4.0862 Queries (6/165)

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Sun, 6 Jan 91 16:34:39 EST

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0862. Sunday, 6 Jan 1991.


(1) Date: Fri Jan 04 14:53:38 1991 (13 lines)
From: Marco Simionato <uunet!microsoft!marcosi@cs.washington.edu>
Subject: Mac Stack for Languages?

(2) Date: Fri, 04 Jan 91 14:53:00 EST (18 lines)
From: steven weisberg <WEISBERG@vm.epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: looking for criticism on josef skvorecky

(3) Date: 4 Jan 91 15:56 -0600 (20 lines)
From: Phyllis Wright <lbswright@brocku.ca>
Subject: ATTENTION LIBRARIANS

(4) Date: Fri, 04 Jan 91 19:44:46 EST (56 lines)
From: Germaine Warkentin <WARKENT@vm.epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: Problems in annotating Erasmus' letters

(5) Date: Sat, 5 Jan 91 22:15:06 +0100 (27 lines)
From: Henning M|rk <slavhenn@aau.dk>
Subject: agricultural texts

(6) Date: Sun, 6 Jan 91 12:16:12 EST (31 lines)
From: John Price-Wilkin <USERLD84@UMICHUB.BITNET>
Subject: book sales figures

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri Jan 04 14:53:38 1991
From: Marco Simionato <uunet!microsoft!marcosi@cs.washington.edu>
Subject: Mac Stack for Languages?

I'm looking for a flashcard stack for the Macintosh to memorise words
from foreign languages, or any such thing (basically a database storing
words and their meaning, displaying then the words one at a time and
then verifying the amount of words which the pupil can remember).
Preferably shareware or freeware. Unbiassed suggestions for commercial
products also welcome (dealers please don't reply!).
Many thanks.

Marco Simionato
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------28----
Date: Fri, 04 Jan 91 14:53:00 EST
From: steven weisberg <WEISBERG@vm.epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: looking for criticism on josef skvorecky

Good new year to all Humanists:

I am looking for any critical information on the Czech-Canadian author
Josef Skvorecky. His main critic appears to be Sam Solecki <<Talkin'
Moscow Blues>> and <<Prague Blues: The Fiction of Josef Skvorecky>>.

In particular, I am looking for such criticism to deal with Skvorecky's
1977 novel <<The Engineer of Human Souls>> pub. by Lester & Opren Dennys
1984 translated by Paul Wilson.

If anyone has any suggestions, I would appreciate hearing from you.

Steven Weisberg, University of Guelph, Ont. Canada.
(weiseberg@vm.epas.utoronto.ca) or (uog00230@vm.uoguelph.ca)
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------30----
Date: 4 Jan 91 15:56 -0600
From: Phyllis Wright <lbswright@brocku.ca>
Subject: ATTENTION LIBRARIANS

I am attempting to offer a bi and orientation program in the fall to
international students in 5 different languages. Has anyone had any
experience in this kind of instruction. I would like to hear from you.
many thanks.

Phyllis Wright
Reference Librarian
Brock University
St Catharines, Ontario
L2S 3A1
416-688-5550, EXT. 3235

BITNET: LBSWRIGHT@BROCKU.CA
ENVOY: ADMIN/BROCK.UNIV.LIBRARY
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------66----
Date: Fri, 04 Jan 91 19:44:46 EST
From: Germaine Warkentin <WARKENT@vm.epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: Problems in annotating Erasmus' letters

My colleague James M. Estes is nearly finished annotating a volume of the
letters of Erasmus for the Toronto edition of the _Collected Works of
Erasmus_. He has four puzzles left, and asks if participants in Humanist
can help him out. Please reply on Humanist, or directly to me:
Warkent@vm.epas.utoronto.ca.

Here are four inquiries concerning the remaining four puzzles I am
facing as annotator of CWE 10 (= Epp 1356-1534 in Allen V). I wonder if
any of the learned folk on Humanist could help with them.

