Book Culture Research Articles

The French-language translated book of Russia of the second third of the 18th century: features of the repertoire and importance for book culture

Importance. The beginning of the process of interaction between Russian and French book cultures was laid by the era of the Europeanisation of Peter I. The Russian autocrat tirelessly sought to bring his country among the leading countries of the world, to smooth out the difference between Russia and the West. The nobility, the most educated stratum of society at that time, was to become the main conductor of the reformer’s advanced aspirations. The aim of the research is to study the significance for the Russian book culture of the French–language translated book of the second third of the 18th century.Materials and Methods. The comparative historical method makes it possible to establish the correlation of the role of French literature in the distribution of printed materials in the Russian Empire. The use of the comparative analysis method, which made it possible to comprehensively study the role of foreign literature in the bookselling process in the Russian Empire of the 18th century, plays an important role in the study.Results and Discussion. The inclusion of a work in the publishing list was conditioned by the community demand, which allows us to speak about the development of the book culture of Russia in the second quarter of the 18th century. In order to capture readers’ mood better, the specialists of the Academy of Sciences found out the specialists’ opinion about publications.Conclusion. By the middle of the 18th century, the Academy of Sciences had prepared translations of valuable treatises on history, literature, mathematics, psychology and pedagogy, enriching Russian book culture with advanced European bestsellers. This period of the Academy’s activity should be regarded as a new stage in the development of book printing in Russia, which created significant prerequisites for the rapid rise of interest in French culture in the second half of the 18th century.

Annotated Bibliography “Arabic Papyrology: Gender, Conversions, and Book Culture”

<b>Annotated Bibliography “Arabic Papyrology: Gender, Conversions, and Book Culture”</b>

Философский диспут vs cостязание в навыках: к методам интерпретации латинской агиографии в древнеисландской «Саге о Клименте»

The Clemens saga is a biography of St. Clement of Rome, compiled in the 1220s from translations of two Latin hagiographical works, the Recogniciones and the Passio Sancti Climentis. The Old Norse author made the translation in accordance with the peculiarities of the “saga” style: he changed the narrative modus, added didactic comments on Latin book culture, and used motifs and elements from Scandinavian folk literature. In addition, the Clemens saga is almost devoid of the philosophical and dogmatic Christian discourses that characterize the Recollections. One of such episodes altered in content is the philosophical contest between Faustinianus and his three sons - Aquila, Nikita and Clement, touching upon important questions of being from a Christian position and refuting epistemological views. In the Clemens saga this plot takes the form of a contest in the Seven Liberal Arts between Faustinianus and Clement, caused by a misunderstanding of the consubstantial nature of the almighty God. Despite the fact that a contest in skills or a duel is a frequent plot in Scandinavian sagas and poetry, comparing their structure and literary motifs with the Clemens saga, we can conclude that the author, interpreting the original, does not rely on examples from his own popular culture. Instead, he turns to Latin secular literature, turning the philosophical disputation into a contest in the Seven Liberal Arts, which are rarely found in the saga corpus. By combining methods of interpretation with reliance on Latin secular and religious or Scandinavian folk literature, the scribe not only influences the structure and style of the text, but also its content.

ЧЕЛОВЕК ЭЛЕКТРОННОЙ ЭПОХИ В РАБОТАХ М. МАКЛЮЭНА

The article reconstructs the image of a new man of the future electronic society, as he appears in the works of the Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan. This new type of man in a number of its characteristics resembles the audile-tactile man of oral culture, but nevertheless draws on the experience of book culture. In many cases, it turns out that McLuhan predicted the main features of the global village society and its population.

Review of Three Africa-Centered Titles from the Cambridge Elements in Publishing and Book Culture Series

Review of Three Africa-Centered Titles from the Cambridge Elements in Publishing and Book Culture Series

‘Dis Köstliche Büchli’: the books of the Dünz, Wyss, and d’Hervart families at Nostell Priory

ABSTRACT The arrival of books by dowry or inheritance into family libraries frequently introduces unexpected evidence of book ownership. Often fragmentary and out of context, these collections are routinely overlooked. This paper examines one such collection, a group of c. 140 books which arrived at Nostell Priory in 1781, part of the inheritance of Louise Sabine d'Hervart (1734–1798), shipped from her childhood home in Vevey, Switzerland. Primarily Germanic, printed between 1550 and 1700, these books chart the reading, interests, and circles of acquaintance of three generations of the Dünz family, an important Brugg dynasty of artists, glass painters, and architects active in the cultural and political life of Bern and its locality. The paper opens with a discussion of some of the methodological challenges facing those working with women's books in private libraries. It then examines the Swiss German books at Nostell, showing how they inform us of the cultural, intellectual, and social lives of members of the Dünz and related families, both male and female. Specifically, these books reveal a culture of book giving and the recording of the exchange of books, but also of close and long-standing relationships between their owners and significant members of the Swiss book trade.

