A selection from the Dutch edition of Bernhard von Breydenbach's travel journal, in which he describes his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The result is a historical-critical edition.
This thesis presents an edition of some chapters of the English physician Edward Browne’s travel journal, A Brief Account of Some Travels in Hungaria, Servia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Thessaly, Austria...Show moreThis thesis presents an edition of some chapters of the English physician Edward Browne’s travel journal, A Brief Account of Some Travels in Hungaria, Servia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Thessaly, Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, and Friuli, published in 1685. It focuses on the author’s impressions while visiting the Hungarian cities, baths, and the northern gold, silver and copper mine region. The journal stands out as one of the most detailed descriptions of places and interesting observation of the era. The intention of the edition is to provide an introduction to the background of Edward Browne’s work, to edit the selected parts of the travel journal, and to design it in the form of a book in order to make it accessible to the general reader. This thesis comprises two parts. The first part introduces the reader to the historical background of travelling in seventeenth century, analyses the motives of Browne’s journey, describes his journal, and specifies the editorial methods. The second part consists of the selected chapters of his journal. Following the footsteps of Edward Browne, this book aims to provide an authentic reflection of his experiences, and a guide for those readers who wish to visit the country and the mentioned places today.Show less
The possibilities for exerting reader responsibility as an expression of democracy on the Internet are manifold. Reader responsibility may be seen as the process of finding, accessing, making sense...Show moreThe possibilities for exerting reader responsibility as an expression of democracy on the Internet are manifold. Reader responsibility may be seen as the process of finding, accessing, making sense of, interpreting, judging, and putting to use the information that can be gained through reading, and thereby turning it into knowledge. However, the 'democratisation discourse' on the Internet is often (mis-)used to promote mere economic aims, even under the guise of ‘digital socialism’. This is not only an obstacle to understanding reader responsibility and the process of reading, but also to gaining access to knowledge and making use of information resources successfully and effectively. It is encouraging to see though that the potential presented by reading and writing is (partly) being implemented. Historically, this occurred through commonplace and reference books, and currently it is happening through Pinterest and Wikipedia - despite some problematic economic and political circumstances. Embracing the responsibilities of the reading process will be conducive to developing the political potential of reading and as such be beneficial for society at large. Despite the connected and implied struggles of this, it is important to realise that readers can only turn information into knowledge and utilise it in their lives by being active and informed.Show less
The thesis is discussing enhanced e-books in the realm of new media. Enhanced fiction novels as a literary genre of narrative still have low acceptance in the market of digital publishing. The...Show moreThe thesis is discussing enhanced e-books in the realm of new media. Enhanced fiction novels as a literary genre of narrative still have low acceptance in the market of digital publishing. The present thesis is focusing on two aspects which might account for the low popularity of reading enhanced fiction novels: the thesis questions first if enhanced e-books and their additional embeddings neglect the tradition of linear storytelling, a defining feature of the literary genre of narrative. Second, the thesis analyses if and to what extent enhanced e-books restrict imaginative freedom of narratives. These two characteristics, the linearity of storytelling and the power of imagination, are the raison d'être of narratives and might suffer from the enhanced form of fiction novels. The paper analyses these two aspects with a look at the precise nature of enhanced e-books and what function digital amplifications fulfill within them. Above the thesis raises the questions if enhanced fiction novels still follow the traditional idea of narrative in the sense of a story embedded in a narrative discourse and, finally, how digital enhancement influence the interpretation of the narrative.Show less
In our digital age, with its blogs, social media platforms and image sharing possibilities, it appears that photographers are increasingly turning to print to get their message (or rather, images)...Show moreIn our digital age, with its blogs, social media platforms and image sharing possibilities, it appears that photographers are increasingly turning to print to get their message (or rather, images) out. This thesis seeks to investigate the contemporary phenomenon of the photozine, a self-published photography publication, generally with a small print run and available at a low price. It is argued that the photozine is embedded in the history of fanzines and artists' books, but that it is also a direct result of new technologies offered by the digital age, and a perfect example of what Alessandro Ludovico has dubbed post-digital print culture.Show less
