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Papers by Joëlle Weis

Achtzehntes Jahrhundert digital: zentraleuropäische Perspektiven

CROMOHS, 2020

In 1773 Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, at that time librarian of the ducal library in Wolfenbüttel, cr... more In 1773 Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, at that time librarian of the ducal library in Wolfenbüttel, criticised his predecessors of only being interested in the history of the library’s augmentation, of the library’s „genealogy“. According to the famous writer, former librarians were so fixated on the catalogues that they forgot the real purpose of telling a collection’s history: showing how it contributed to scholarship. Of course, Lessing has a point, the history of a collection and its holding institution should not be told simply by enumerating objects, but he might have underestimated the potential of catalogues and book lists as sources for the history of scholarship, indeed the history of knowledge. Library catalogues should not only be seen as valuable sources for the reconstruction of an as-is state of the library at a specific moment of the collection’s life but that a much broader perspective can be taken. Using the example of the Wolfenbüttel manuscript catalogues dating from the mid-17th to the 18th century, the catalogues can be read as behavioural guidelines, as an instrument for representation, as a witness for scholarly practices or as legal papers. Just as for literary documents, they invite to read between the lines, to analyse their specific style as well as to discover the different communicative strategies and hidden messages. Using Lessing’s image, the catalogues help with the composition of an enhanced genealogy, positioning every item into a network of objects, texts, practices, and ideas.

Sašo Jerše (Hg.), Die Wege zur historischen Erkenntnis. Die Paradigmata der Geschichtswissenschaften bei der Erforschung der Vormoderne, 2020

Revista de Historiografía (RevHisto). Nº 21 - Año XI (2/2014), 2014

In 1621, Kaspar Plautz, abbot of Seitenstetten Abbey in Lower Austria, publishes a book entitled ... more In 1621, Kaspar Plautz, abbot of Seitenstetten Abbey in Lower Austria, publishes a book entitled Nova Typis Transacta Navigatio novi Orbis Indiae occidentalis under the pseudonym of Honorius Philoponus. In this book, he tells the story of Bernardo Boyl, a monk of Montserrat Abbey who accompanied Christoph Columbus on his second voyage to the West-Indies. He was thus one of the first missionaries in the New World. Inspired by many other authors of travel literature, Plautz gives an account of the adventurous experiences and evangelization activities of the Benedictine Boyl by mixing different styles and genres. What is more, he includes what seems arbitrary elements of fiction with the objective of integrating his own agenda.
The first one of his intentions is self-representation. He dedicates the work to himself with the help of his pseudonym and does not get tired to emphasize his own achievements as well as those of his abbey. This is perfectly compatible with Plautz's second aim, the glorification of the Benedictine order. At a time, where the importance of Benedictine monasticism is in decline and a state of competition prevails between the orders, it cannot not seem remarkable that Plautz wants to highlight the merits of his own order. Thirdly, it becomes obvious that the author wants to polemize against Protestantism and at the same time strengthen the catholic position in this period of religious wars. This results of course in a display of Plautz's own convictions and ideologies.
In the end, the Nova Typis Transacta Navigatio can thus be read as an insightful historical document which reveals a lot about contemporary „Lebenswelten“.

Books by Joëlle Weis

Digital Eighteenth Century: Central European Perspectives, 2019

Digitale Technologien und Methoden haben in den vergangenen Jahren immer mehr Einfluss auf die ge... more Digitale Technologien und Methoden haben in den vergangenen Jahren immer mehr Einfluss auf die geisteswissenschaftliche Forschung gewonnen. Dies gilt nicht minder für das achtzehnte Jahrhundert: In allen einschlägigen Fachbereichen werden seit Jahren Texte, Bilder und Metadaten digital generiert, verarbeitet, analysiert und präsentiert. Ergebnis ist eine bisher nie dagewesene Konfrontation mit quantifizierenden Methoden auch in qualitativ arbeitenden Disziplinen sowie die Notwendigkeit einer Auseinandersetzung mit nationalen und globalen Datenstandards. Diese Standards entscheiden über die Interoperabilität – gewissermaßen die internationale Anschlussfähigkeit – der Daten und somit über die Nachhaltigkeit der eigenen Forschung. Die Österreichische Gesellschaft zur Erforschung des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts widmet ihr 34. Jahrbuch 2019 dem Thema der digitalen Forschung zum 18. Jahrhundert in Zentraleuropa. Die einzelnen vorgestellten Beiträge sind nicht nur Projektberichte, sondern referieren die Ergebnisse digital durchgeführter Forschungsarbeit. Sie eröffnen ein Panorama der möglichen methodischen Zugänge, von den Bildwissenschaften über Netzwerkanalyse und -darstellung hin zu digitaler Edition, Korpuslinguistik und digitaler Sprachwissenschaft sowie der Vernetzung von Forschungsdaten mit den Daten von Kulturerbe-Institutionen.

Articles and Book Chapters by Joëlle Weis

CROMOHS - Cyber Review of Modern Historiography, 2020

First invented in China and brought to Europe by Muslim merchants across the Silk Road, the use o... more First invented in China and brought to Europe by Muslim merchants across the Silk Road, the use of paper in the West took off in the Mediterranean towards the end of the Middle Ages. Overshadowed in cultural and media history by the invention of print, paper has since played a fundamental role as the media infrastructure for innumerable processes that involve the registration and communication of data, knowledge and value in human communities and institutions of all sorts—from religious orders, financial and mercantile societies, to global empires. Only recently has the new digital age become a serious competitor to the global rule of paper.

This special subsection of CROMOHS proposes five essays, four of which examine particular cases of paper as a medium for the codification and exchange of knowledge, information and value, whereas the fifth one provides an outline of the state of the art on the history of the so-called paper revolution and some general methodological issues illustrated with relevant case studies. Our essays also exemplify the sort of research conducted by the “Paper in Motion” work group within the People in Motion COST action, which seeks to look into the role of paper as a medium for the connectivity of information in processes and practices which involve objects, people and ideas in motion.
Our essays seek to approach five distinct but also closely related varieties of paper formats and documentary genres:

(a) the use of paper documents in legal and political administration across linguistic and cultural boundaries;

(b) financial and commercial correspondence in combination with news exchange across the Mediterranean, exemplified by the case of the Maltese archives and the correspondence of the Spanish merchant Simón Ruiz;

(c) library catalogs as both records of knowledge and agents in the creation of a hierarchy of disciplines, in their special capacity as meta-registers with several layers of data that classify titles, genres, formats and disciplines as they also project power relations and embody socio-cultural values;