Hodgesaargh@bookwyrm.de reviewed Too much to know by Ann Blair
Most interesting view on the beginnings of scholarly annotation
3 stars
Ann Blair: Too much to know (2010, Yale University Press) 3 Sterne
The emergence of reference books and their differentiation into various genres of encyclopedic literature is much more fascinating than I would have thought. Anne Blair takes a very close look at (surprisingly large) collections of scholarly excerpts and notes in print during the 16th and 17th centuries but she also puts them in the context of the developments before (classical antiquity and middle ages) and after this period. This comes with many anecdotes about scholarly lives and practices, e.g. about a cosmology containing a little construction kit for readers to build their own model of the planetary system or a carpentry-based early platform for collaborative research. The book does not belie its character as a piece of scholarly work with meticulous discussions of various aspects of the matter resulting in much repetition. But it remains most readable and …
Ann Blair: Too much to know (2010, Yale University Press) 3 Sterne
The emergence of reference books and their differentiation into various genres of encyclopedic literature is much more fascinating than I would have thought. Anne Blair takes a very close look at (surprisingly large) collections of scholarly excerpts and notes in print during the 16th and 17th centuries but she also puts them in the context of the developments before (classical antiquity and middle ages) and after this period. This comes with many anecdotes about scholarly lives and practices, e.g. about a cosmology containing a little construction kit for readers to build their own model of the planetary system or a carpentry-based early platform for collaborative research. The book does not belie its character as a piece of scholarly work with meticulous discussions of various aspects of the matter resulting in much repetition. But it remains most readable and often entertaining. Working in research data management myself, the read has changed my reflections on contemporary developments and the hopes and worries related to them.