The Importance of Book Culture for Europe

The Importance of Book Culture for Europe

Support, promotion and popularization of reading by the modern Russian professional community

The turn of the 20th and 21st centuries was the time of formation a new social reality, where books and reading lost their leading positions to new media technologies. The index of media activities for reading on paper continues to decline steadily. The formation processes of a technogenic society in the country as well as digitalization and convergence of media industry, including publishing, bookselling and library complex and mass media in the early 21st century brought a powerful contradiction. On the one hand, serious threats to the existence of books and reading have arisen, but on the other hand, new opportunities for maintaining and enhancing book culture have appeared. Under these conditions, the professional community has taken effective measures to stimulate public interest in books, reading and libraries. It involved interested organizations in this process; developed special programs and projects for the promotion and development of book culture; created special centers at libraries and universities dedicated to the study of modern reading; provided scientific, methodological and practical assistance to libraries. The professional community also organized the largest professional forums and campaigns to attract the public to reading. The purpose of the article is to show how various institutions, centers, government structures and creative unions in Russia support, promote and popularize the reading. This article allow us to get acquainted with the most successful experience of existing and/or newly created organizations and public associations carried out educational, informational and research activities in the field of books and reading.

Reading and Reader as Objects of Study

The article provides a brief overview of the current state and prospects for studying the history of reader and reading in Russia, as well as existing Russian and foreign works on this topic. The purpose of the article is to justify the need to study reading and reader within the framework of the book culture study. Reading is considered as an integral part of book culture, largely determining its character and content. The author analyzed the reasons for the current crisis in the practice of reading traditional paper texts, a modern feature of the young generation. The author affirms the need for an interdisciplinary approach to the study of reading problems that is involving the use of the achievements of media studies, book studies, psychology and sociology of culture and historical psychology.

On the issue of discovering new names of major cultural figures of the 17th century: master Karp Ivanovich Zolotarev

The 17th century is a century that preserved in the memory of the history of Russian culture vivid monuments, the authors of which were innovative masters, artists, and creators. This article examines the creative life in the historiography of the 17th century icon painter, student of Bogdan Saltanov – Karp Ivanovich Zolotarev, a court master during the reign of Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich and the regency of Princess Sophia. Biography of K.I. Zolotarev is presented in the historiography of researchers, historians, restorers in chronology from the 18th century. Only in the late 1970s, thanks to the work of Soviet restorers, were works created by K.I. Zolotarev. Before this, only brief mentions of this multifaceted master were found in historical literature. Part of the research confirms that in a number of works the name of K.I. Zolotarev is listed among the artists of the Armory Chamber and the Gold-Painting Workshop of the Ambassadorial Prikaz. In addition, researchers of Russian book culture spoke about K.I. Zolotarev as a major organizer who headed the workshop of the above-mentioned order. The research made it possible to summarize all the materials about the master and identify the stylistic features of this master, suggesting that the iconographic sources of the works of K.I. Zolotarev could have been works by Dutch and German artists. Biography of K.I. Zolotarev still needs further study and clarification today.

Compiling and Publishing in late Ming Fuzhou: the Case of the Chashu 茶書

The Chashu 茶書 (Writings on Tea), also known as Chashu quanji 茶書全集 (Complete Collection of Writings on Tea), was published by the Fuzhou prefect Yu Zheng 喻政 (1571–?) in the early 1610s. It stands as the first dedicated collectanea of Chinese works on tea, encompassing essays that range from the Tang to the Ming period. Currently, only a few copies remain, all exhibiting variations. The present article analyses the structure, content, and paratextual elements of surviving imprints of the Chashu. It contextualizes the collection within late Ming dynasty book culture and the distinctive milieu of Fuzhou scholars and officials within which it was published. The article elucidates the compilation and publication process of the Chashu, while also accounting for the differences among editions of the collectanea.

Yury N. Stolyarov in the history of Moscow State Institute of Culture

The authors analyze the contribution of Yury Nikolaevich Stolyarov, an outstanding librarian, documentary scholar, historian of book culture, to the development of the Moscow State Institute of Culture (MGIK). The conceptual and organizational solutions developed and implemented by Y. N. Stolyarov during his work for MGIK are discussed. The article is dedicated to the memory of Yury N. Stolyarov.

