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dbellingradt

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Historian currently at Universität Augsburg | #BookHistory #PaperHistory #DigitalHistory #MediaHistory #UrbanHistory #NewsHistory #DigitalPublicHistory and more | Co-editor "Jahrbuch für #Kommunikationsgeschichte" (JbKG) | Vertrauensdozent der Hans Böckler Stiftung | Alumnus FU + HU Berlin + Gerda Henkel Stiftung | born at 338 ppm | Team #histodons here and #skystorians activity at Bluesky. Formerly #twitterstorian | Once gave a lecture on a train | I do enjoy my work.

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dbellingradt, to histodons German
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and share a common past. In , a period called a paper age, tobacco had its connections to the worlds of paper (and print). Attention, friends of , and PaperHistory. @histodons

In this 1671 painting from Hubert van Ravesteijn we see an exclusively designed paper packet leaning against a clay pipe, ready for consumption in a tavern.

In order to sell small units of tobacco, paper was needed: used papers and freshly printed papers. Zoom in:

1/

dbellingradt, to histodons German
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The 4 stages of academic writing illustrated in 1616 with the help of the Evangelists. @histodons

dbellingradt,
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@franco_vazza @histodons that’s true. So we need a 5th Evangelist in here!

dbellingradt,
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@kevinjardine @franco_vazza @histodons oh yes! Worldly was on my mind.

dbellingradt, to histodons German
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There is a paper story to this painting from 1672 waiting to be told. Meet Jan Berckheyde's "A Notary in His Office" highlighted in 5 steps - a thread for friends of and of , and for in general. Expect a view into the inky paper states of Europe, a paper age dealing also with waste papers, fresh paper sheets waiting to be used, a high paper demand, and some document bags literally full of used papers. Let's roll @histodons

1/6

The 1672 painting A Notary in His Office from Jan Berckheyde is shown. A notary is sitting at his writing desk, and is surrounded by various paper products.

dbellingradt,
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@histodons Paper is often only recognized when it is written upon or printed upon. Here, in the highlighted detail no. 1, a written piece of paper, neatly folded and full of information, is given from the notary to a client. This might be a letter, a contract, or a legal document; important is that this paper and the information stored on the paper held significance in the European administration practices running on paper and with paper. A paper move, like here, was often a power move.

2/6

The painting A Notary in His Office from Jan Berckheyde is shown. A notary is sitting at his writing desk, and is surrounded by various paper products. Highlighted are 5 of these paper products.

dbellingradt,
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@histodons Using paper as a culture included storing. The neatly stored bound books are relatively easy to store, as knows. But the used paper sheets caused problems and messy storing decisions as highlighted in detail no. 2. Used paper was waiting to be used again (as reading matter). Too often newly written communication flows inspired new papers of the future. And in between: the sheets were waiting somewhere. Stored to rot a bit, bored as artifact can be, dear .

3/6

The painting A Notary in His Office from Jan Berckheyde is shown. A notary is sitting at his writing desk, and is surrounded by various paper products. Highlighted are 5 of these paper products.

dbellingradt,
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@histodons Using papers led to storing and ordering needs. So, where to put all the used and waiting paper? This notary office, decided, like many secretaries at the time, to use document bags - literally filled with paper, written pages. These bags could be seen hanging in Dutch administration buildings. Watch out Eric Ketelaar's "Archiving people" on these bags. The opening and closing of the bags was at court a formal procedure; however, it was a paper exchanging business.

#histodons

4/6

The painting A Notary in His Office from Jan Berckheyde is shown. A notary is sitting at his writing desk, and is surrounded by various paper products. Highlighted are 5 of these paper products.

dbellingradt,
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@histodons A closer look at every administrative activity of the period offers stored and waiting fresh paper sheets. Yet unused artifacts in different trading units of the paper trade: As detail no. 4 shows, you could buy paper as single sheets or in units up to 500, in the preferred format, quality and size, by the way.

And how did all these waiting papers get into the many secretaries? Well, ask the paper trade: https://brill.com/edcollbook/title/56966

#histodons #bookhistory #paperhistory

5/6

The painting A Notary in His Office from Jan Berckheyde is shown. A notary is sitting at his writing desk, and is surrounded by various paper products. Highlighted are 5 of these paper products.

dbellingradt,
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@histodons Wherever paper was used, waste paper could also be found. Here, in detail no. 5 paper leftovers, waste papers, are lying on the floor next to a used quill. The presence of fresh unused papers, written upon "used" papers, and waste papers, in one scene remind of the material life of hand-made paper in early modern Europe: it was produced, it was used, and it was recycled - often to fresh 'new' paper. was a paper age with rhythms.

