Reconstituting Florentine Archives Online

Italian archives have not had it easy over the last 600 or so years. Those that managed to survive into the 20th Century despite the frequent wars and other calamities that effected the peninsula were subject to the ravages of the Second World War (many library and archives were severely damaged or lost in Allied and German bombing; for a rather harrowing evaluation of lost libraries and archives of the 20th Century see the UNESCO report Lost Memory, part of the Memory of the World programme). The trials for the archives of Florence that survived to the mid-20th century, however, the were not over. On November 4, 1966, the Arno River flooded, unleashing upwards of six metres of muddy water into the streets of the city. The art galleries, libraries, churches and archives of the city were all affected, with many objects submerged in the sludge and heavily damaged. This includes the archives of the Cathedral (the Cathedral Square seen above, image from the exhibit Thirty Years After the Flood), which saw upwards of 6000 volumes dating back to the 13th century covered in mud and many were rendered illegible. However, an international effort was undertaken and a great deal was salvaged thanks to the efforts of the "Mud Angels" (see the exhibit image galleries for some remarkable photos). Apparently stuff is still in freezers waiting for conservation treatment almost 40 years on. Using new scanning technologies some of these once unreadable documents are now being made visible again. The Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, the administrative body that is responsible for the Cathedral, with a Getty grant and the assistance of the Max-Planck-Institut in Berlin and the University of Cologne, has undertaken the mammoth Years of the Cupola Project which, since 1994, have been painstakingly scanning, transcribing and analyzing the 20000 documents that cover the years of the construction of the Cathedral’s dome, 1417-1436. So far about 6000 documents are indexed and available in both Italian and English and they have just begun putting up digital facsimiles of the originals. Essentially, they are reconstituting the archive digitally. This project is not only making the archival materials accessible to a geographically dispersed audience, which is not terribly new or revolutionary but still a great thing to do, but they are also making documents usable that have not been able to be read for 40 years. This archival material will be of immense interest to historians of art, architecture, science and material culture, as well as ecclesiastical historians and others. As for me, I think it is supercool and I hope to see the techniques and lessons applied to other archival collections that have suffered damage (thinking perhaps of some of the stuff in Mississippi and Louisiana after the recent flooding or affected by last year's tsunami or countless other documents that have been subject to extreme water damage).

Here is a natural light image of a page (a detail, see here for the full page)


And here it is under low-intensity lighting:

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Booker & Nobel Prizes for Literature

Just a quick note to updated my earlier post on the Man Booker Prize. It was awarded on Monday and the winner is.....Irish writer John Banville for The Sea. Here is the Press release.
Update - Banville's book is apparently not an easy read. The choice has been praised for not giving into populist demands but rather it is being seen as returning the prize to a work of literature as art. Others, however, state that the book is forgettable. It, apparently, is filled with dense descriptions and some arcane language. It is interesting to note that Banville takes inspiration from Harold Pinter (see below) as Pinter is an author "who has traditionally stuck up two fingers to the critics and said sales are no measure of quality." The jury was sharply divided with John Sutherland, the chair, casting the deciding vote. Banville won because it was felt that The Sea is a "high point of fictional art".

I will update this post later with more details and will add the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, which is going to be announced tommorow morning (1pm CET which is...uh...6am Eastern Standard, I think). People are thinking it might be a North American (Phillip Roth, perhaps even Margaret Atwood or Alice Munroe) but in Swedish literary circles the Syrian poet Ali Ahmad Said, known as Adonis is favoured. We shall just have to wait to see. The Prize has actually been delayed for the first time in 10 years - it is usually announced the same week as the other four big awards - and the literary rumour mill wonders if it is because of a controversial Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, who is facing charges in his home country for publically stating that Turkey is guilty of genocide against against Armenians and Kurds. The officials deny that the delay is due to arguements over Pamuk, and punits say it might be due to the committee considering a journalist, essayist or other non-fiction writer. See The Guardian for more.
Update : Announced this morning - the Nobel was awarded to Harold Pinter, something of a surprise as he wasn't really even consisdered as being in contention for the prize this year. The press release from the Swedish Academy doesn't say much except the prize was awarded as Pinter is an author "who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms"." While giving the award they stated that Pinter was someone "who restored the art form of theatre." See the New York Times and the The Guardian.

That's it for now for prestigious international prizes. As for literary awards in Canada, the Governor General's Awards shortlist should be announced by the end of the month and the winner in mid-November and the Giller Prize will be awarded on November 8.
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Edit (Oct. 18) Governor General's Literary Awards were announced see the Press Release for the full list. Winners announced November 16th.

