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News on Networking Cultural Heritage Resources
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Treasures of the BibliothFque Nationale de France
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/usindex.htm
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/index.htm
>Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2001 10:56:51 -0800
>From: Jack Kessler <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: FYI France: BNF online treasures
>To: [log in to unmask]
FYI France: BibliothFque Nationale de France online treasures,
of the French and some other cultures
//snip//
There now are some truly remarkable things
available online: among which the BibliothFque NumTrique of the
BibliothFque Nationale de France, at,
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/index.htm
Currently the BNF's BibliothFque NumTrique is showing no less
than 23 fascinating exhibits / sites / nodes -- each with images,
text, notes, bibliography, some with sound, all in the true
French multi - faceted style, and all very useful for initiation
of students as well as further exploration by scholars, into any
of the fields concerned --
* Graphisme(s) -- the "graphic arts"
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/graphis/index.htm
* L'art du livre arabe -- the Arabic language, the Moslem
religion, the books of Islamic civilization
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/livrarab/index.htm
* Contes de fTes -- "fairytales"!, beautifully illustrated --
beating Saul Zaentz at his own "Lord of the Rings" game -- this
"French release" came out first...
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/contes/index.htm
* Brouillons d'Tcrivains -- manuscripts!, their history and
creation and circumstances and use -- imaged originals from
Vale'ry, Hugo, Zola, Flaubert, Proust, Sartre, Perec, others
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/brouillons/index.htm
* Mai^tres de la bande dessinTe europTenne (also in English) --
comicbooks!(?)... remember that this is Europe and that, there,
comicbooks are not all just "Superman" -- from the Middle Ages to
Japanese Manga, heros and anti - heros, Tin-Tin and Obelix and
much more
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/bd/index.htm
* La BD avant La BD (also in English) -- "the prehistory of comic
books"? -- stained glass, anything graphic which "tells a story",
"le rTcit en sTquence", "sound" too -- fascinating for fans of
multimedia and "the return to orality" a la Walter Ong and
Milman Parry, and "transitions in media" / "ceci tuera cela"...
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/bdavbd/index.htm
* Paris, les travaux et les jours -- daily life in The City of
Light, in early - last - century (that would be the 20th, folks)
photos, from the archives of L'Aurore - Le Figaro
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/paris/index.htm
* Reza, photographe visionnaire -- the expatriate Iranian
photographer - as - artist, online -- images, "from the Bosporus
to the Great Wall of China, from the Phillipines to Central Asia"
-- "a full look at humanity amid the turbulence which agitates
the world"
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/reza/index.htm
* Utopie, la que^te de la sociTtT idTale (also in English) --
to my American pragmatist's mind a frightening tour through the
perennial tendency to be dissatisfied with reality -- Plato and
Bosch and Thomas More and other devotees of "l'universel",
"dreams, and nightmares" -- with stunning images
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/utopie/index.htm
* Bresdin, Robinson graveur -- the "Chien - caillou" (from James
Fenimore Cooper, _The Last of the Mohicans_), of the 19th century
-- a beautiful presentation of this engraver's art online
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/bresdin/index.htm
* Marcel Proust, L'Tcriture et les Arts (also in English) --
currently some say "In Search of Lost Time"?!... some titles defy
translation... and should not be translated... "Remembrance of
Things Past" does a much better job, I myself think, if you're
going to do it... -- anyway, here the BNF and the MusTe d'Orsay
combine their respective treasures and talents, on this topic
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/proust/index.htm
* BoullTe, architecte des LumiFres -- those great, round,
rather funny and space age - looking buildings shown in all the
art and architectural history books -- Enlightenment rationality
and the totalitarian tendencies of same run amok, in a stunning
online presentation
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/boullee/index.htm
* La Page -- the history and construction of the written and
printed "page" -- a fascinating and visually stunning look at the
mechanics of a medium -- a must - see for any fan of "the book as
a thing", or of "graphics", or for any devotee of computer and
Webpage "screen design"
http://www.bnf.fr/web-bnf/pedagos/page/index.htm
* magnum, Essais sur le monde -- stunning photography -- from
Coca Cola cans, to young rock - throwers in the Gaza streets, to
bloody footprints in the snow at Grozny, to wonderful red
umbrellas -- "Magnum" is not _all_ fashionplate ladies in floppy
hats...
