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How Aristotle was all the rage in Medieval and Renaissance times with Barbara Scalvini
Check out the book here https://amzn.to/3ut6Hgu
Interview Timeline
Dr. Barbara Scalvini is an Early Books specialist at Bernard Quaritch Ltd., London, and was formerly senior specialist, Department of Books and Manuscripts at Christie’s. She co-authored a book on her current passion, books of Aristotle with marginalia. We spoke about Aristotle’s influence on science and how his books were commented on and passed on in Medieval and Renaissance periods. Aristotle: From Antiquity to the Modern Era (GILES, 2021)
0:36 – Barbara talks about being an antiquarian bookseller and how she became involved in Aristotle’s works.
3:36 – Barbara talks about how the book conveys the ways in which Aristotle’s body of work has moved through time.
5:12 – Barbara explains that the book is about some of the more interesting books with marginalia that exists.
6:39 – Barbara talks about who was making notations in these antique books.
8:21 – Barbara talks about how the books traveled through the ages.
9:30 – Barbara talks about hidden or secretive marginilia.
12:44 – Barbara talks about what languages the commentaries are in.
13:54 – Barbara details the vernacular languages used.
14:06 – Barbara talks about how often new texts are found and what time spans her book covers.
17:21 – Barbara talks about the ink these marginalia are written in.
19:03 – Barbara talks about major jumps in thinking about Aristotle.
22:47 – Barbara talks about shifts caused by the printing press.
24:01 – Barbara talks about the Aristotle canon.
27:51 – Barbara talks about differences between nations and religion and who is the most obscure and most famous among the texts they discuss.
32:21 – Barbara talks about people naming themselves in the books.
33:06 – Barbara talks about the use of punctuation and other methods to emphasize points.
34:22 – Barbara talks about how she did her research for the book.
37:02 – Barbara talks about the joy of opening new books and how she protects these books. She also discusses how they were made and with what materials.
42:36 – Barbara talks about discussions of magic in the marginalia.
43:41 – Barbara talks about how many hundreds of texts existed and the ownership of the texts.
46:53 – Barbara talks about Americans who had Aristotle texts.
48:30 – Barbara would have liked to know what affects the texts had on their owners.
51:20 – Barbara talks about commentators being aware that their words would be read in the future.
53:33 – Barbara talks about when book provenance began to be tracked. She also discusses forgeries.
58:05 – Barbara talks about what scientists can get from her book.
1:02:22 – The bookshop is Bernard Quaritch.
Links of interest
https://gilesltd.com/product/aristotle
Contact Information
For more “Technology and Space” please follow me at technologyandspace.com or www.spacewalksmoneytalks.com , on Facebook at Spacewalks Money Talks, on twitter at SpacewalksMT, on youtube at Spacewalks Money Talks , and on Apple Podcasts / Google Podcasts / Stitcher / Spotify Please see historyrabbithole.com for a list of my dozen or so blogs and podcasts. You’re sure to find something you like.
Guests: Barbara Scalvini
Host: Cris Alvarez
Tags: Books, science, audio interviews, podcast, GILES,
Check out the book here https://amzn.to/3ut6Hgu
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