Amster-Hot-Damn: Days VI-VIII

It has been over a month since we have been back and I have still to finish posting about the trip. Enough is enough. Here is the last few days. I am sure I have forgotten some things but here are the highlights. Sunday morning started a bit late but since we didn't have anywhere particular to go it didn't really matter. The first order of the day was to find some brunch. We ended up for the Broodje Bert - a rather tiny place that was named after Bert of Sesame Street fame and had breakfasts named for Bert and Ernie. We had some excellent open faced sandwiches with real fresh-squeezed orange juice which was fantastic.

We then headed to the area know as Spui (which is pronounced "Spow") for the art market which happens every Sunday (seen in a photo by Laura taken during the Friday Bookmarket). The street was lined with stalls of artists selling all types of art objects of varying quality. Not too much was too my liking but it was interesting nonetheless.

We had some excellent ice cream at the Australian Homemade Ice-cream shop and then went to the Bloemenmarkt. The flower market was very impressive. It consisted of stalls covering one side of a very large block (apparently the stalls are actually floating on the canal, although we didn't notice it at the time) and had on offer more varieties of tulip bulbs than I even knew existed. They also had a wide variety of other bulbs that I really had no idea about but it was amazing. We wandered through every shop looking for the best deal on export quality bulbs and looking at the cheesy touristy crap. There was an impressive rare prints and map shop along this road which had some fantastic early maps of Canada which, unfortunately, were way out of my price range.

We wandered to the Leidsplein to go to the VVV (the tourism office) to book a tour for Monday and then went to the half-price ticket place to see if there was anything of interest to do that evening. Nothing struck our fancy so we sat down for a drink in the square to watch the street entertainers - which included a group of guys doing Capoeira and a rather old, mostly naked guy who climbed a rope and did acrobatics and balancing trick - while we planned our next move. We found a listing for a blues club close by so we went by to see what was happening on that night. It turned out to be an open-mic night (with free cover before 11) which sounded good so with our evening entertainment settled upon we went looking for food. There are quite a number of places to eat and we had a difficult time deciding on a place. Actually, we wanted to go to a Javanese place but the patio packed so we kept walking looking for someplace else. After walking around the block we ended up at the Javanese place, Bojo, again and ended up eating in the dining room, where we had some excellent Indonesian food (I forget exactly what we had [chicken, rice, other stuff?] but it was quite unusual, very good, had huge portions, and was affordable).

After dinner we headed back to the hostel for a bit before going to the Bourbon Street Jazz and Blues Club. Here, we were entertained by the owner, who was quite cheeky making fun of the patrons and inventing songs about them, who played classic blues songs and other covers (such as some Jimi Hendrix) but in a very original way. He was joined by an excellent harmonica player and a few people from the audience got up on stage and were by and large very good (except for one kid who was kinda boring). We headed back to the hostel for what we thought would be a normal night with the only interruptions being the high kids coming back from the coffee shops. That turned out not to be the case. Laura had been feeling rather punky for a few days and at the blues club felt she couldn't get comfortable. A few hours after we went to bed she woke me up as she was in quite a bit of pain and thought it might be wise to see someone about it. After a very frustrating and ultimately fruitless series of attempts to get a hold of the insurance company back in Canada we decided to just get to a doctor. The staff at the Pig were excellent - outlining the options of the (very very expensive) doctor and the nearest hospital. Upon their advice we hopped in a taxi and got to experience the Dutch Health System firsthand. Things were very quiet at the OLVG (apparently voted the best hospital in the Netherlands) which was great as Laura was seen pretty much immediately. The doctor confirmed what Laura thought - a kidney infection - and after scolding her for not coming in sooner and threatening to admit her for treatment, did some tests and then let her go with a prescription and strict instructions to come back if things got worse. After taking some antibiotics we got back into the cab and headed back to the hospital to get some sleep. We tried to sleep as long as possible, something not made easy by all the racket made by the other tenants, but when we got up about noon Laura felt much better. I nipped out early to cancel our Grand Holland Tour (thankfully refundable with only a small surcharge) so we planned another day in the city...starting, of course, with a tasty meal.

A wonderful breakfast was had at the Pannenkoekenhuis Upstairs (photo credit) which was a really really tiny place up a really really steep set of stairs. Our timing was excellent (as it would be for our dinner) and we were able to get a seat – other groups were not so luck and we people were turned away when we were there. The pancake house was essentially just a small split level room. There was a table and the kitchen in the upper part, where the stairs came out, and a dining area on the lower level where there were three tables. There were all kinds of teapots handing from the ceiling which made the already low ceilings lower but were rather funky. The place was staffed by one guy (I assume the owner) who played waiter, cook, and all-round snarky commentator. The food was outstanding. I had the special which was a crepe (well, it was a little thicker than a French crepe, but not as fluffy as North American pancakes – and it was the size of a dinner-plate) strawberry, rhubarb and crème. Laura went with the less adventurous (I think the guy called her boring) but also excellent bacon, tomato and cheese. Upon seeing my choice Laura had some Pancake envy and we decided it would be a good idea to share. And it was a good idea with the savoury and the sweet and the pancakey goodness. Fortified we headed off to see some sights.

