One of the two great founders of the modern study of paleography, Daniel van Papenbroeck, published his first treatise on the subject in the late 17th century entitled Propylaeum antiquarium circa veri ac falsi discrimen in vetustis membranis, which roughly translates to "A Reading Introduction to Distinguishing Between True and Forged Antique Manuscripts."

Focusing for a second on the slightly odd phrase veri ac falsi discrimen, I learned this week that in the 13th century, Pope Innocent IV issued a decree on how to tell real papal documents from forgeries. This decree was entitled De crimine falsi - On the Crime of Forgery.

Discrimen veri ac falsi

De crimine falsi

So yeah, a 17th century monk, in a work that launched an entire discipline, was making puns on old papal decrees.

I love my work.

Excerpt from a Freshman exam currently in front of me:

Pope Charlesmagne [sic] converted the Byzantines after the Battle of the Mellinium [sic] Bridge

Please God, someone cheer me up quick.

Yesterday saw me doing some light reading about the censorship of popular entertainment in Germany during the First World War. It was amazing, and far more extensive than I'd expected -- I'd read about the situation with the press there before, in relation to my ongoing work on equivalent British matters, but this was the first I'd looked into how things like cabarets, vaudeville shows, movies and so on were treated.

In a nutshell, with the declaration of war on 4 August 1914, Kaiser Wilhelm II declared a legal state of siege (Belagerungzustand). It would not be formally lifted until the war's conclusion. During the course of it, more or less complete civil authority was granted to the military commanders of Germany's 26 Army Corps districts; while the normal civil authorities were kept in place to keep doing their jobs, they answered to the Army commanders, who in turn answered only to the Kaiser.

In addition to the sort of wartime censorship one would expect (i.e. of material about military matters, likely to give up secrets, likely to encourage mutiny or insurrection, etc.), the military and civil authorities took the opportunity the war offered to open a campaign against a type of art typically characterized as "trash" (schund) -- what we would now call low-brow, "pulp", "dime-store", etc. Whatever the actual content of said art, new, aggressive strictures were put in place against it due to its alleged tendency to degrade the moral and aesthetic spirit of the nation. On a literary level this was a massive undertaking; Schundliteratur (or "trashy literature," I guess) was a hugely popular field at the time -- just prior to the war, the colportage system for this kind of reading was a 50-million-mark-a-year industry, with nearly 20 million Germans identified as regular consumers. These books (romances, adventure stories, "true crime," etc. -- and the burgeoning genre of Kriegschundliteratur, focused on the war) were suppressed for their bawdyness, their frivolity, their sensationalism and their unrefinement. They damaged the popular soul.

Comedy was also disdained across the board; in the words of one Berlin decree, "in musical halls and cinemas, only performances will be permitted that correspond to the seriousness (Ernst) of the times." Consequently, cabarets, farces, musical comedies, operettas, and somehow the entire genre of ragtime found themselves singled out for condemnation, censorship and suppression.

Cinemas fared no better; foreign films of all kinds were banned (which had the salutary effect of hugely expanding the German film industry, with happy results for the whole world in the 1920s and 30s), and so too were domestically produced films that were not thought to live up to the seriousness of the situation. Movie posters were especially targeted, given their garishness, their colour, their sensational qualities; Gary D. Stark describes the new regulations put in place:

[District military commanders] took decisive action against the plague of crass cinema posters: the size of the posters was strictly regulated; they could be displayed only in movie theaters and could not be visible from the street; they could announce only the titles of coming attractions, without any embellishment or commentary; they could contain only printed words, no illustrations; and in some localities, posters, like films, first had to be approved by the police before they could be displayed.

There was particular anxiety over the possible inculcation of an "inner alienation" (innerlichen Abkehr) towards the war, and even many plays that had previously enjoyed strong pre-war reputations found themselves suppressed. There are too many to name, but the main concerns were a) the likelihood of encouraging social divisions rather than smoothing them over, b) whether or not a given dramatic work was critical of the wealthy or the aristocratic (i.e. they couldn't be), c) whether or not they were written by "enemy authors", and d) whether or not they were likely to be helpful to the national spirit.

The latter two categories led to some oddities; the works of deceased "enemy authors" were permitted provided they passed the censor's muster, which allowed productions of Shakespeare, Tchaikovsky, Moliere, etc. This is particularly important where Shakespeare is concerned, as many Germans held him in a sort of esteem that would make the English blush (the history of the competing tercentenary events of 1916 is seriously fascinating in this regard). Living "enemy authors" were not permitted at all unless they had shown ample evidence of their "objectivity" towards Germany -- as evidenced by their willingness to write works attacking their own "side." George Bernard Shaw, for example, was one of the very few British playwrights whose works were permitted to be produced in Germany during the war.

