Meet Nicolaus N. Salanus, our oldest member!
Dec 24, 2014 13:06:09 GMT
Post by Uhlan on Dec 24, 2014 13:06:09 GMT
With a certain pride I would like to present to you this endearing little ( 4 x 6" ) booklet I found. I believe it to be a dissertation of Nicolaus N. Salanus, printed in the year 1691, with the title ,, Gladius Scythicus ''.
Young Nicolaus was promoted, I hope, on the basis of the facts and research he presented in this way to his promoters. He must have been a very promising student, for his promoter, or backer, is none other than a professor with a lifelong tenure, by the name of Andrea(s) Goeding, so, a powerful entity, who would decline to stick his neck out for shoddy work. Probably said professor also sank quite a lot of money into this dissertation, or Nicolaus found some other sources of funding, because, though the booklet is small, it has a fancy Capital and two, no less!, woodcuts in the text and one bigger one at the end.
Woodcuts had to be made by hand, so were expensive and these are quite detailed, adding to the costs. The Capital could have come from the printers stock, but still, in the context of a dissertation, this is a luxury item too. One woodcut shows a sword on a coin or medal. Coins and medals were at that time, very important tools in the context of archaeology. Lacking carbon dating and all the other stuff one can do today, coins and medals were the only way to date a find.
In a second woodcut a grave is shown, with a sword placed in it.
The large woodcut at the end shows various types of swords.
Though Nicolaus main interest probably was archaeology as a dicipline, the choice to base his future as an academic on the discription of swords and not assorted pots and pans and other stuff one finds in graves, makes me detect something of the sword enthousiast here.
So, I would like to table the motion to make him an Honourable Oldest Member of this Forum.
Cheers.
Young Nicolaus was promoted, I hope, on the basis of the facts and research he presented in this way to his promoters. He must have been a very promising student, for his promoter, or backer, is none other than a professor with a lifelong tenure, by the name of Andrea(s) Goeding, so, a powerful entity, who would decline to stick his neck out for shoddy work. Probably said professor also sank quite a lot of money into this dissertation, or Nicolaus found some other sources of funding, because, though the booklet is small, it has a fancy Capital and two, no less!, woodcuts in the text and one bigger one at the end.
Woodcuts had to be made by hand, so were expensive and these are quite detailed, adding to the costs. The Capital could have come from the printers stock, but still, in the context of a dissertation, this is a luxury item too. One woodcut shows a sword on a coin or medal. Coins and medals were at that time, very important tools in the context of archaeology. Lacking carbon dating and all the other stuff one can do today, coins and medals were the only way to date a find.
In a second woodcut a grave is shown, with a sword placed in it.
The large woodcut at the end shows various types of swords.
Though Nicolaus main interest probably was archaeology as a dicipline, the choice to base his future as an academic on the discription of swords and not assorted pots and pans and other stuff one finds in graves, makes me detect something of the sword enthousiast here.
So, I would like to table the motion to make him an Honourable Oldest Member of this Forum.
Cheers.