Thoughts on J. P. Ascher

Typography as information

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Like everyone who reads and thinks, I have been amused by the puffery surrounding the new AI. Journalism about the old AI often reflected on history and the future of reading. In contrast, journalism on the new AI seems more surprised and frustrated that the past is unruly.

Early computer scientists had seen complicated typesetting in their mathematical textbooks. They had not experienced the limited possibilities of the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). So of course they knew that proper layout and typography was part of communication. Many of them probably knew specialists who could explain how layout and typography contributed to the meaning of texts.

2024 ASECS—SHARP Panels

Sun, 06 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Author-focused literary studies have long ruled the roost, but some of the most important books have not had clear authors. Rather than a single author, these books have multiple authors, or false authors, or no author, or we simply do not know who conceived of and wrote them. Indeed, periodicals, newspapers, menus, folktales, and many other textual forms central to human activity flourish without conventional authorship. These paired panels bring together new thinking that explores books or other textual forms with overdetermined or under-determined authorship including but not limited to considering forgeries, anonymous work, pseudonymous work, openly transitioning authors, collaborative authorship, un-authored works, works that resist authorship, works that emphasize authorship alone, or any concept of textual creation that challenges a simplistic model of authorship.

2023 HSS Talk

Mon, 06 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Disseminating Knowledge with Commerce: the Banking Model of Knowledge at the Royal Society of London during the Late Seventeenth Century

Slides in Keynote, 32.1 MB

Slides in PDF, 11.5 MB

Accessibility Outline of talk

[Title slide:]

The Royal Society of London in the late seventeenth century maintained correspondence with the curious globally. Managed by one of their earliest Secretaries, Henry Oldenburg, the incoming and outgoing letters disseminated knowledge across the European experience of the world.

Minutes at the Royal Society as evidence of publication

Tue, 25 Oct 2022 08:20:24 -0500

In addition to printed collections, Royal Society has large, manuscript collections that document its own dissemination of knowledge. Charles II granted them a special patent in 1662 that allowed them to disseminate knowledge. The minutes of the meetings authorize the use of this patent early on and become habitual over time.

The minutes provide detailed records of the early-modern world’s development of administrative law, or droit administratif, as it applies to copyright and publication.

Abridgments of the Transactions at the Royal Society

Tue, 18 Oct 2022 08:20:24 -0500

The Royal Society has large, printed collections that document its own dissemination of knowledge. John Lowthorp’s 1705 abridgment of their Philosophical Transactions to 1700 sits within a series of sibling works in that collection. Although the works in the series were produced over a period of fifty years, the series now has uniform bindings. In the image above, you can see the modern bindings with red lettering pieces on the spine.

Where did these volumes come from? Why are they now bound the same?

Sources of the Philosophical Transactions at US-icu

Mon, 10 Oct 2022 08:20:24 -0500

I had been studying the copy of the Philosophical Transactions at he University of Chicago Library Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center on a Robert L. Platzman Memorial Fellowship.

During my fellowship, I saw an excellent talk at the Linda Hall Library. Aileen Fyfe described her ongoing work studying how the Royal Society distributed copies of the Transactions and Jamie Cumby described the Linda Hall’s copies of the Transactions. It’s worth watching in full. The book on which it is based is available now via open access.

Using addition for multiplication

Mon, 03 Oct 2022 08:20:24 -0500

I’ve been studying the copy of the Philosophical Transactions at he University of Chicago Library Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center on a Robert L. Platzman Memorial Fellowship.

The last number of volume two, number 32, has the errata shown at the top of this webpage that explains that the printer used the wrong mark to express multiplication in number 29. Indeed, they used what we would call a dagger, but which readers seem to have taken as an addition sign.

More volumes of the Transactions from the Calvary bookshop

Mon, 26 Sep 2022 08:20:24 -0500

I’ve been puzzling through the copies of the Transactions at he University of Chicago Library Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center and in the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library.

The new university President bought the S. Calvary and Company’s entire book collection to establish the library. Hugo Bloch at K.F. Koehler’s Antiquarium acted as an agent for the university.

Above you can see the manuscript catalog entry for the Philosophical Transactions that Bloch wrote for the periodicals he sent to Chicago from Berlin. (source: University of Chicago. Library. Office of the Director. Zella Allen Dixson. Records, Box 5, Folder 10, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library) The catalog arrived with the first batch of volumes, many now in the research collection. A second batch arrived 23 Nov 1893, as the the Calvary bookshop tried to fulfill their promise of completing the periodical sets. The volumes in the second batch ended up split between two present-day collections.