The bookshop has a special position in the retail business. Besides its function as a shop it also fulfills a cultural purpose. This cultural position of the bookshop in society has changed through...Show moreThe bookshop has a special position in the retail business. Besides its function as a shop it also fulfills a cultural purpose. This cultural position of the bookshop in society has changed through the years, which consequentially influenced the interior. Where in the past the bookshop used to be a place for the wealthy and functioned as a meeting place for, mostly male, intellectuals, the bookshop of today is open to everyone. There is no longer a standard interior visible in the present-day bookshop, the traditional, small and dimly lit bookstore is accompanied by larger stores with a sometimes experimental interior, in which for example bright colours and a-typical designed bookcases are used. Furthermore, the competition of Internet sales forces the owners of bookshops to offer the customer something extra, much emphasis is placed on the shopping experience.Show less
Sherry Turkle, Jaron Lanier and Douglas Rushkoff have studied the effects of digital technology on our social lives for over thirty years. This thesis links their ideas and provides an overview of...Show moreSherry Turkle, Jaron Lanier and Douglas Rushkoff have studied the effects of digital technology on our social lives for over thirty years. This thesis links their ideas and provides an overview of the central themes in their thinking. It will turn out that digital technology was met with great enthusiasm in the twentieth century but has turned out to be increasingly downgrading our social interactions over time.Show less
This thesis gives an overview of the developments in scholars'awareness and attitudes towards open access publishing between 1992 and 2014. The results show that awareness and attitudes change as...Show moreThis thesis gives an overview of the developments in scholars'awareness and attitudes towards open access publishing between 1992 and 2014. The results show that awareness and attitudes change as open access publishing itself changes.Show less
In this thesis the creation and appearance of Joan Blaeu’s town atlas of the city and monuments of Rome, the Admiranda Urbis Romæ, are treated. In the first part the social-historic context related...Show moreIn this thesis the creation and appearance of Joan Blaeu’s town atlas of the city and monuments of Rome, the Admiranda Urbis Romæ, are treated. In the first part the social-historic context related to the appearance of the town atlas is discussed: relevant elements for the interest in Italy in the second half of the seventeenth century were taken into consideration (Humanism, the collecting of antiquities, Grand Tour). The flourishing of Dutch publishing in this period has also been treated, in particular the emergence of the Blaeu firm in Amsterdam. In the second phase of the research focus was shifted towards the town atlas of Rome. Its goal, contents and intended audience, as well as the relationships with Italian sponsors and the collaboration of the Blaeu firm with their Italian contacts were discussed. After a description of the characteristics of the original Blaeu edition, in the final part of the thesis later editions by other publishers were treated. A conclusion was then reached about the development of a subtly changing perspective on Rome as witnessed through the various editions of the town atlas of Rome; the relations between the Netherlands and Italy in the second half of the seventeenth century were a guiding theme through the entire research.Show less
It has been argued that handwriting is slowly becoming less important in favour of typing. This is because handwriting seems to take up more time and effort than typing does. The underlying...Show moreIt has been argued that handwriting is slowly becoming less important in favour of typing. This is because handwriting seems to take up more time and effort than typing does. The underlying objective of this study is to examine the importance of handwriting. The aim of this study is to determine what factors are important to take into consideration when it comes to handwriting and to provide further evidence for the importance of handwriting as opposed to typing. This study covered four main topics in order to examine the importance of handwriting. This was done by looking at whether handwriting practice and the teaching of handwriting was decreasing in schools, then by looking at the differences between handwriting and typing, before establishing the importance of handwriting by examining the movement involved. Finally it drew a connection between handwriting and literacy. In order to examine these topics, a multitude of sources were examined and consulted. These ranged from neurological research articles, where the results were achieved by test subjects, to organizations testing the literacy of people, to websites that described concerns voiced by educators. This dissertation aimed to give an accurate representation of these sources by citing them appropriately. Taken together, these sources provided an overview into the main topic of the importance of handwriting. From this study it became clear that cursive handwriting is no longer an obligatory part of school curriculum in both