[MR] BBC: Leonardo MS discovered

[Marybeth Lavrakas]

Also, I should add that when researchers rely on calender descriptions of 
document collections (such as the English Calendars of State Papers, the Letters 
and Papers of Henry VIII, etc) they can get some serious surprises when they 
look at the actual corresponding document. Those calendars were largely compiled 
back in the 19th century by the proverbial "upperclass white guy" and there are 
some errors, sure, but more surprising omissions. And sometimes that person 
writing the descriptions must have gotten tired because they'd look at a long 
item and write down the equivalent of "details of treaty negotiations." Yeah, 
all 20 pages of 'em! Or maybe, single sheet of somebody's notes! This is why 
academic historians are supposed to get their butts into the archives and look 
at actual items (or read them on microfilm), and why readers should always look 
at bibliographies to see if the person writing that history book has done the 
real archival work or is actually just taking someone else's word for it...

Kateryn Rous, really missing her days as a grad students...



----- Original Message ----
From: Marybeth Lavrakas <katrous at yahoo.com>
To: Sandra Rangel <arwynn16 at gmail.com>; Merry Rose <atlantia at atlantia.sca.org>
Sent: Tue, December 7, 2010 11:10:55 AM
Subject: Re: [MR] BBC: Leonardo MS discovered



And after all, a lot of time I've seen archive catalog entries that say 
"collected documents." Not entirely helpful. Plus I've done document requests 
where the archive would deliver to me not a document, or a bound group of 
documents, but a giant cardboard box containing, yes you guessed it--collected 
documents. Nothing like unfolding items from the 12th - 15th century while 
looking for that 16th c piece of parchment you've been assured is in that same 
box, somewhere! Very distracting...(grin) And very easy to put the wrong item 
back in a box if you were foolish enough to have two such boxes on the table in 
front of you at the same time.

Kateryn Rous

On Tue, Dec 7, 2010 at 7:01 AM, Garth G. Groff <ggg9y at virginia.edu> wrote:
> Noble friends,
>
> Here's an interesting little BBC piece on the rediscovery of a lost Da Vinci
> manuscript: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11936080 . Amazing that a
> public library in France should not know that they had this treasure (at
> least from a librarian's perspective). After this and a lost Mozart score,
> one wonders what other rare works are among this forgotten collection. What
> are catalogs for anyway?
>
> Kind regards,
>
>
> Lord Mungo Napier, Shire of Isenfir's Unofficial Librarian
> (mka Garth Groff, UVA Library cataloger
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