1. Allen V:501, lines 93-4 (Ep 1469, Erasmus to Nicholas Everard, 26
July 1524): `Iudaei non submouebant a lectione Geneseos, Cantici, et
Ezechielis, quum in his voluminibus sit plurimum obscuritatis, nisi vsque
ad annum trigesimum.' [`The Jews did not prevent anyone, after his
thirtieth year, from reading Genesis, the Song of Songs, or Ezekiel,
although there is much which is obscure in these books.] Erasmus'
principal source for this statement is clearly Origen's Prologus in
Canticum Canticorum, but Origen does not give the specific figure of
thirty years (he only says `of mature age'). The question is, then: what
is the source for the stipulation of thirty years?

2. Allen V:501, lines 115-18 (Ep 1469 again): `Quis non intelligat
istos [theologos] sacras litteras ideo velle paucis esse notas, ne quid
decedat ipsorum autoritati quaestuique? Hoc hulcus olim exacerbauit
iureconsultos, euulgatis diebus fastis ac nefastis . . .' [`Isn't it
obvious that the reason these men wish the holy scriptures to be known to
a few is simply so as not to lose any of their present prestige or income?
The lawyers were afflicted with the same sore when the calendar of
business days and feast days was published . . .'] The point of the
passage seems clear, but I can find no literature that tells me anything
about the publication of a calendar of business days and feast days.

3. Allen V:586, line 58 (Ep 1519, Johann von Botzheim to Erasmus, 26
November 1524): `Oecolampadius si destitit a coepto, facit quod vellem .
. .' [`If Oecolampadius has given up his project, he has done as I
should wish . . .'] I can find nothing in the standard sources about a
project undertaken or abandoned that would fit the chronological context
of the letter. Allen's speculation in his footnote does not persuade.

4. Allen V:587, lines 83-4 (Ep 1519 again): `<Nec> libellus S.
[S. Nicolai vita] nec dialogus [Dialogus bilinguim ac trlinguium] excusi
sunt, idque ea causa: ego pollicitus eram musicos
sonos.' [`Neither the St Nicholas pamphlet nor the Dialogue has been
printed; and the reason is that I had promised the music.'] I haven't
the foggiest idea what this is all about. What could music possibly have
to do with the Dialogus, which I have seen, or the Nicolai vita, which I
have not? (Both works are pamphlets attributed to Wilhelm Nesen and
attacking the Louvain theologians).

The only reward that I can offer to anyone who comes up with useful
information is immortality in the form of an acknowledgment in the
preface to CWE 10. With thanks, James M. Estes.
(5) --------------------------------------------------------------38----
Date: Sat, 5 Jan 91 22:15:06 +0100
From: Henning M|rk <slavhenn@aau.dk>
Subject: agricultural texts

Can anybody on the list help me to retrieve information about existing
special language text bases? What I need to know is the following:

Are there somewhere in the world text bases consisting of texts about
agricultural/agro-industrial subjects - in any Germanic or Romance
language? I need them to be able to compare with the text base I'm
creating myself, containing Russian agro-industrial texts.

Of course, I'm also interested in texts containing parts of my general
field: farming in general; milk and cheese production; machine
technology; etc.

Thank you in advance.

Henning Moerk
Professor
Slavisk Institut
Aarhus Universitet
8000 Aarhus C
Denmark
slavhenn@aau.dk
(6) --------------------------------------------------------------39----
Date: Sun, 6 Jan 91 12:16:12 EST
From: John Price-Wilkin <USERLD84@UMICHUB.BITNET>
Subject: book sales figures

A faulty member has asked me to post a request here concerning
what has become a knotty problem of numbers. He is specifically
interested in title by title sales numbers for English-language
books over many years. Ideally, what he would like to find is a
single (though serial) source that would list titles published
each year and the number of copies sold. Realizing that this is
probably unrealistic, he would be willing to settle for sales
figures for "best-sellers" and "works of literature." And in the
end, the three years he is most interested in are 1889, 1892, and
1895.

I've spent some time looking in statistical indexes (ASI, SRI),
historical indexes (Hist. Abs.), NCBEL (interesting sections on
publishing, but no cigar), and our catalog. I've been able to
locate contemporary statistical sources for best-sellers, but
nothing historical and certainly nothing comprehensive. Short of
identifying titles of interest and going through the archives of
the respective publishing houses, is there anything that might
provide this sort of information? It seems now that I've run
into the question several times in a variety of forms, so help in
locating a regularly published source with a broad scope would be
greatly appreciated.

John Price-Wilkin
Univ. of Michigan
jp-w@um.cc.umich.edu
usergc8z@umichum.bitnet