il saggio è costituito da due parti, la prima delle quali, dedicata alla fondazione della Federazione italiana delle biblioteche circolanti cattoliche, è stata pubblicata nel precedente numero dei «Nuovi Annali», XXVII (2013), pp. 137-163. In questa seconda parte viene delineata la figura intellettuale di Giovanni Casati, che diresse la «Rivista di letture» dal 1912 al 1944, trasformando il periodico della Federazione in una rivista impegnata nella divulgazione della cultura cattolica. A questo impegno militante Casati fece corrispondere un intenso programma editoriale, che trovò espressione nella pubblicazione di saggi letterari, di manuali e opere repertoriali.
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The study consists of two parts; the first is dedicated to the history of the Federazione italiana delle biblioteche circolanti cattoliche since its foundation (1904) up to 1912 and was published in the previous volume of the «Nuovi Annali», XXVII (2013), pp. 137-163. In this second part, the author outlines the intellectual figure of Giovanni Casati, who directed the «Rivista di letture» from 1912 to 1944, transforming the magazine of the Federation in a journal engaged in the spreading of Catholic culture. To this militant engagement Casati matched an intense publishing program, which found its expression in the publication of literary essays, manuals and reference works.

Il saggio è costituito da due parti, la seconda delle quali, dedicata alla figura intellettuale di Giovanni Casati, direttore della «Rivista di letture» dal 1912 al 1944, verrà pubblicata nel volume successivo. In questa prima parte viene ricostruita la storia della Federazione italiana delle biblioteche circolanti cattoliche dalla sua fondazione, nel 1904, fino al 1912. Poco studiata rispetto all’altra istituzione attiva nello stesso campo, la Federazione italiana delle biblioteche popolari nata dalle istanze filantropiche della Società Umanitaria e dal riformismo di matrice socialista di Turati e Fabietti, la Federazione delle biblioteche circolanti cattoliche si dotò da subito di un suo organo di stampa, il «Bollettino delle biblioteche cattoliche» (divenuto poi «Rivista di letture»). Ambedue nacquero come parte di una più ampia strategia politico-culturale, funzionale al progetto educativo e propagandistico della Chiesa, e condussero un’insistente campagna promozionale sui temi della moralità e delle ‘buone letture’. Il saggio ha adottato questo punto di vista per indagare la politica culturale e religiosa e le strategie comunicative usate dalla Federazione delle biblioteche cattoliche nei suoi primi anni di vita.
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The study consists of two parts; the second one, dedicated to the intellectual profile of Giovanni Casati, editor of the «Rivista di letture» (1912-1944), will be published in the next volume. In the first part the author traces the history of the Federazione italiana delle biblioteche circolanti cattoliche since its foundation (1904) to 1912. The Catholic Federation, little studied compared to the Federation of popular libraries springing from the philanthropic instances of the Humanitarian Society and the social reform background of Turati and Fabietti, had from the beginning its press organ, the «Bollettino delle biblioteche cattoliche» (later «Rivista di letture»). Both were born as part of a broader political/cultural strategy, functional to the educational and propagandistic plan of the Church, and conducted a obstinate campaign on the issues of morality and ‘good readings’. The paper takes this viewpoint to investigate the cultural and religious policy and communication strategies adopted by the Federation of Catholic libraries in its first years of life.