The document theory by Yu. N. Stolyarov as the methodological foundation of modern bibliology

The author focuses on the enormous contribution made by Yury N. Stolyarov to the development of the methodology of modern bibliology, discusses the basic provisions of Stolyarov’s document theory as applied to the studies of special bibliological problems.The author substantiates the priority of documentological approach to the study of the concept of the book, based on the method “from the abstract to the concrete”, which was used by Yu. N. Stolyarov to study the document. The author also argues that this approach enables to consider the book as a component of the comprehensive documentive system and to identify the trends in its development in the digital environment. She also defines the terms of “substantial document” and “functional document”, introduced by Stolyarov to develop the book typology. The contribution of Yu. N. Stolyarov’s works to the system characterization of the book as an object of communication, as well as to the development of problems of book culture and the culture of the book, is emphasized. The author concludes that the fundamental studies in documentology by Yu. N. Stolyarov have laid the foundation for modern bibliology and are highly relevant, in particular for training future librarians and publishers, as they provide the comprehensive understanding of the book and its status in the structure of the document.

Book Culture Ecology: Looking for a Concept

The authors have attempted to comprehend the ecological component of book culture, its importance for social development and evolution of human needs. This problem updating is closely connected with the modern state of book culture, characterized by minimization of state management, absolutist commercial approach, appearance of the great amount of players on the book market, multiformity of book products and modes of their advancement, transformation and re-estimation of activities of institutes of reading infrastructure, etc. It demands, according to our viewpoint, re-comprehension of the book culture state, inclusion of ecological criteria into its functioning, which presupposes, most of all, social attention to its various manifestations due to their correspondence to humanist values and national interests. The aim of the article is to reveal and justify the “book culture ecology” concept.The formation of ideas about this concept was ­carried out in the context of the paradigm of cultural ecology through clarification of its content and main vector directions. The article justifies the importance of book culture and considers different approaches to its treatment. It is shown that the eco-cultural aspects of book culture are an organic embodiment of its static and dynamic characteristics. In the progress of the study, the authors used terminological and operational analysis as well as structuralfunctional approach. Eco-cultural approach to different phenomena of book culture defines ethical norms of functioning of book-publishing industry different actors, determines their most important for the society principles of activity. Moreover, the study has defined difficulties of developing book culture ecological compatibility criteria. The result of the analysis has manifested itself in the generalized definition of the concept under study.

Sosialisasi Pentingnya Minat Membaca Untuk Generasi Muda Panti Asuhan Imanuel di Kota Palangka Raya

Reading is an activity that stimulates the brain through written symbols that convey information and reasoning. According to the UNESCO report, Indonesian people's interest in reading is very low, namely 0,001%, which means one in 1.000 Indonesians read diligently. To increase the young generation's passion for reading, a reading culture must be instilled from childhood. This must be achieved by making the culture of reading fun and easily accepted by the younger generation, because of the challenges of increasingly rapid development and various advances in information technology, the culture of reading children's books is increasingly being eroded. Involving children directly is one way to encourage their interest in reading. To encourage children at the Immanuel Orphanage to be more motivated to learn, this service activity aims to provide quality teaching, both materially and morally. This is based on the fact that some children lack interest in learning, especially in reading. This service activity motivates children and shows the fun side of reading to gain broad knowledge. The activity methods used are socialization and motivating learning, especially in fostering interest in reading in the younger generation

Asymmetry of Screen and Book Culture

The digital tsunami, the invasion of which was unimaginable just a generation ago, raises numerous questions among philosophers, cultural scientists, and specialists in other professions. Some of these questions run as follows: is the transition from book culture to screen culture irreversible; are there intermediate stages of this transition; and, why is there no reverse development of the book from the film? Answers are offered in this article. The accepted view is that the standard of book culture is literature (presumably a novel), and in particular, philosophical treatises; and the genuine “screen” paragon is cinema (a film), and a play on television, as a mediator. Other forms of cultural phenomena, events and facts are also discussed, which are associated with the indicated invasion of “digitals” into the life of society and of the individual, causing a restructuring of private and public consciousness.

Unrealized Monographic Project of M.N. Kufaev “Bibliology” (1926)

The article is devoted to the manuscript prospectus of the anticipated book “Bibliology” by M.N. Kufaev (1888—1948), which is kept in the personal archive fund of N.Yu. Ulyaninsky (1872—1937) in the Manuscripts Department of the Russian State Library. It was prepared in the summer of 1926 and was intended for the State Publishing House. In the document M.N. Kufaev outlined an expanded understanding of bibliology as a general philosophy and methodology of book studies, which he had formulated earlier in his work Philosophy of the Book. The prospectus gives an idea of M.N. Kufaev’s ideas in the field of book terminology and classification of book disciplines. In particular, the document testifies to the scientist’s desire to use the concept of “book culture”, to develop the theme of “book studies and Marxism”, to pay attention to the economics of book studies.