A Royal Society book at US-icu

Wed, 21 Sep 2022 08:20:24 -0500

As part of that work I’ve been trying to understand the sources of their Transactions, which include the Calvary bookshop of Berlin. The volumes of the Transactions from Calvary have a distinctive binding in half, morocco-grained sheep with a gold stamp for the library in the lower left of the upper board on the sheep. The binding on this Greek grammar follows the same pattern, but on green cloth.

Circulating copies of the Transactions from the Calvary bookshop

Mon, 19 Sep 2022 08:20:24 -0500

I’ve been puzzling through the source of copies of the Transactions and its abridgments at he University of Chicago Library Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center. Some of the copies remained in the circulating collection and ultimately ended up in Joe and Rika Mansueto Library, the university’s research collection.

To recap, the new university President bought the S. Calvary and Company’s entire book collection to establish the library. Over time, some volumes were withdrawn and others moved from one collection to another.

What is that proofreading mark at US-icu?

Wed, 14 Sep 2022 08:20:24 -0500

Last week I had posted a puzzle: Which of two corrections was from the printer’s shop? And which was from someone reading the book as bound? Take a look if you haven’t, since I’m going to talk about the one from the printer’s shop here.

The the Calvary bookshop’s copy of the Transactions

Mon, 12 Sep 2022 08:20:24 -0500

This series of thoughts has been puzzling out John Lowthorp’s abridgment of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London at he University of Chicago Library Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center. We figured out the source of the books and noted that they had similar bindings.

The new university President bought the S. Calvary and Company’s entire book collection to establish the library. I’m grateful to Catherine Uecker for pointing out an online exhibit that explains the details.

Two kinds of correction at US-icu

Wed, 07 Sep 2022 08:20:24 -0500

I’m establishing the basic facts of the printing history to link up to the legal and editorial history of Henry Oldenburg’s work on the Transactions from 1665 to 1677.

Today, I spotted a rare survival. Look at the correction above on this webpage from number 81 for 25 March 1672. Compare it with this one from number 82 for 22 April 1672.

The accessions at US-icu in 1892

Mon, 05 Sep 2022 08:20:24 -0500

This series of thoughts has been puzzling out John Lowthorp’s abridgment of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London at he University of Chicago Library Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center. We last noted that the series of works had similar bindings and we had already noted some sequential numbers.

Dr Rebecca Flore recognized these as accession numbers from the library accession records and sent the picture above. (source: University of Chicago. Library. Office of the Director. Zella Allen Dixson. Records, Volume 10, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library) In it you can see the source of the numbers: these are accession numbers that were assigned in sequential order on 2 November 1892. In the left most column, you can see the sequential numbers. The first volume has ‘99931,’ the next ‘99932,’ and so forth. If you look further down the list, the volume from 1836 ought to have the number ‘99956.’ Indeed, it does on the upper center of the first recto, right hand, page after the title page.

Volumes of abridgments of the Transactions at US-icu

Tue, 30 Aug 2022 08:20:24 -0500

While John Lowthorp’s abridgment of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London came first, subsequent editors adopted the same organizational scheme and look. Most copies of Lowthorp’s abridgment have several sibling volumes.

The University of Chicago Library Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center has the second volume of the second abridgment by Henry Jones. It also has both volumes of the third abridgment in the series by John Eames and John Martyn. Since these three separate works cover 1665–1700, then 1700–1720, then 1719–1733, their title pages have volume numbers in sequence. Thus we have volumes one, five, six, and seven. To summarize, we have,

Guide numbers on the plates of Lowthorp’s abridgment

Tue, 23 Aug 2022 08:20:24 -0500

The University of Chicago Library Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center copy of Lowthorp’s abridgment of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London has lightly written numbers by many figures on the illustrated plates. In most cases, they are reversed as they are in the image above.

These numbers would have been written forward on the engraved printing plate, so they would have printed backwards. Some numbers, however, are forward reading now which means they were written backwards on the printing plate.

Lowthorp’s abridgment at US-icu

Tue, 16 Aug 2022 08:20:24 -0500

John Lowthorp abridged the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London between 1703 and 1705, but the abridgment was subsequently reprinted over and over. The fifth numbered edition of 1749 was printed in 500 copies according to the Bowyer ledgers. There are only seven copies of the 1705 edition in North America, since the early editions mostly went to people closely connected with the Royal Society and stayed in London.

Test

Mon, 11 Jul 2022 09:20:24 +0100

This is testing a blog post.

