Database of the correspondence of Early Modern Vilnius university professors
Speaker(s): Veronika Girininkaitė
Related events: New sources for book history – International Conference
Releated Working Group(s):
Collection: CERl conferences
Recorded: November 28, 2017
Abstract:
Veronika Girininkaitė (University Library of Vilnius), Creating the database of the correspondence of Early Modern Vilnius university professors
Vilnius university library launches the project, aiming to describe and digitize the letters of the university professors of the Early Modern epoch. The idea of this work is linked to the COST action “Reassembling the Republic of Letters”, drawing inspiration on the ideas and tools, used by the members of that project. The aim of our work is creating an online database, that later could be integrated into the European digital space of knowledge.
The letters are being described using the CERL thesaurus and the prepared descriptions are being added to the general electronic catalogue of the Vilnius university library. It is planned to digitize all of the letters, selected for the project, and put the digital images online. In this way the multifunctional database will be created. Amounting around 2000 letters, this pilot collection may be expanded if/whenever it will be needed to.
The first stage of our project consists of thoroughly describing the collection of letters, addressed to Martin Poczobut Odlianicki (1728-1810), professor of astronomy observatory and rector of Vilnius university. Most of the letters, were written in 1770-1800 in various languages (Polish, French, English, and Latin). Currently most of them are in bundles, with the descriptions only of a whole bundle. As one such bundle may consist of up to 100 letters, written by dozens of correspondents in the period of the decades, the precise information on the correspondence is utterly limited and may be acquired only by working with the manuscript in the reading room.
This initiative allows to explicate lots of historically, culturally and linguistically valuable information, previously hidden in the undescribed bundles of letters. The vivid links between the science centers of Early Modern Europe become visible, with the letters coming to Vilnius from Warsaw, Krakow, Prague, Vienna, Padua, Paris, London and other cities.
© The copyright is with the contributors. All rights reserved.
The texts, images, and downloadable files on this page are made available for scholarly and non-commercial use. You may download and cite the materials for research, study, or teaching, provided proper acknowledgement of the source is given.
Reproduction, redistribution, or commercial use of the content requires prior written permission from the contributors and/or CERL. For copyright queries or requests to reuse material, please contact: secretariat@cerl.org