the United Kingdom and the United States, and that there is a decrease in proper handwriting. In addition it also identified that bad handwriting can have disastrous consequences in professional fields. In regards to the differences between handwriting and typing, it has become clear that handwriting has a significant influence on the recognition of characters that typing lacks. Furthermore, handwriting aids people in their memory retention, helps build more complicated sentences than with typing, and leads to a better composition of a written text. Finally it described that handwriting and literacy were connected and a better handwriting performance lead to a better reading performance. It was concluded in the dissertation that handwriting continues to take up an important position in education, and should therefore not be given a secondary place next to typing. Handwriting attributes to academic success and higher literacy rates and bad handwriting would soon lead to a worse literacy rate. The study has indicated that a further education in handwriting should always be present in order to sustain the future for literacy, readability of text, and memorization of characters.Show less
The nineteenth century witnessed a change in reading behaviour and in readership. With the changes in readership, the newspaper coverage on books and book related businesses in the Netherlands must...Show moreThe nineteenth century witnessed a change in reading behaviour and in readership. With the changes in readership, the newspaper coverage on books and book related businesses in the Netherlands must also have changed. But how was this change reflected in newspapers? This thesis aims to give an answer to that question. It will review newspapers from three years: 1815, 1850 and 1890 in order to present a broad perspective on the changes during the century. The focus will be on newspapers from larger cities and regions, and on national newspapers. This means that the newspapers that are featured in this study will, for the most part, be from the western parts of The Netherlands.Show less
The internet is greatly improving the impact of scholarly journals, but also poses new threats to their quality. Publishers have arisen that abuse the Gold Open Access model, in which the author...Show moreThe internet is greatly improving the impact of scholarly journals, but also poses new threats to their quality. Publishers have arisen that abuse the Gold Open Access model, in which the author pays a fee to get his article published, to make money with so-called predatory journals. These publishers falsely claim to conduct peer review, which makes them more prone to publish fraudulent and plagiarised research. This thesis looks at three possible methods to stop predatory journals: black- and white-lists, open peer review systems and new metrics. Black- and whitelists have set up rules and regulations that credible publishers and journals should follow. Open peer review systems should make it harder for predatory publishers to make false claims about their peer review process. Metrics should measure more aspects of research impact and become less liable to gaming. The question is, which of these three methods is the best candidate to stop predatory journals. As all three methods have their drawbacks, especially for new but high quality journals, none of them stop predatory journals on its own can. Rather, we need a system in which researchers, publishers and reviewers communicate more openly about the research they create, disseminate and read. But above all, we need to find a way to take away incentives for researchers and publishers to engage in fraudulent practices.Show less
This thesis is a report on what the definition of authorship is and if Te Winkel meets the criteria to be seen as an author of poetry. The edition consists of two parts. In the first part...Show moreThis thesis is a report on what the definition of authorship is and if Te Winkel meets the criteria to be seen as an author of poetry. The edition consists of two parts. In the first part authorship is investigated. The development of the word ‘author’ is given and several philosophers is given some attention to come to the final definition of ‘authorship’. Along the way the findings will be coupled with Te Winkel’s work and life. This will eventually lead to a definition of Te Winkel’s poetical activities. Was it authorship or recreational writing? In the second part of this thesis a full edition of Te Winkel’s book Lycoris: Bundel minnedichten 1864 - 1874 is given.Show less
A study of UK bookselling practices from the years of 1997-2014 focussing on the effort to provide a more customised experiences for the reader/consumer.
At the centre of the current paper is the battle between e-book formats, which will be discussed from different perspectives. The first two chapters directly deal with the issues of formats by...Show moreAt the centre of the current paper is the battle between e-book formats, which will be discussed from different perspectives. The first two chapters directly deal with the issues of formats by discussing their suitability to being used as formats for academic e-books. The last chapter debates the challenges digital academic publishing is facing today (pricing models for different formats, publishers’ choice of a suitable format, and changes in academic publishing caused by the development of technologies and formats in particular).Show less
