We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
RESEARCH OF LATVIAN BOOK BEFORE 1918.
- Authors
LIMANE, LILIJA
- Abstract
A systematic research of Latvian book history was started in the second half of the 18th century. At this time, under the influence of Enlightenment ideas, German intelligentsia started to show interest to culture of Latvian peasants, the research methods where empirical. Researchers gathered information about the repertorium. There were publications that summarized news about Latvian book production from the beginning until the 18th century. In the 19th centyry German historians continued summarizing information about Latvian books, they elaborated chronological surveys of published literature. The historian and censor Carl Eduard Napiersky compiled an important retrospective register of Latvian book production Chronologischer Conspect der Lettischen Literatur. It gives information on books from the beginning of Latvian book printing (1586, the date for the first Latvian book) until 1864. Neo-Latvians (the first generation of Latvian national intelligentsia) disclaimed the theoretical ideas and practical foundation of book history exploration used by Germans. Neo- Latvians focused on the important role of books in forming the public opinion. The Riga Latvian Society was founded in 1868 and systematically worked on the evaluation of book production. The book production of each year was regularly discussed in its meetings and sometimes in periodicals. In the second half of the 19th century, the professional research of book history was continued by Baltic Germans. The main methods were a profound summarization of facts and studies in archives. Researches by Baltic German historians formed a rich factographical basis of Latvian book history. These studies retain their scientific importance also nowadays. The Latvian Society of Book Printers and Sellers and Independent Researchers tried to elaborate the theory of book science. Researchers of history of art, literature, education, linguists and others developed separate themes connected to book science. Book as a separate cultural phenomenon and its relations with readers were not analyzed. An important discovery in 1911 allowed to revise the date of the first book printed in Latvian. A Catholic Catechism (1585) was found in the Uppsala library. The date of the first book printed in Latvian was revised in the second half of the 20th century when a protocol from 1525 concerning Latvian books was found.
- Subjects
LATVIA; HISTORY of the book; ENLIGHTENMENT; INTELLECTUALS; PUBLISHING; BOOKS &; society; EIGHTEENTH century
- Publication
Knygotyra, 2010, Issue 54, p129
- ISSN
0204-2061
- Publication type
Article