CERL Annual Seminar 2024

European Printing in Non-Latin Scripts

Organized by: CERL, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma, MIC

Speaker(s): Abigail Connick,Andrea Cappa,Andrea De Pasquale,Angeliki Papadopoulou,Cristina Dondi,Davor Antonucci,Devin Fitzgerald,Elena Ravelli,Emma Harrison,Erin Piñon,Federica Olivotto,Flavia Bruni,Giang Huong Nguyen,Irena Galić Bešker,Irini Solomonidi,John McCafferty,Kleopatra Kyrtata,Maria Cristina Mataloni,Michael Erdman,Nikolaos Sideris,Pierre Fournier,Roberto Tottoli,Sara Fani,Stefano Campagnolo,Thomas Tabery,Valentina Longo,Vera Andriopoulou,Vicky Gerontopoulou

Printing technologies have historically been used worldwide to reproduce texts written in different languages and scripts. When European typography developed in the mid-fifteenth century, this technology was first utilized to manufacture books written in Latin and European vernaculars. However, printers soon begun to publish texts in Hebrew (from 1469), Greek (from 1471), Glagolitic (from 1483), Cyrillic (from 1491). The earliest edition in Armenian dates to 1512, in Ge’ez to 1513, in Arabic to 1514, in Syriac to 1539, in Gaelic to 1571.

During the sixteenth century, starting in Rome and spreading in Europe, substantial investments in technology and knowledge are behind the development of a range of non-Latin types for the production of material for global circulation.

Nowadays, European and American Libraries are home to extensive holdings of early books printed in non-Latin scripts in Europe. These publications are housed alongside significant collections of books printed in numerous regions of the world and in a range of languages and different writing systems, which entered the current institutions following a variety of historical (political, religious, economical, as well as cultural) events.

The 2024 CERL Annual Seminar organised by Cristina Dondi (Consortium of European Research Libraries – CERL), Andrea Cappa (Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Roma – BNCR) and Alessandro Bianchi (Cambridge University Library – CUL) will focus on printed books in non-Latin scripts, exploring three main themes:

  • Technology – The European production of books printed in non-Latin scripts; the models, the people, and the motivations which enabled the casting of special sets of type to represent multiple writing systems.
  • Collections – Notable collections of books printed in various non-Latin scripts currently housed in European and American institutions.
  • Cataloguing – Current/traditional cataloguing practices; discoverability of data and information; Cataloguing standards, codes (Marc code, Ethnologue ISO code), and their use.

Poster display and publication of the proceedings

Librarians and collectors were invited to prepare a printable poster (which would be displayed the day of the Conference and later on the CERL website) to present their collections of editions in non-Latin scripts and highlight their histories and individual cases. Proceedings, including the posters, were published.

The deadline to express an interest in preparing a poster was 21 June 2024 and the deadline for the delivery of the posters at the BNCR was 13 September 2024.

CERL Annual Seminar 2024 - Berlinghieri Geographia

Programme

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

– 9.00-9.30: Stefano Campagnolo, Director of National Central Library of Rome and Cristina Dondi, Secretary of CERL

  • Roberto Tottoli – University of Naples L’Orientale: The Venice Quran
  • Borna Izadpanah – University of Reading, UK: Collection Orientale: Art, scholarship, and imperial prestige in print
  • Sara Fani – Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna: The Medici Oriental Press (Rome, 1584-1614): A journey through its manuscripts, editions, and typographical heritage 
  • Andrea De Pasquale – Italian Ministry of Culture: Exoticis linguis: Bodoni’s editions in Oriental characters
  • Erin Piñon – Postdoctoral Fellow, Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz: Printing an Armenian icon: From Venetian origins to global expansion
  • John McCafferty – University College Dublin, Ireland: Opening to you the road that leads to knowledge’: printing in Irish, 1571-1700
  • Pierre Fournier – University of Strasbourg: The cut of hieroglyphic punches and the “Egyptological gaze” in the mid-nineteenth century
  • Federica Olivotto – National Central Library of Rome: Italian Institute for Africa and the Orient (IsIAO)” Library: Printing in Chinese characters in Italy: An absence and a need

  • The Onassis Library, and the Gennadius Library,Vera Andriopoulou, Kleopatra Kyrtata, Angeliki Papadopoulou, Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation Athens, Vicky Gerontopoulou, Nikolaos Sideris – Onassis Library Athens, Irini Solomonidi – Gennadius Library of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens: Printing in Greek. Tracing Greek typography through the collections of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation
  • Thomas Tabery – Bavarian State Library, Munich: Early Hebrew printing
  • Irena Galić Bešker – National Library of Croatia: Glagolitica: Historical collection of the National and University Library in Zagreb
  • Giang Huong Nguyen – Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris: The transition from ideograms to romanized script: A decisive phase in Vietnam’s publishing history
  • Abigail Connick and Devin Fitzgerald – Library of the University of California, Los Angeles: Early Modern globalization and describing the global library: Multiscript collecting and cataloguing

  • Michael Erdman, Emma Harrison – The British Library, London: Cataloguing printed books in non-Latin scripts at the British Library
  • Flavia Bruni – University of Chieti-Pescara; Maria Cristina Mataloni, Elena Ravelli, Central Institute for the Union Catalogue of Italian Libraries and Bibliographic Information (ICCU), Rome: Non Latinum est, non catalogatur: Making non-Latin scripts retrievable in SBN and EDIT16
  • Valentina Longo – National Central Library of Rome and Davor Antonucci – Italian Institute of Oriental Studies: Cataloguing the Chinese printed book collection of BNCR: An ongoing special project

Posters from many other collections will be on display

Related resources

CERL Newsletter 44

Cerl Newsletter 44 – June 2024

EVENT INFORMATION

Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Rome

  • Location: Rome - Italy
  • Event date: October 23, 2024

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