6/6

The painting A Notary in His Office from Jan Berckheyde is shown. A notary is sitting at his writing desk, and is surrounded by various paper products. Highlighted are 5 of these paper products.

dbellingradt, to histodons
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This is how a page from a medieval looks when its original text had been scraped off by someone, overwritten with a new text, and then later, a 19th-century scholar discovered the and tried to make the undertext's ink visible again by painting the page with chemical reagents.

@histodons

istuetzle, to bookstodon German
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Hello historians, publishing staff with a lot of experience 😄 – is there a technical term for the index cards that publishers create for books and on which editions etc. are noted? It's not a routing card (Laufkarte). @histodons @bookstodon @dbellingradt

dbellingradt,
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@istuetzle @histodons @bookstodon sorry, no idea.

dbellingradt, to histodons German
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Calling for experts of and beyond: The Book History Book Prize from @sharporg - for books copyrighted 2023 - is open for submissions.

Being once again one of the jury members, I am looking forward to see your book. Boost encouraged, dear @histodons

Deadline is Friday, January 19, 2024.

Details: https://sharpweb.org/grants-prizes/sharp-book-history-book-prize/

dbellingradt,
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@histodons @sharporg As an author you should more than encourage your publisher to submit copies of your book to SHARP (and elsewhere). Some publishers just do not send books. For example, in the last two years, not one book from the series "Library of the Written Word" (Brill) appeared in front of the jury members. So choose your publisher wisely. Submitting free copies to win a prize or an award is, in my opinion, part of the support you want to get for your book.

dbellingradt, to histodons German
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"To piss on someone's parade": the 1681 edition featuring a dog (urinating), a scientist (being urinated on), and a about comets.

This is scientific communication par excellence.
@histodons

Frontispiece of the pamphlet "Von Bedeutung der Cometen und des Gestirns" (1681, Dresden) UB Erlangen, H00/4 MTH-I 99 dg. A few men are standing at a writing desk looking into the stars. In the front, a scientist ist standing next to a globe. Also, you see a dog pissing on the leg of the mentioned scientist.
Frontispiece and title page of the pamphlet "Von Bedeutung der Cometen und des Gestirns" (1681, Dresden) UB Erlangen, H00/4 MTH-I 99 dg. A few men are standing at a writing desk looking into the stars. In the front, a scientist ist standing next to a globe. Also, you see a dog pissing on the leg of the mentioned scientist.

dbellingradt, to histodons
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Only one pamphlet left. This is how a looted Sammelband looks like, @histodons

UB Erlangen, H00/4 MED-I 733

a Sammelband with only one pamphlet left. Viewed from the outside. UB Erlangen, H00/4 MED-I 733

dbellingradt,
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@bluesorella @histodons oh ja.

dbellingradt,
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@andreasjanke @histodons gute Frage!

dbellingradt, to bookstodon German
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To whom it may concern:

"Schrifften=Steller / die von anzüglichen Sachen handeln / kommen offt um Leib und Leben.“

"Authors dealing with raunchy stuff often die young."

Register-Eintrag in: Neu=eröffnete Trauer=Bühne, Zweyter Theil, Nürnberg 1709.

@bookstodon @histodons

dbellingradt, to histodons German
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But do and will AI text generators stop using old texts, let's say digitized print editions, when these prints still feature the contemporary copyright right advise on the title pages?

Like here: "nicht nach zu drucken" (do not to re-print!).

Old printing privileges rule (a bit).

@histodons

dbellingradt, to histodons German
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Run, early modern postal horse with your messenger sitting on top blowing the post horn, run. @histodons

You see a video of the identical printed image used in the 1670s on the title page of the Nuremberg “Wochentliche Ordinari Post-Zeitung”. Re-used Woodblock, here we go.

You see a video of the identical printed image - a postal horse with a messenger on top - in the 1670s on the title page of the Nuremberg “Wochentliche Ordinari Post-Zeitung”.

dbellingradt, to histodons German
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Historians right after the first book is published. @histodons

dbellingradt, to histodons German
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3 layers of printed paper.
2 people undressing.
1 sundial made with an arrow stuck in an ass.

That's entertainment in 1629 Germany.

