medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Conlegae doctissimi,
may I just express my deep agreement with Frans van Liere, and indicate another trap behind the Patomkin-type fancy screen of the web: the TLG Project.
With the best of intentions all is not right with this great achievement. The TLG, one of the truly useful scholastic resources on the internet does put the unwary back a few hundred years (in fact back to the period of Renaissance printers) in the sense that it _abolishes the textual variants_. Since the Canon of Greek Authors and Works was established (and it HAD TO BE ESTABLISHED, I acknowledge) by the TLG team that particular edition (usually the most recent edition, a pretty practical but heavy handed whig idea to approach editorial work) is now destined to be the one that is presented to the less critical minds. In most cases the selection principle truly yields the best editions to date, but there are many less good, sometimes even pretty bad editions hereby elevated to an undiscerning rank of canonicity.
I know that it is exceedingly expensive to add textual variants to the TLG texts, but with due respect one still has to wonder if this false tout court image of a 'canonical text' is not, in fact, undoing the very idea that fostered its creation. The TLG is still a blessing (to check footnotes fast) - but by far not a substitute for Teubner, the Collection Bude, the SC or the OCT etc. critical editions.
I do agree that it is major problem in teaching in these days how to convey the idea to our students that the internet is in fact a huge pile of digitised rubble in which it is by far not trivial to find a nugget of proper information.
Valete,
George
G. Gereby
associate professor
Ancient and Mediaeval Philosophy Department, Eötvös Loránd University Budapest
recurrent associate professor
Medieval Studies Dept.
Central European University
Budapest V.
Nador u. 9.
H-1051 Hungary
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>>> [log in to unmask] 01/28/06 5:11 AM >>>
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I think Paul raises some very valid points about resources that are
available on the Internet. I always warn my students, too, that the
reason they are out there free on the WWW is that they're often old and
outdated, and therefore free of copyright. I'm not sure if any of my
students actually pay attention to my warnings ... It still is the first
place they consult for reference...
I also remember a similar argument was made by Paul Tombeur (I forget
the exact bibliographical reference), when the first version of the
electronic Migne appeared. He worried this would put scholarship back a
century. And he was right. I see people happily citing Migne when there
are much better and more current critical editions available. And Migne,
of course, sometimes simply copied seventeenth-century editions. Do we
have to redo the scholarship of the last three centuries?
The only thing I can say is, keep up the good work, Paul. Keep telling
your students that all that's out on the web is not all recent and
reliable scholarship. (Some of it is, of course!) And the web does not
represent the current state of scholarship. Libraries still are pretty
useful institutions! In fact, the lack of peer review and scholarly
criticism on the web makes it a likely place for the perpetuation of
myths and falsehood.
FvL
Frans van Liere
Department of History, Calvin College
1845 Knollcrest Circle SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402
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http://www.calvin.edu/academic/history/faculty/vanlieref/
>>> [log in to unmask] 01/27/06 9:53 PM >>>
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
culture
I don't know how to answer your question about the CathEn at the
NewAdvent
website. It almost seems that, in order to use it judiciously, one must
already know the answer one is seeking... I'm not a theologian; I go to
the
website to see if I can find a starting point or a possible response to
a
query. Recently there was a question about a cope/cope clasp (morse). I
produced the URL for the page giving what I believed was an excellent
response to the person seeking the information. I also used NewAdvent to
suggest a possible reason for depicting St Augustine with a sun, a moon,
an
eagle and an acrobat. Likewise I found a passage from some Church father
(perhaps Augustine again) to offer an explanation of the iconography of
Humilitas. Since no one among our esteemed and learned list members
jumped
all over my responses, I'm assuming the information was adequate and
correct, or at least plausible. (On the other hand, perhaps it was
incorrect
beyond repair.) I offer what I can find with the usual disclaimer that I
cannot vouch for the accuracy of same.
MG
_________________________________________________________________
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