Commonplacing as banking

Tue, 28 Jun 2022 08:03:25 +0100

Seventeenth-century commonplace books and recipe books often have partial indexes. The compiler would collect new prescriptions, descriptions of books, good ideas, or observations. And then, at some later date, they would go back through their collection and make a topical index.

Contemporary writers, including John Locke, describe indexing like this in instructions for making commonplace books. What I’ve been thinking about is how people marked their entries as entered into their index. You can see check marks, crosses, and slashes through entries entirely to indicate they’ve been indexed.

Making tools as thinking

Mon, 20 Jun 2022 09:07:16 +0100

The watchmaker George Daniels wrote about how an apprentice couldn’t really use a particular tool until they had made a version on their own. One simply didn’t understand the knowledge embodied in subtle shapes until you had to solve the same problem.

Justice Anthony Kennedy supposedly asks each of his clerks to draft an opinion independently, while he drafts his own. He told Bryan Garner that one cannot see the problems, or the right solutions, to writing an opinion unless you try it yourself.

ESTC records as evidence

Wed, 08 Jun 2022 23:28:52 +0100

I’ve been trying to understand how a seventeenth-century bookseller signals that they’re using a special privilege to print a book. Somehow, the book must have signaled to a member of the Stationers’ Company that the bookseller had the appropriate rights, even if they were not in the Register Book. Otherwise, printers would have to keep coming by and asking to see your privilege. Perhaps they just knew? Or, perhaps there was a parallel record of some sort?

Printing evidence at the Royal Society

Mon, 06 Jun 2022 12:49:37 +0100

In the mid seventeenth century, Charles II chartered The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge. Within that charter, he gave them the right to print texts without using a process layed out in a previous law, his Licensing of the Press Act of 1662. The society’s right became the basis of a vibrant published record beginning in 1664 that continues to the present day.

The printing they conducted between 1664 and 1695, when the Licensing of the Press Act official lapsed, differs from the typical accounts of the history of copyright. Our received history of the 1662 act claims that every book was registered with the Stationers’ Company and approved by an official Licensor. Registration and licensing were required by the process in the act of 1662. However, the act specifically excludes regulating printing done under the Royal prerogative, typically monopolies on Bibles and laws, but also the printing of the society.

Indigenous peoples contributions to early natural history

Fri, 07 Jan 2022 07:46:58 +0100

There’s a great deal of work done on how different communities of North American people contributed to the development of natural history, philosophy, and science. I use a combination of bibliography, chronology, and careful reasoning to understand the nature of a single report in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.

My talk at the MLA 2022 panel “Doing Editing Differently” was not recorded, but you can seem my slides and follow along with my talk script if you’d like to read it.

Proper to be bound up therewith

Wed, 16 Jun 2021 09:24:47 +0100

Scandal commonly occurs as a selling point in pamphlets, but what’s unusual about this pamphlet is that it has a strange cover instruction to be “bound up therewith” that sounds as much about the content of the poem as the physical item itself.

The talk also highlights the value of teaching from your own collections.

This talk was given at SHARP 2021: Moving Texts.

Editing for submerged voices

Tue, 25 May 2021 19:47:27 +0100

When we link archival evidence to printed evidence, we can recover all sorts of things that we missed on the first pass.

Looking at a report of a lump of maple sugar in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, I argue we can actually know a great deal more about the contributions of the people indigenous to North American than we think we can.

https://youtu.be/H8lqcsxkwCw?t=1281 (appx. 21:22 - 34)

Basic bibliographical observation

Wed, 26 Aug 2020 09:32:53 +0100

Bibliography as I study it is more of a method, rather than an aim. It can be applied to various objects from various time periods and various cultures. My research tries to show some of the wide application of this method, but here are some preliminary talks I gave on what I think is the core of the method:

Basic Bibliographical Observation, Part 1

Basic Bibliographical Observation, Part 2

Basic Bibliographical Observation, Parts 3–4

I’ve written these, but because I’ve had to pack up my Charlottesville office to be an unhoused scholar, I’ve not recorded them. I’d like to and encouragement is welcome! Send me an email if you think they’d be useful for you, or if you have a venue.

Visualizing paper evidence

Thu, 25 May 2017 08:10:03 +0100

I wrote this piece a few years back where I argue that “Digital images both lie to us and tell us truths that exist outside of our normal perception. The lie comes about through both deliberate distortions and distortions produced by limitations in digital and in other reproduction methods. The limitations of reproductions are easy to see for anyone who considers the situation carefully, but understanding the problems that they create in our understanding of the past requires some study.”

Thoughts on J. P. Ascher