You see a special criticizing the so-called Alamodismus (à la mode), a (French) fashion orientated lifestyle under critic in German speaking Europe. Single-sheet items rarely had 2 extra layers of paper. Bonus feature: the Latin text at end is in mirror writing, so the reader needed to hold the print to a mirror to get it.
@histodons

Allomodischer DefensionSpiegel : Warhafftige Abbildung/ deß numehr in aller Welt bekandten/ und unschuldig wol vexierten Herrn Allmodo Wapen/ Schildt und Helm/ mit beygefügter seiner Ehrenrettung/ Allen Spöttern und Verächtern/ sich hierinnen zuspiegeln/ an Tag geben (VD17 23:244713K).

dbellingradt, to histodons German
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Here is a new thread for friends of , , and the community.
@histodons

On the painting with the title "The Alchemist" from the Flemish Mattheus van Helmont, circa mid seventeenth century, are many uses and abuses of paper products reflected in the details. I will address 7 of these paper issues in the thread. Bonus for friends: a large écorché figure, a distillation apparatus over a fire, and metal working assistants.
Enjoy.

1/x

dbellingradt,
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@histodons Let's start with a typical paper product of the time, a single sheet print - a so-called

Such broadsides were often pinned or glued to walls: to re-read the text, to reflect on the images, to be reminded of a topic, and so on. The one in the painting seems to be carrying script, on paper. Maybe used as a post-it for the Alchemist?

Such broadsides were often in buildings. In pubs, in private homes, and in schools. Like here: https://mastodon.social/@dbellingradt/109391962163648517

2/x

Detail of the painting: the broadside.

dbellingradt,
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@histodons Among the many objects on this table - an écorché plaster sculpture, an ink pot, a glass bottle with a paper cap - is also a . Such globes were popular in Europe, and they were a paper thing too. To produce them, one needed to form two half-hemisphere shells from paper mâché, then joining the two hemispheres by glueing or sewing. Last step: sealing the paper thing with more paper to form a - to be coated in plaster - paper ball. More on this here: https://mastodon.social/@dbellingradt/109846487623823082

3x

Detail of the painting: a globe.

dbellingradt,
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@histodons And now over to the abuses of unwanted paper. Used books were an often abused and discarded artifact, lying on floors, serving as door stops, etc. The idea of orderly stored books derives from library history is only one part of the story, .

Unbound books, written upon paper sheets, were likely to become "used books" or waste materials no one really needs any longer. Material waiting to be discarded. Like the books lying here on the Alchemist's floor.

4/x

Detail of the painting: waste papers and books lying on the floor.

dbellingradt,
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@histodons too was partly about storing. The box on the table is made of wood chips, and these boxes were storage options for fresh paper sheets, for letters, for paper drafts, and for small books. Being an alchemist was also about managing your writings, paper supply, and objects. Collectors and free thinkers alike needed boxes to arrange ideas and objects. In the painting, a distillation apparatus made of glass is stored next to a paper notebook.

5/x

Detail of the painting: a wooden box.

dbellingradt,
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@histodons That's a thematic folder to organize loose paper sheets: drafts, notes, letters, you name it. Folders were and are a handy tool of organizing paper knowledge. Battling the information revolution of meant very often: organizing your papers in thematic or chronological folders. As a knowledge field, too was a paper business.

6/x

Detail of the painting: a folder with papers.

dbellingradt,
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@histodons Folded paper sheets ruled in early modern Europe. For letter writing activities, for administration, or for including your ideas into chapters of big books, or next to them - as in the highlighted part of the painting. The paper sheet was a mass artifact of the period, maybe THE most often produced artifact of the publishing, writing, and printing good old Europe. However, loose sheets were precious goods, easily damaged, burned, hard to collect over time.

7/8

Detail of the painting: looss paper sheets, and a big bound book.

dbellingradt,
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@histodons The history of knowledge production has a chapter on everyday practices. Working with books meant often: living with paper objects. The two small bound books on the table in the back remind the historian of this living with books context: next to the paper objects stands a water pitcher, and on top of the books is a small clay vase.

Knowledge practices of the European period 'Early Modernity" were often paper-related-practices, and they do have an everyday aspect.

Goodbye.

8/8

Detail of the painting: two books on a table. Next to the books is a water pitcher, and on top is a clay vase.

dbellingradt,
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@Tinido @histodons alchemist are creative minds! So yes.

dbellingradt, to histodons German
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Spot the difference: on the left, the copperplate print is hand-coloured after the print run, and on the right no extra work is done. Colouring prints was a thing in Europe. Guess which version was more expensive - and sold better?

You see the frontispieces with a star map from the 1742 "Atlas Novus Coelestis", Nuremberg, from J.G. Doppelmayr (1677-1750). Bonus details: , , and discussing things.
@histodons

frontispiecve from Doppelmayr, Johann Gabriel: Atlas Novus Coelestis: In Quo Mundus Spectabilis Et In Eodem Tam Errantium Quam Inerrantium Stellarvm Phoenomena Notabilia… Nürnberg, Homannsche Erben, 1742 . Source: https://pic.sub.uni-hamburg.de/kitodo/PPN822197634/00000001.tif

dbellingradt, to histodons German
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This painting by Peter Cramer is rich in detail, dear - peppercakes, street selling activities in an early modern European urban setting, broadsheets glued to a wall, etc.

