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Preserving History in Copper: Richard Rawlinson’s Collection of Printing Plates
No full textThis article examines Richard Rawlinson's remarkable collection of engraved copper plates, a significant yet largely overlooked part of the Bodleian Library's holdings. Rawlinson (1690–1755), renowned as an 18th-century collector and antiquary, amassed a substantial collection encompassing various antiquarian artefacts. This study, rooted in four years of doctoral research, delves into the provenance, manufacture, and intended usage of these plates, integrating traditional archival methods with innovative imaging technologies to reveal new insights into Rawlinson's collecting practices. Notably, the research highlights Rawlinson's unusual acquisition of numerous second-hand plates, which raise questions about his motivations as a collector. Despite the intention to utilise these plates for printing, their potential remained largely unrealised due to resource limitations at the Bodleian Library. The article presents case studies that highlight the transformative potential of modern methodologies in understanding cultural heritage, showcasing the significance of Rawlinson's contributions to the preservation of history through his extensive collection
Mafiacraft, New Materialist Legal History, and Modern Unknowing
Full text linkThis essay examines the contributions of Deborah Puccio-Den’s Mafiacraft as a legal history, and highlights the innovations it offers to legal studies, particularly the application of New Materialism to legal analysis. I discuss Puccio-Den’s rejection of a teleological understanding of the emergence of the legal theory of mafia; her New-Materialist account of the process of naming the mafia; the role of performance and visuality as materialist elements in the mafia’s legal history; the materiality of the legal interpretation that established the mafia; and the materiality of legal normativity, which shares much with the mafia itself. I conclude by reflecting on the phenomenon of unknowing in late modernity, that is, the active rejection of knowledge, on which Puccio-Den’s study sheds light
Printing Colour 1700–1830: Histories, Techniques, Functions and Receptions
No full textPrinting Colour 1700–1830 offers a broad-ranging examination of the rich period of invention, experimentation and creativity surrounding colour printing in Europe between two critically important developments, four-colour separation printing around 1710 and chromolithography around 1830. Its 28 field-defining contributions by 23 leading experts expand the corpus beyond rare fine art impressions to include many millions of colourprinted images and objects.
The chapters unveil the explosive growth in the production and marketing of colour prints at this pivotal moment. They address the numerous scientific and technological advances that fed the burgeoning popularity for such diverse colour-printed consumer goods as clothing, textiles, wallpapers and ceramics.
They recontextualise the rise in colour-printed paper currencies, book endpapers and typography, and ephemera, including lottery tickets and advertisements. This landmark volume launches colour printing of the long eighteenth century as an interdisciplinary field of study, opening new avenues for research across historical and scientific fields
Paysan
No full textLe paysan nous fascine, entre altérité et familiarité. Alors que la population agricole ne cesse de s’étioler, le paysan est partout et nulle part. Il est le réceptacle de nos espoirs et de nos angoisses. C’est cette « paysannerie classe objet » qui est au coeur de ce texte, d’une grande actualité.
Début 2024, alors que les manifestations d’agriculteurs s’étendaient à travers le pays, les responsables politiques se sont succédé sur les plateaux des chaînes d’info pour appuyer le mouvement et clamer leur amour du «monde paysan». De François Ruffin à Jordan Bardella, on défendait «l’exception agriculturelle» française face à la concurrence déloyale de produits étrangers. Cette unanimité autour de la «cause paysanne» renvoie à un rapport particulier entre un «nous non paysan» et un «eux paysan» aux contours flous et protéiformes. Le paysan c’est l’agriculteur, l’habitant des campagnes, le «petit» producteur. Mais c’est aussi la France, la nation, la république. C’est le bon sens, la simplicité, le travail, l’effort, l’enracinement, la nature, la convivialité, l’authenticité, le savoir-faire, la droiture. C’est tout ça à la fois. Le paysan nous fascine. C’est un énigmatique mélange entre altérité et familiarité. Alors que la population agricole ne cesse de s’étioler, le paysan est partout et nulle part. Par-delà les barrages autoroutiers, il est présent dans les publicités pour du jambon et du fromage industriel, il est sur nos pièces de monnaie («la semeuse»), dans la littérature, dans les discours politiques, et dans les cris de supporters se moquant des joueurs de l’équipe adverse («paysans, paysans, paysans»). Il est le réceptacle de nos espoirs et de nos angoisses. De nos injonctions contradictoires. Au fil des années et des crises, on l’a dépeint en républicain, en réactionnaire, en patriote, en productiviste, en écolo aussi. On l’a voulu de gauche, de droite, sans étiquette. Les paysans, comme le résume Pierre Bourdieu, c’est une «classe-pour-autrui» «sans cesse invités à prendre sur eux-mêmes le point de vue des autres, à porter sur eux-mêmes un regard et un jugement d’étrangers». C’est cette «paysannerie classe objet» qui est l’enjeu de ce texte
The Economics of the Manuscript and Rare Book Trade, ca. 1890–1939
Full text linkThe market for rare books has been characterized as unpredictable, and driven by the whims of a small number of rich individuals. Yet behind the headlines announcing new auction records, a range of sources make it possible to analyze the market as a whole. This book introduces the economics of the trade in manuscripts and rare books during the turbulent period ca. 1890–1939. It demonstrates how surviving sources, even when incomplete and inconsistent, can be used to tackle questions about the operation of the rare book trade, including how books were priced, profit margins, accounting practices, and books as investments, from the perspectives of both dealers and collectors
‘We are family!’ The kinship between individual cosponsor and sponsored refugee(s) and its impact on mental health service uptake
Full text linkResettled refugees underutilize mental health services, despite being the immigrant population with the highest incidence of mental health issues. In Canada, individual cosponsors, particularly family members of refugees, play a crucial role in providing social support and fostering a sense of belonging during the resettlement period. These have proven effective in promoting the mental health and overall well-being of refugees. The primary objective of this research is to investigate whether the kinship (family dynamics) between individual cosponsors and refugees influences the refugees’ willingness to access mental health services when needed.
