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Posted by: Anchi Hoh
(The following is a post by Regina Frackowiak, Reference Specialist, European Division.) The Renaissance of the late 15th and early 16th centuries in Western Europe produced one of the greatest inventions in communication - movable-type printing, which marked the beginning of the era of “mass culture,” because it made possible the rapid dissemination of new ideas …
Posted in: European Reading Room
Posted by: Anchi Hoh
(The following is a post by Taru Spiegel, Reference Specialist, European Division.) The tall tales of Baron Munchausen have been popular for more than 200 years, growing taller and more popular over time. Munchausen, the timeless adventurer, crisscrosses the world, visits the moon, and falls through the core of the earth to emerge on the …
Posted in: European Reading Room
Posted by: Anchi Hoh
(The following is a post by Taru Spiegel, Reference Specialist, European Division.) In May of 1732, the young and determined Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus (1707-78) set off from the old university town of Uppsala on a research expedition to Sápmi, then known as Lapland. This is an area comprising northern Norway, Sweden and Finland, as …
Posted in: European Reading Room
Posted by: Anchi Hoh
(The following is a post by Taru Spiegel, Reference Specialist, European Division.) The 14th-century “Livre de Lusignan” (Book of Lusignan) by Couldrette reads like a soap opera, featuring interrelated characters who have the most unusual adventures. The work also advanced the claim by the important noble family of Lusignan from Poitou, western France, that they were …
Posted in: Digital Content, European Reading Room
Posted by: Anchi Hoh
Following are the online recordings (webcasts) of recent public programs pertaining to the Library’s international collections. To discover more videos, visit the four area studies divisions here: African and Middle Eastern, Asian, European, and Hispanic. African and Middle Eastern Division Title: Discovery of the Secret of the Great Pyramid & the Tomb of Tutankhamun (view on YouTube) SPEAKER: Mamdouh Eldamaty EVENT …
Posted in: African and Middle Eastern Division (AMED), Asian Division, European Reading Room, Hispanic Reading Room, Videos
Posted by: Anchi Hoh
“New Videos Monthly” is a new series that gathers in one place online videos recently made available on the Library’s website of public programs pertaining to the Library’s international collections. A post will be published every month and videos will be listed under each of the four area studies divisions respectively. To kick off the …
Posted in: African and Middle Eastern Division (AMED), Asian Division, European Reading Room, Hispanic Reading Room, Videos
Posted by: Anchi Hoh
(The following is a post by Harold M. Leich, Russian Area Specialist, European Division.) Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944), an innovator in the field of color photography, was commissioned by Tsar Nicholas II to document the vast Russian Empire between the years 1909 and 1915. The Library of Congress’ Prokudin-Gorskii Collection of color photographs featuring the …
Posted in: European Reading Room
Posted by: Anchi Hoh
(The following is a post by Taru Spiegel, Reference Specialist, European Division.) “Aesop’s Fables” have been known for well over two millennia, and have been published in numerous languages and various configurations. Expressions such as “sour grapes,” “birds of a feather flock together,” “familiarity breeds contempt,” and “slow and steady wins the race,” have their …
Posted in: European Reading Room
Posted by: Anchi Hoh
(This is the second in a series featuring literary and other artistic “Responses to World War I” in the Library of Congress collections. This post is by Marianna Stell, Reference Assistant in the Rare Book & Special Collections Division.) Before the outbreak of World War I, French novelist Roland Dorgelès (1886-1973) was best known among …
Posted in: European Reading Room, Rare Books and Special Collections, World War I