Whether works would be helpful to the "national spirit" was often even more difficult to judge. Anything that satirized the army -- even affectionately -- was right out, and so too were many works that offered even quite serious and sympathetic depictions of soldiers or officers but which included sordid or unusual circumstances like love affairs or suicide or personal rivalries. Even patriotic historical dramas had trouble; a wildly popular play about Frederick the Great was banned, for example, because the title character's father was thought to too closely exemplify some of the qualities that enemy propagandists ascribed to Wilhelm II. Plays that even mentioned the Thirty Years' War had a hard time too, as (the censors reasoned) the circumstances of the war's beginning were too evocative of those of the current war and it did not pay to make people think about it.

One perhaps unexpected consequence of all this, however, is that there were strong restrictions in place against works and language that were too hard on the enemy. Censors were very keen on making sure that no plays, books, etc. were released that would encourage violence against foreign nationals living in Germany, and they were also very strict in forbidding works that made the German army seem invincible, the enemy powers weak or foolish, or the cause of victory a certain one. The war was going to be a hard one, no matter what, and there was no sense in making people think otherwise (or in making them think that the Empire had defeated a trivial opponent).

It's all rather interesting, anyway, and at least some of it is unexpected. I'm looking forward to reading more.

I've started reading The Spanish Holocaust by Paul Preston. In his introduction, I was concerned that he was going to downplay the anticlerical violence by claiming it was done in the heat of passion and therefore somehow didn't count. Instead, the subsequent pages are playing out to be a masterwork of breaking down the buildup to the Spanish Civil War. Instead of blanket statements about groups, Preston takes a granular approach. This person said exactly this at exactly this time, and he provides a footnote so you can confirm what he is asserting. Then he gives the context of why this particular person is important, and why what they said is important.

One instance of this played out on page 38 of the book. He details how a Father Ancieto de Castro Albarrán of Salamanca and Father José Cirera y Prat justified armed resistance to the Republic and advocated the violent overthrow of the government by asserting that St Aquinas justified Catholic resistance to tyranny, and that "[s]ince power ultimately reseted with God, and anti-clerical constitution clearly rendered the Republic tyrannical." Castro Albarrán published a book which argued there was a right to rebellion, which matches a phrase José Sanchez who points out that the Nationalists needed to invent a "theology of rebellion."

Then Preston confirmed something I had previously thought, but was unable to access the evidence for. Other sources I had read said that "a Cardinal" had gone to "the Vatican" to protest Castro Albarrán's book, and that "the Vatican" had intervened. Preston names the Cardinal--Vidal i Barraquer of Tarragona, who

was distressed by the arrogance with which Castro Albarrán presented as a Catholic doctrine partisan ideas which ran counter to Vatican policy on coexistence with the Republic. He protested to Cardinal Pacelli, the Papal Secretary of State, who ordered that the nihil obstat (seal of ecclesiastical approval) be removed from the book and tried to have it withdrawn from circulation

I was out for pizza with my wife when I read this. In the interests of full disclosure, I must admit that I did a little dance. As a man who rarely dances to any degree, I hope my overriding joy at having my suspicions confirmed is being communicated to you. Pacelli would go on to become Pope Pius XII, the subject of my flair.

You will see me quote page 38 in the future.

You probably won't see me do a little dance, though.

Has your PhD application been successful?

I found out this week that I got into Penn State-Harrisburg AND Temple University, so I'd say yes.

I accepted a position as a Research Librarian at the government department I work for. Basically staff email The Library with questions, and we answer them.

I'm excited about it, I know I'll be primarily dealing with super-technical tax stuff, but still. I tell everyone that my new job is basically writing essays for people, and they never seem as excited as me, so I'm telling y'all instead.

/u/Algernon_Asimov ended his hiatus this week, rejoining the mod team. The gang's getting back together!

I am getting really concerned with the growth of the Hindutva School of Historical Thought(Right Wing Hindu fanatics who portray every other Indian community as foreign invaders ) in the Indian Cyberspace. Articles such as this are festered around the web and are fast radicalizing the views of Indians. Even the ban on Hindus: An Alternative History by Wendy Doniger is due to the Saffronisation(thats the term used in India for Hindu Radicalization) of the Intellectual Space in India.