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/essais/index.htm
* Tous les Savoirs du Monde -- that magnificent exhibition
mounted at the opening of the new BNF building at Tolbiac --
"...since the invention of writing, how have civilizations
assembled knowledge, to conserve it, to share it, to transmit
it?" -- from Sumerian tablets to "The Illustrated London News"
and Queneau
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/savoirs/index.htm
* Le Ciel et la Terre (also in English) -- cosmology,
cosmography, and a truly wonderful online presentation of one of
the greatest of BNF treasures, the 14th century Catalan Atlas
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/ciel/index.htm
* Splendeurs persanes (also in English) -- Persia -- "The Five
Poems of NezGme" -- illustration, and the written word, as a
high art form
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/splendeurs/index.htm
* Petits poFmes photo-graphiques (also in English) -- "abstract
photography" -- for one of those days, or long nights, when life
online seems to have become a little too "linear"...
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/poemes/index.htm
* Tal Coat -- "Pierre Tal Coat (1905-1985), painting, design, and
engravings..." -- prompting the rhetorical question whether the
Internet might become an at - least - initial medium of diffusion
for the aspiring graphic artist, as it already has for the
aspiring musician and writer? Cutting out Kahnweiler...
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/tal_coat/index.htm
* Face a face (also in English) -- portraits! -- photographic,
but also non- -- what it means to depict the human face
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/face/index.htm
* Le Livre de Chasse de Gaston Phe'bus -- elegance / decadence in
the illustration of the book -- in some things, when you reach
the summit the only way is down -- for many this item is the
apex, anyway, of the book illustrator's art -- perhaps the best
way to enjoy it is to suspend all political judgments and just
relax back into it, as - superbly - presented here online --
another of the greatest of BNF treasures
http://www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/phebus/index.htm
* Le roi Charles V et son Temps -- "1000 enluminures du
DTpartement des Manuscrits" says a great deal, when speaking of
the BNF -- a tour of this site offers perhaps the best way
available to introduce anyone to, or remind anyone of, the French
14th century and the art of the manuscript -- the extraordinary
15th century Bruges Froissart (FR 2643), the Catalan Atlas, the "Petites
Heures de Jean de Berry", the "Gaston PhTbus", the "BrTviaire
de Martin d'Aragon", all in sumptuous detail
http://www.bnf.fr/enluminures/accueil.shtm
* Naissance de la Culture Franc,aise -- where it all began -- the
original exhibit, both online and as generously presented at the
Library of Congress by the BNF, was reviewed here in the FYI
France ejournal issue of January 15, 1996 -- the exhibit
transported across the Atlantic and showed proudly to the
Americans everything from the "Bible du comte Rorigon, Tours,
vers 835" marked "Latin 3" in the BNF De'partement des
Manuscrits, and the actual / reputed throne of the "bon roi
Dagobert", to the manuscript of Zola's "J'Accuse!" scrawled in
angry script -- French treasures, a one - stop introduction to
the history of France, and one of the earliest examples of a
major online Internet digital library exhibition
http://www.bnf.fr/loc/bnf0001.htm
--oOo--
A few details, and reactions, on and to the latest of these BNF
exhibits to have been mounted: also a couple of suggestions of
perhaps general application --
* Graphisme(s)
This is a remarkable exhibition of and about the graphic arts,
originally shown at the BNF Tolbiac from September 18 to November
25, 2001. Anyone wishing to see, or to show others, a one - stop
introduction to what "graphics" are all about, need only click
and watch and listen. From the online exhibit:
"It must be noted that the term 'graphics', as used by
professionals in the field, does not designate anything
universally accepted, either in current usage or in the
dictionary. Doubtless the multitude of formats which
graphics supports, its 'presentation', explains this
situation in part. To this must be added the small
consideration which people normally accord to everyday
objects. All this leads to a reticence to recognize, and
therefore to appreciate, a visual art which is a part of
our daily lives..."
"How then to reflect upon an object of study which has
received so little definition? The exhibition proposes to
consider graphics as a vast territory ranged between
'pure' typography, on the one hand, and 'pure' image on
the other. It groups graphic work into large collections
corresponding to the principal functions of the art and
the different usages to which we put it..."