Purposive sampling was used to select nine participants. The semi-structure interviews conducted explored the participants’ experiences with mental health issues during the sponsorship process. Five individual cosponsors (CS) and four group sponsor representatives (CG) were interviewed. Inductive thematic analysis was used to code and analyze the data. Sixteen sponsorship experiences were discussed during the interviews. CGs identified social support and relationship building as factors influencing refugees’ access to mental health services. In contrast, CSs emphasised the role of reducing stigma associated with mental health in facilitating refugees’ access to such services.
The results suggest that, despite the presence of social support, sense of belonging, and family dynamics inherent in the kinship between CS and refugee, the stigma surrounding mental health remains a significant determinant of refugee access to services. It is important to note that most participants based their responses on hypothetical scenarios rather than actual experiences, as only two out of the sixteen sponsorships mentioned involved mental health issues
Governance of Migration by Decree: Legal Life of Afghan Migrants in Iran
Full text linkThis working paper provides an overview of governance of Afghan migration in Iran. It argues that governance of Afghan migration is conducted mainly through rule by decree. Such decrees are not preceded by a consultative process and are declared ad hoc. As a result, there is a lack of legal certainty and migrants cannot really anticipate which protection they will get and until when. To make this argument, sources of laws regulating Afghans’ legal and formal life in Iran, including their rights and entitlements based on their documentation status, and impact of these laws in terms of certainty and predictability are studied. This working paper is based on desk research as well as qualitative interviews, the latter being the main source for untangling the governance regime due to scarcity of written sources of law
Introduction, in: Printing Colour 1700-1830
No full textThis introduction presents the volume’s objectives in the context of recent developments in—and longstanding omissions from—the fields of art, book and print history. It surveys the current state of scholarship and describes the new contributions made by each of the 28 chapters. Some present new methodologies for reassessing colour in the long 18th century, for example through heritage science. Others present newly discovered, or unjustly overlooked, colour prints, tools for colour printing and archival records. It explains how they expand the corpus from a limited number of fine prints and celebrated scientific images to millions of colour-printed objects, from ladies’ muffs to polemical pottery. It also contextualises how many were able to newly identify producers and audiences, especially women. Finally, it explains how the contributions redefine the corpus of colour printing and offer new avenues for future scholarship in the long 18th century in Europe, including Scandinavia and Russia, as well as some areas under colonial control
Quality space computations for consciousness
Full text linkThe quality space hypothesis about conscious experience proposes that conscious sensory states are experienced in relation to other possible sensory states. For instance, the colour red is experienced as being more like orange, and less like green or blue. Recent empirical findings suggest that subjective similarity space can be explained in terms of similarities in neural activation patterns. Here, we consider how localist, workspace, and higher-order theories of consciousness can accommodate claims about the qualitative character of experience and functionally support a quality space. We review existing empirical evidence for each of these positions, and highlight novel experimental tools, such as altering local activation spaces via brain stimulation or behavioural training, that can distinguish these accounts
Interim report on the Falerii Novi Project, 2021–2023
Full text linkPresented are the results of the Falerii Novi Project, a multi-year international archaeological research project at the ancient urban site of Falerii Novi, in the Comune of Fabrica di Roma (Viterbo, Lazio), in the middle Tiber Valley. According to ancient sources, the Roman town of Falerii Novi was founded in the mid-third century BCE, when the nearby Faliscan center of Falerii Veteres (modern Civita Castellana) revolted and was conquered by Rome. The site, which measures nearly 32 ha and presents as a greenfield site today, lies along the ancient via Amerina, approximately 50 km north of Rome. The only standing premodern remains on site are the city’s walls, generally dated to its foundation in the 3rd century BCE, an extramural amphitheater to the northeast, peri-urban tombs, and the complex of Santa Maria di Falleri, whose monastic community is first mentioned in the 11th century CE. Previous work in the 19tth century and that carried out by the Soprintendenza during the late XXth century remain largely unpublished. More recently, however, non-invasive work using magnetometry and Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) has generated plans of the Roman town. The interim results of the FNP presented here build on this remote sensing to create a detailed understanding of the site’s development over its full history. Pursuant to our aims of exploring a range of urban spaces, trenches have been excavated across the intramural area, guided by magnetometry and GPR results. We detail results from an initial campaign of test pits (2021) and two years of open-area stratigraphic excavation (2022–23). Five areas of exploration (Areas I–V) are discussed below, including one, Area IV, restudied by the FNP after some initial, unpublished excavation by the Soprintendenza