All I feel is that the once powerful Liberal Thought in India is slowly and slowly being cowed down in India.

The Naval War College Library is set to release a digital version of Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz' "Gray Book" on Monday. The Gray Book "is a daily record of the combat situation in the Pacific Theater and responses of the Commander in Chief, Pacific, and Pacific Ocean Areas (Nimitz) throughout the War." The release will coincide with Nimitz' 129th birthday.

How important is the digitization and availability of sources online to your field?

Man we had a cruddy week at the archives. Short-staffed all week, and then a combination of snowmelt leaking and a broken steam heat pipe totally soaked about 5 cubic feet of material at one of our offsite locations. Only by chance was it discovered as someone had to go into that location yesterday. Worse things have happened to records but still super sucky.

Librarian tip of the day: (Trying to keep doing these) Want to read this season's hot new releases first before all the other public library hoi polloi? Before the book shows up in the catalog, put in a request for the library to purchase it, even if you think they would buy it anyway. That means when it comes in it should go straight on the hold shelf for you and bypass the New Books shelf since you formally requested it, and that means you get it first!

As some of you may know, I'm currently on an excavation in Michoacan, Mexico. Our project blog has a new post up, which, unlike the last one, gives a pretty good overview of what we're studying this year. If there are any further updates, I'll post them here as well.

Two things to note this week:

My better half made a very rare appearance in this sub (through my account) and helped answer a question. I thought that was rather amusing and she seemed rather proud to finally be of help.

I've been reading Colin Shindler's National Service this week and I've found myself to be rather disappointed in the content. I thought it was going to be a book about the UK National Service as it was, how it worked, the experience of soldiers from their call-up to their deployment overseas (or stationed in the UK) alongside context of the time it existed in. Essentially, what you would like to know. Instead, I end up with a book with very little context (and what is there is mostly casual, 'when I was young..') alongside short primary accounts of individual men's experience in the National Service. While this is all fine and dandy, it just seems rather pointless without more context and I would have loved to have these stories told in conjunction with proper research.

All in all, a disappointing book from someone who appears to actually hold a PhD in history. But I guess it was my own fault for not doing my own research into knowing what I was getting myself into with this book.

Question-is it ok for non-mods to pm users about posts they might want to see? Occasionally I'll see a post and say 'i don't have a good answer but you know who really would...".

I've noticed an increase in the amount of unflaired posters giving subpar answers. Usually the mods are all over it and kudos to them, but there still has definitely been an increase.

Anybody else agree with this? Any possible reason for it?

How did the Venetians administer their empire? Also, were the people who lived under Venetian rule (specifically in the terra firma, the modern Veneto region) Venitian citizens, or were they regarded something like Roman peregrini?

I've started in on reading D. Freeman's Lee's Lieutenants this week. To anyone who has read it do you have any things I should focus in on? A favorite chapter? Things to be cautious of?

One of my Polymer Physical Chemistry professors told us about his undergraduate experience in Soviet Russia. He told us about times when him and his classmates would get so cold and so drunk "that they would lose their faces and do funny things."

I find his lack of elaboration... disturbing...

I've been bored and traipsing through the "New" section, answering basic US politics questions with as much information as possible. This has encouraged me to read more on the topics (ie. look up peer reviewed papers and good books on the subjects of elections). I like it.

Just wanted to thank the sub for giving me something to do and research inspiration when I'm bored!

I recently finished Shelby Foote's The Civil War, and I'd like to do more reading on the Atlanta Campaign in 1864. Can anyone suggest or recommend some quality books on the subject? I'm wary of just picking some off the shelves, because I know that both Sherman and Johnston are very polarizing figures, and I don't want to get an overly-biased book by accident.

Watching the Last Samurai:

Isn't there a certain irony in the fact that the updated japanese military surpressed samurai rushes with superior weaponry, and then this same army then led suicide bonzai rushes against the US military?

It's one thing to use the principle in planes, but wouldn't they have learned with infantry?

So I finally bit the bullet and got the Zuelkhe Dieppe Raid book. Really awesome so far. Lots of background information which is nice for someone who's never studied it intensely.

It's also cool to read about these places that you've visited and can visual as you read. I did the same thing with Juno and worked my way inland to Caen when I was there. I find that it gives you a more balanced view of history. It gives you perspective that otherwise you can't have from just reading a book.

Next I think I'm gonna read Staceys Six Years at War and the part on Dieppe, mainly cause I found it online.

Best sources about the Komnenian era Byzantine empire?