Back from Rolduc…
| March 29, 2012 | Posted by C. under Books, Photography |
We’re back from Rolduc and I am reliving our adventure by looking at the hundreds of photo’s I took, with an abbey beer in my hand (I can absolutely recommend the beer at Rolduc!). We are still in the process of data collection, and with all the fragments and annotations we found (think hundreds)… Well, let’s say it is quite a bit of work!
Going through the photo’s we will most likely make more exciting discoveries. Will update on that later! My personal find so far is a manuscript book from 1652 with hymns. Manuscripts were all supposed to be moved to another location, but it seems they missed this one. I am still in the process of researching it and am excited to present it in a while! But for now:
Old books Rolduc (video)
The video is in Dutch, but it gives an idea of what we found, and how.
Bijzondere ontdekkingen bij onderzoek boeken Rolduc (Dutch only)
Onderzoekers van de Leidse universiteit hebben belangrijke ontdekkingen gedaan in de omslagen van boeken bij abdij Rolduc in Kerkrade.Zo werd onder meer een muziekstuk gevonden van bijna 700 jaar oud. Ook ontdekten ze hele grote rechtshandschriften voorzien van aantekeningen. De vijftien studenten en hun begeleiders sluiten hun onderzoek dinsdag af.
(See especially the video and radio fragments!)
The media coverage of the project is great! We also appeared in newspapers:
To give a bit more of a photo impression I created a gallery:
We found treasure…!
| March 26, 2012 | Posted by C. under Books, Photography |
So by now our first day of ‘treasure hunting’ in Rolduc is over. All I can say is: we found some really amazing things! Old manuscript fragments, interesting information on the provenance of the books… When you’re holding a book and a little bit of medieval handwriting peeps out..!
As today was just a ‘quick sweep’ of the three libraries in the monastery, we only have an idea of what is hidden here. I hope that by the end of tomorrow we will be able to say more about our findings..! But our findings include lithurgical manuscript pages, manuscripts on law, and fragments dating as far back as the 12th century (at least)!
For now, please keep checking the project hashtag on Twitter, as we are all actively tweeting about our findings throughout the day! #rolduc2012
And now let me give you an overview of Rolduc… and some of our findings!
The building (it’s huge)
The ceiling of the abbey church
The beautiful rococo library
And now, our findings. I promise tomorrow (if I have the chance) I will write more about what exactly we found, but here is a (very) little overview:
Hunting for medieval treasure…
| March 24, 2012 | Posted by C. under Books |
Tomorrow I will be leaving to the abbey Rolduc in the south of the Netherlands, along with fourteen classmates and four faculty members from the department of Book and Digital Media Studies at Leiden University. And it should prove to be extremely interesting!
While there we will be hunting in the monastic library for fragments of medieval manuscripts, hidden (or not so hidden) away in the covers of 15th to 17th century books. These covers hide wondeful treasures: pieces of old text transferred in the handwritings of medieval scribes. And the fragments convey their own, often unwritten, messages that can tell us a lot about books in the Middle Ages as well as culture of that time.
Want to read more?
Treasure Hunting in a Monastic Library
“Book bindings from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century hold hidden treasures. Book binders from this period cut up handwritten books from the Middle Ages, manuscripts, because these had become old fashioned after the invention of printing. The dismembered manuscripts were used as binding material.”
Hidden Treasure, or How Destruction Creates Beautiful Things
“It is not easy to cut up parchment quires, but judging from the evidence staring at us through the cracks in the leather today, book binders excelled at it. [...] Stepping out of their leather time capsules after centuries of darkness, fragments are “blips” on the map of Europe, expressing “I existed, I was used by a reader in tenth-century Italy! (But look at me now…)””
For those interested, I also highly recommend following our Twitter hashtag #rolduc2012. We will be actively tweeting during the project!
The Eating Library
| March 22, 2012 | Posted by C. under aikagi.net, Food |
Finally our new project has been released! Me and colleagues are quite fond of going to restaurants. I suppose this has something to do with our backgrounds – all of us are or were students of Chinese or Japanese (or are Chinese or Japanese). Hence we picked up all good eating habits of those countries.
Anyway. We, as East Asian Library, love going out for dinner at Asian restaurants in the Netherlands. We have visited numerous restaurants so far and that’s when we decided to share our knowledge!
Please visit our blog if you’re interested in finding out about good Asian restaurants in the Netherlands! We post reviews and photo’s of restaurants that we have visited personally, and recommend the better restaurants.
(The blog is in Dutch only, sorry!)
Japan’s triple disaster…
| March 11, 2012 | Posted by C. under Books, Life |
It’s been a year since the triple disaster in Japan. I still remember when it happened: I wasn’t in Japan at the time (and unfortunately haven’t been there since), but I was in class and after that at work. At work (I work at an East Asian Library) the TV was on the Japanese news and we kept the live stream on constantly. We received numbers of phonecalls and press came in looking for people with knowledge of these type of disasters. At the same time, friends in Japan who couldn’t contact eachother but could use e-mail tried to keep in touch with eachother through me and other friends abroad, and on top of that I had to make sure my host family in Akita-ken was fine.
None of my friends were harmed, thankfully, but watching the disaster unfold was terrible. A disaster of unimaginable scale. Now, a year later, Japan is still working hard to recover but has already achieved a lot. The lives lost cannot be recovered however and that’s incredibly upsetting…
I want to wish Japan good luck in the rest of their recovery ♥
日本！これからも頑張れ！何国できれば日本だ！
Here are some books that were written about the earthquake, to raise money for the reconstruction of Japan:
Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction: An Anthology of Japan Teen Stories
“Tomo (meaning “friend” in Japanese) is an anthology of young adult short fiction in prose, verse and graphic art set in or related to Japan. This collection for readers age 12 and up features thirty-six stories—including ten in translation and two graphic narratives—contributed by authors and artists from around the world, all of whom share a connection to Japan. English-language readers will be able to connect with Japan through a wide variety of unique stories, including tales of friendship, mystery, fantasy, science fiction and history.”
A website has also been created for this project here. Proceeds from the sales of Tomo will go to organizations that assist teens in the quake and tsunami hit areas.
March Was Made of Yarn: Writers respond to Japan’s Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Meltdown
“The writers in this collection seek to explore the impact of this catastrophe through a variety of different means. The pieces – fiction and non-fiction, poetry and manga – reconceive the events of that day, imagine a future and a past, interpret dreams, impel purpose, pray for hope. Specific in reference, universal in scope, these singular, heartfelt contributions – by Yoko Ogawa, Ryu Murakami, Yoko Tawada, Kazumi Saeki and David Peace, among others – comprise an artistic record of a disaster which raises questions for all of us who live in the modern world.
Royalties from the sale of this book will go to charities working towards the reconstruction of north-eastern Japan.”
2: 46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake
“In just four weeks, the 2:46 Quakebook project has turned an idea first voiced in a single tweet, into a rich collection of essays, artwork and photographs submitted by indivdiuals around the world, including people who endured the disaster and journalists who covered it.
2:46 — Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake contains a piece by Yoko Ono, and work created specifically for the book by authors William Gibson, Barry Eisler and Jake Adelstein.”
Website for this project here. 100% of donations for 2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake goes directly to the Japanese Red Cross.
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