Being Monday, a lot of the museums were closed but I seemed to recall hearing about an anatomical museum in Amsterdam. I found a listing for the Museum Vrolik, attached to the AMC (Academic Medical Centre) but the street it was on wasn’t listed on our map. We went to the tourist office and the guy there found it and it was located in the suburbs so we had to take the metro out of the city. On the way to the train station we stopped at a number of bookstores (I found some great deals at an art book store) and other shops and just took our time wandering. We ended up at the second Dutch hospital of the day – although at this one no one got poked or prodded and we didn’t score any drugs – and easily found the museum. The small museum was being renovated but it was open while exhibits were being set up and shifted around. I was hoping to see more anatomical art/history of medicine stuff and we got a whole lot of body parts & misshapen foetuses in jars. It was rather creepy at times but worth the trip just to see it and to see a bit of the non-touristy parts of Netherlands.

After we got back from the museum we hit up the supermarket near Dam Square to get some waffles and some breakfast items for our trip home (which turned out to be a great idea). For dinner we thought we would use the money we saved from the tour and treat ourselves. Not sure if we would be able to get a table we headed to the Franco-Dutch restaurant De Belhamel. As with the pancake place our timing was excellent. We managed to get a table without a reservation (albeit inside not on the canal) just before closing. The décor was utter outstanding Art Nouveau and the food was fantastic. I had a salmon and veal saltimbocca (I wasn’t sure what it would be but it turned out to be a sort of pastry roll which was extremely good - it is Italian for "jumps in the mouth") with red snapper with asparagus for starters and Laura had red pepper tomato soup with crispy bacon and herb creme fraiche to begin and then duck with mushrooms and potatoes. After the fabulous meal we made our way back to the Pig, hung out in the Happy Room for a bit, and got ready for our insanely early flight the next day.

We got up early and were at the train station at 4am to get the train to the airport. Although we thought we left in a good amount of time a slight hold up at the ticket machine meant that we got to watch the train pull out of the station while we cursed. Thankfully we had plenty of time to get to the airport (more than we even realized at the time) so we waited the forty minutes at the station wishing we were still asleep. We got to the airport eventually, checked in, bought an outrageously-priced coffee and had some excellent salami and cheese sandwiches from the stuff we bought the day before. We proceeded to the gate to find out our flight was delayed due to fog in Amsterdam. The plane actually had to land in Frankfurt to refuel and wait for the fog to burn off. We read and dozed while waiting. It kinda sucked but we had our sandwiches and really nothing else to do except get home in time for work the following day. We had a rather uneventful flight once the plane made it to Amsterdam, got to watch a few movies (Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Fever Pitch, which was alright, Ocean’s Twelve, which I slept through).

So that’s it. A pretty long recap, I know, but it was a pretty busy trip. The conference was good, the weather great (perhaps even a little too warm – I didn’t pack enough t-shirts ‘cause everyone told me it would be 20degrees), the city was certainly interesting and I got to see a lot of cool stuff. I don’t think I would rush back to Amsterdam, although I would like to see other parts of the Netherlands, but I am very glad that I got to go.
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...And knowing is half the battle

Access to information is essential for democracy. Without being able to fully understand the actions of the government, citizens cannot participate in government in a meaningful way. September 28 was the third annual International Right to Know Day - a day for advocacy for Freedom of Information. In honour of this occassion, the Open Society Justice Initiative, part of the Open Society Institute, released their "Ten Principles on the Right to Know". I don't think many, if any, countries including Canada have FOI laws that actually would satisfy all ten principles but it certainly is something to strive for. In Canada, FOI is a matter of Provincial concern so it varies from province to province, here is Ontario's. Currently, the federal Access to Information Act is under review. In April of this year a discussion paper was issued by Irwin Cotler, the Minister of Justice/Attorny General of Canada focusing on reforms to the Act. He writes: "By its very nature, the Access to Information Act is all about openness, transparency, accessibility to Canadians, and accountability." With the modernizations and reforms to the Act, hopefully the Canadian government will meet by the Ten Principles set out by the Open Society. Here are the Priciples:

TEN PRINCIPLES ON THE RIGHT TO KNOW

To mark the third annual International Right to Know Day, the Open Society Justice Initiative today announces the following set of 10 principles on the right of access to information developed together with partner organizations:

1. Access to information is a right of everyone.
Anyone may request information, regardless of nationality or profession. There should be no citizenship requirements and no need to justify why the information is being sought.