The role of Ukrainian zemstvos in the formation of their public library space

This research into the participation of local self-government bodies in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries in the formation of Ukraine’s public library space is crucial given the need to study the factors that influenced the creation of Ukrainian book culture, national consciousness, and state-building. This study aims to characterise the role of Ukrainian zemstvo self-government bodies in the establishment of the Ukrainian public library space during the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The research methodology is based on the principles of scientific rigour, historicism, sociocultural and modernisation approaches, as well as general scientific (induction, logic, analysis, synthesis) and specifically historical methods: narrative, historical-genetic, and structural-functional analysis. The cultural and educational development of the Ukrainian village by zemstvos, a component of which was their public library work, from the 1860s until the fall of the Russian Empire, was a major direction of activity of these self-governing institutions, upon whose success the national progress of Ukrainians depended. In this sphere, the foundation was laid for the future public space of the Dnieper Ukraine. The establishment, at the expense of zemstvos and through their organisational efforts, of public libraries with broad, free access for all village residents, alongside the development of rural schools, was the alpha and omega of peasant Ukrainian life at that time. It shaped the region’s book culture and elevated the social activity of the largest social class. Thanks to the democratic zemstvo intelligentsia, during the revolution of 1905-1907, demands were made to increase the network of rural libraries, cooperation between zemstvos and Prosvitas expanded, and the Ukrainian printed word became more entrenched. The emergence of peasant republics in 1905, one of which was in Sumy, where peasants published a newspaper declaring the tsarist authority abolished, against the backdrop of zemstvo achievements in expanding the network of public libraries and education, demonstrated that the early 20th century marked an intensification of public library development in Ukrainian villages. This period also saw the maturation of the national consciousness among peasants and laid the groundwork for the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921, a pivotal stage in Ukraine’s state-building efforts. The study of this topic will contribute to understanding the role of local self-government bodies in the functioning of Ukraine’s public library space under modern conditions, national identification among Ukrainians, and their consolidation in the face of hostile invasions

Book Festivals in Siberia and the Far East: Preserving Traditions and Role in Promoting Books and Reading

The paper characterizes the development of the book festival movement in recent decades in the eastern regions of Russia. The application of formal-logical and comparative-historical methods allowed us to expand the previously studied aspects of the functioning of book fairs. The main directions of the modern regional book festival movement were revealed: library book festivals; projects organized on private and public initiative in collaboration with governmental authorities; federal book festival projects. Long-term (“Book Salon” — Ulan-Ude, since 1996; “Pechatny Dvor” — Vladivostok, since 1997; “Published in Altai” — Barnaul, since 2006; Krasnoyarsk Book Culture Fair (2007—2021), etc.) and recently appeared (“BookMart” — Irkutsk, since 2019; “Book Square” — Kemerovo, since 2021, etc.) regional projects are analyzed. The federal initiatives of 2023 are characterized: “Red Square. Far East” (Vladivostok), “Reading August” of the All-Russian interregional network library-publishing festival movement “Book Beacons of Russia”. The increasing sustainability of the projects due to co-financing by federal and regional authorities, public organizations, sponsors, grant and subsidy support was established. The main trends of the regional book and festival movement were identified. Unresolved problems that can become points of growth are revealed. The relevance and significance of the study of the conditions of development and the current state of the book festival movement in the Siberian Federal District and the Far Eastern Federal District are determined by their growing communicative potential and its influence on the formation of the regional cultural field.

Displaced materials of German origin in Tomsk State University Library

The article explores available data on displaced materials from Germany in the Research Library of Tomsk State University (TSU), one of the largest academic libraries in Russia. It provides a summary on where and how German books were transported to TSU. The paper also explores what do they represent and where they originate from. Among other sources, the author uses unpublished documents related to negotiations between Russia and Germany on the displaced art in the 1990s. He concludes that the materials mostly have library provenance and arrived to the USSR by train No. 176/8037 Berlin – Leningrad in August 1946. Most probably, the library materials were delivered from Leningrad to Moscow, and later, in 1980, from Moscow to Tomsk. Most of the books belonged to the libraries of Magdeburg, Bremen and Berlin. Some part of the Tomsk collection might have been transported by another train from Berlin to Moscow. However, since these books were stored at the same storage facility at Berlin-Rummelsburg station as those dispatched to Leningrad, we might admit some sorting mistakes. Relatively modern printed books make the core of the collection though there is a small number of medieval manuscripts and archival documents. Possibly, the latter ended up in Tomsk by accident.The article is prepared in the State Public Library of Scientific Technological Library of the Siberian Branch of the of the Russian Academy of Sciences, project No. 122041100088-9 “Transformation of the book culture in the social communications in the 19th-21st centuries”.