But what on earth is the highlighted child transporting on its shoulders? A wooden box full of what? Your help is appreciated! @histodons

dbellingradt,
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@histodons so far, we have: guns, a puppet theatre, a yoga mat, documents, an IKEA set, a time travel machine, scientific instruments, etc. Keep the suggestions coming, I am enjoying this.

dbellingradt,
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@histodons and we have found it, collective wisdom of both platforms (Bluesky and here): The boy is carrying a braced chest on his back, likely filled with chocolate. So the boy was Jewish, or working for a Jewish merchants carrying such boxes from market to market at the time. Chocolate was introduced and traded to Denmark by Jews.

dbellingradt, to histodons German
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Well, around 1500, in Swiss St Gall, nuts were distributed in memory of specific events. Such "memory nuts", as Carla Roth (in her The Talk of The Town" book) calls them, were reminders of old or to be renewed memories of events, things, power constellations etc.

It's a play on words: the contemporary German "Gedächntnuss" (memory) contains "nuss": nut.

@histodons

dbellingradt, to histodons German
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Note to myself: The reception of Smith is different to the reception of The Smiths. Don't mix Adam with rock bands. @histodons

dbellingradt,
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@histodons In other words, Wealth of Nations is not a best-selling record, and The Queen Is Dead is no magnum opus in classical economics.

dbellingradt,
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@histodons On the other hand, "Wealth of Nations" is also the title of a mid-eighties 7'' vinyl from the US Punk band SS-20 (maybe widely known for the hit "Is Elvis listening?"). And "The Queen is Dead" has been used for book titles many times, for example from Kate Locke to Stan Grant. So much for Smith(s') reception for today.

dbellingradt, to histodons German
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I like big books and I cannot lie. Fellow , this is me in 2013 and 2023 doing my work.

My main field is called . It is an umbrella term, an overextension of many fields and approaches dealing with past communication flows and artifacts:

https://mastodon.social/@dbellingradt/110660762357604918

@histodons

Me sitting next to big books in Augsburg. The foto is part of a story about my work from Der Spiegel. Simon Koy made the picture.

dbellingradt, to bookstodon German
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"Published in the year when I needed the money" (in German: "Gedruckt in diesem Jahr / da ich des Geld bedürftig war.")

This is a welcome and unusual honest comment on a early modern pamphlet from around 1700 Germany. @histodons @bookstodon

dbellingradt,
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@aristeon89 @histodons @bookstodon Yes, it is a genitive form but spelled incorrectly.

dbellingradt, to histodons German
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X-ray of the lungs, or handmade papersheet of early eighteenth-century with a ink accident and a slightly hidden watermark from the paper maker Ferdinand Faber used for musical notations ... @histodons

X-ray of the human lungs.

dbellingradt, to histodons German
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Bonjour, Tours! The Hidden Cities family is growing and growing. Meet the newest "Hidden Cities" tour through . Step into Tours in the year 1500, and follow Jehane, a stocking maker, hunting a new book: the story of Christ's Passion in French. alert.

Download for iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hidden-tours/id1634602174

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.ac.exeter.hiddentours

Enjoy all Hidden Cities apps for free: https://hiddencitiesapps.org/apps/

@histodons

dbellingradt, to bookstodon German
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Choose your fighter @bookstodon

a) "Dieses Buch wurde in meiner Freizeit geschrieben, nach den Mühen des beruflichen Alltags..." (this book has been written after my working hours at the job ...)

b) "Erzeugt in geschäftsfreien Stunden von ..." (made in non-business hours by ...)

dbellingradt, to histodons German
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For reasons unknown someone cut out the of this title page of 1603.

@histodons

Einfeltiger, christlicher und nutzlicher Bericht von den Exorcismis unnd Teuffels Beschwerungen so dieses verschienene 1603 : Jahr zu Offenburg fürgenommen worden (VD17 31:747415G)

dbellingradt,
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@Vinzenz @histodons nice try

dbellingradt, to histodons German
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into one of my current projects:

The "Soldierking" Frederick William (King in and Elector of from 1713 to 1740) had problems with his knees and legs during his last months in 1740. Before he died (31 May 1740), someone close to him wrote this entry in February 1740 into a : „Deß Königs Lincke Bein sehr geschwollen gewesen“.

More about this and the potential of writing calendars as sources for many fields soon. @histodons

dbellingradt,
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@felixbernoully @histodons richtig gelesen.

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