2. Access is the rule – secrecy is the exception!
All information held by government bodies is public in principle. Information can be withheld only for a narrow set of legitimate reasons set forth in international law and also codified in national law.

3. The right applies to all public bodies
The public has a right to receive information in the possession of any institution funded by the public and private bodies performing public functions, such as water and electricity providers.

4. Making requests should be simple, speedy, and free.
Making a request should be simple. The only requirements should be to supply a name, address and description of the information sought. Requestors should be able to file requests in writing or orally. Information should be provided immediately or within a short timeframe. The cost should not be greater than the reproduction of documents.

5. Officials have a duty to assist requestors
Public officials should assist requestors in making their requests. If a request is submitted to the wrong public body, officials should transfer the request to the appropriate body.

6. Refusals must be justified.
Governments may only withhold information from public access if disclosure would cause demonstrable harm to legitimate interests, such as national security or privacy. These exceptions must be clearly and specifically defined by law. Any refusal must clearly state the reasons for withholding the information.

7. The public interest takes precedence over secrecy.
Information must be released when the public interest outweighs any harm in releasing it. There is a strong presumption that information about threats to the environment, health, or human rights, and information revealing corruption, should be released, given the high public interest in such information.

8. Everyone has the right to appeal an adverse decision.
All requestors have the right to a prompt and effective judicial review of a public body’s refusal or failure to disclose information.

9. Public bodies should proactively publish core information.
Every public body should make readily available information about its functions and responsibilities, without need for a request. This information should be current, clear, and in plain language.


10. The right should be guaranteed by an independent body.
An independent agency, such as an ombudsperson or commissioner, should be established to review refusals, promote awareness, and advance the right to access information.

Drawn from comparative law and practice in the over 60 countries world-wide that have freedom of information laws, these principles provide a clear set of standards to guide civil society groups and legislators in their efforts to increase public access to information.

As freedom of information activists celebrate International Right to Know Day, they can take stock of several significant achievements that advanced access to information as a fundamental human right in 2005:
• The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights explicitly recognized the right of citizens to have access to government-held information.
• The Council of Europe announced in May 2005 that it will commence development of a convention on access to official documents, the first international treaty that would recognize the right to information as a human right.
• As of September, a total of 63 countries around the world had access to information laws—more than a five-fold increase from 15 years ago when only 12 countries had such laws.

The Open Society Justice Initiative has helped these international efforts by promoting the right of access to information, assisting NGOs and government agencies with the drafting and implementation of laws, monitoring government transparency, and engaging in national and international litigation to defend and promote access to information rights.

(from material posted on the Arcan-L listserve - thanks to Laura Millar for posting the OSI Principles and to Loryl McDonald for the ATIA info)
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Out of the Archives and Onto the Trolley

Bishop Barker Co., Aerial view of the Kingston penitentiary - taken from an aeroplane, 1919, Canada. Patent and Copyright Office / Library and Archives Canada / PA-030472.

This year the Queen's Archives did something rather different for their annual archives lecture. Instead of having one speaker who talked to a predominantly gray-haired audience, the Archives put on a series of five Social History Tours of Kingston. This past Saturday, they rented the Confederation Trolley, filled it with quite an impressive cross-section of the community, and took to the streets to discuss the Jewish Experience of Kingston, A Prisoner's Life in Kingston, The Gay and Lesbian History of Kingston, A Black History of Kingston, and The Chinese Community of Kingston. I went on the middle three and all were excellent. The first, the Prisoner's life, was led by the curator of the Penitentiary Museum. We went into Portsmouth and were shown the buildings and sites that make up or were once a part of the Kingston Pen - the first federal penitentiary in Canada (built in 1835). Filled with historical contexts of the prisons, tales of escapes (and eventual capture), and local history it also satisfied long held curiosities about a number of buildings in the area. The next, and best of the lot, was the Gay and Lesbian History of Kingston. This tour was given by Marney McDiarmid, based on her master's thesis. Marney was fun and engaging while sharing her research on the queer history of Kingston, based on oral histories she conducted over several years. This tour took us around campus, through the downtown, across the LeSalle Causeway to RMC, to the steps of City Hall, and to City Park - once known as Pervert Park. The final tour, A Black History of Kingston, highlighted key figures in Kingston's Queen's history, dating back to 1776 when the first black settlers came to Kingston as United Empire Loyalists and the slaves of Loyalists. All three tours were interesting and informative. It was rather fun riding around Kingston on the big trolley - a tourist in my own town - and was funny to see the looks of people as we went by and I learned quite a bit about the people and sites of Kingston that I had absolutely no idea about before. The lectures will be aired on CFRC on Fridays and, eventually, they will be made into virtual tours on the Queen's Archives' website.
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