The methodology of the online version of this exhibit is a
fascinating tour de force in the use of the online medium:
Under five "functional" rubrics,
** Attract the attention
** Mount it
** Identify it
** Describe it
** For the screen
the virtual exhibit scrolls through the series of graphic works,
originally presented in the "real" exhibition, in a very
interesting demonstration of one great advantage offered by the
"virtual" over the "real":
-- as anyone who ever has attended a crowded Paris exhibition can
attest, the crowds and conviviality -- the noise -- and the
accidents of layout and presentation of a large art show can
distract. A tourist, particularly, risks being so overwhelmed by
the strangeness and excitement of "being in Paris", and all those
French accents and labels in French on things, and being in a
giant new space such as the BNF Tolbiac or the Louvre or the
Muse'e d'Orsay or wherever an exhibit is being presented, that
s/he risks losing sight of and any chance at understanding a
complex exhibit. And Paris exhibits _always_ are complex -- never
just "the pictures", always the context and the story and the
philosophy underneath and some sort of "presentation innovation"
folded in as well -- nothing capable of being absorbed quickly,
in a foreign crowd, while you are wondering if it really will be
snowing outside by the time you exit and whether the kids will
make it back to the hotel from wherever they are to meet you in
time for dinner...
-- online, instead, the relaxing linearity can be very
reassuring. Not only are you in the comfort of your own office or
home -- no crowds or French accent distractions swarming around
-- but the mysteries of "le graphism" can be viewed in line, in
an order much despised by many graphic artists but so needed by
their customers and clients and the grand public.
So in this particular BNF Tolbiac Bibliothe`que Nume'rique
exhibit, you click on the little double arrow pointing to the
right and it gently scrolls you through each of the five topics,
showing simple captions explaining the functions of graphics --
for example,
"Mass Communications -- the function of the poster is to
attract attention. From the point of view of the reader,
the reading is a forced one, a glance which has been
snatched..."
-- with fascinating illustrations along the way, on which of
course you can "click", to halt the scrolling and "focus in" to
obtain enlargements and detailed explanations -- better than
craning your neck over the sea of fellow - tourist heads for a
fleeting glimpse of a little distant thing which you know to be
"the mona lisa", and about which you know little else and you have
no time now to look into it because it may already be snowing
outside and the kids surely will be late getting back to the
hotel and for all you know they may be lost, somewhere in central
Paris...
No waiting, warm, inviting bistro nearby in the "virtual"
version, of course -- although they're working on that.
The one suggestion which I have to make of this particular online
exhibit is merely technical and has two points, both of general
application to any such online exhibit I think:
a) In my IE 6.0 browser, when I clicked on an image to see its
detail and then hit return, I was sent back to the beginning of
the scroll rather than to the point in it which I just had left:
this is disorienting, and defeats the purpose of the hypertext,
which is to be able to jump "out" to pursue a link and then
"back" so as not to lose the thread of an argument. I am sure
that the Javascript can be tweaked easily in some way so as to
return a viewer to the point from which s/he left, rather than to
the beginning of the scrolling?
b) Also, checking Netscape -- as I always do to see whether a
problem really is just the result of Mr. Gates' so - much -
feared paranoia and market domination tendencies -- I find that
in my Communicator 4.51 I cannot even get the scrolling to work.
So maybe Mr. Case is even more grasping than Mr. Gates, or
perhaps the Activex / Java controversy is rearing its ugly head
here and the at - least - equally - grasping Mr. McNealy is
involved here too... Whatever, until these three guys, and the
rest of them, give us a unified platform on which to view this
stuff, the BNF web staff and the rest of us too all must remember
to take a look through _all_ the browsers, AOL's (still?) non -
Communicator one as well, and try to please all the viewers all
the time, before they mount these things: maybe not possible, but
best attempts appreciated and caveats, at least, required.
--oOo-
//snip//
Jack Kessler, [log in to unmask]
* FYI France (sm)(tm) Online Service
| Internet Training and Consulting
|* email: [log in to unmask]
*| fax: 415 - 282 - 0464
/ \* phone: 415 - 282 - 4850 (messages)
*-----* postal: PO Box 460668
*// *\\ San Francisco, California
---------* USA 94146
//* \\* W3: http://www.fyifrance.com
Joyeux Noe:l
--oOo--
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planning a digital collection. To download a free copy, go to:
http://www.sun.com/products-n-solutions/edu/libraries/digitaltoolkit.html
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