Yun Xie
@yunxie.bsky.social
Passion is a finite research resource. History is at once art and science. Art history and book history, history of knowledge. Hongkong Type matrices. Non Latin typography and typefoundery. PhDing @ UGent. ERC: PhiSci.
New acquisition: Geschiedenis van Baron Sakèndhèr een Javanese verhaal, by Cohen Stuart. 1850, Batavia. With the stamps of Batavian Genootschap and Natuurkundig Vereniging, and signature of Gerret Pieter Rouffaer（1860–1928), an expert of Javanese culture.
the low-paid, gendered labour force behind China's AI industry: young mothers in county-level towns who are now "abandoned" as the models have been trained theinitium.com/20260831-mai...
外包數據標注給中國中西部縣城女性的扶貧項目，隨着人工智能產業需求轉移落潮
對數據公司來講，被家庭責任留在本地的女性曾是一群理想的工人。但當 AI 變得更強，它沒有繼續停留在縣城。
theinitium.com
The Kloster Walkenried museum won my heart with their children books!
Gustave Schlegel did not mind how much trouble he made for his type cutter….. Uranographie Chinoise by Gustave Schlegel, 1875, Leiden
I have been dreaming of this book for years, finally, I got one! Proeven van Oostersche Schriften der Lettergieterij Amsterdam N Tetterode. 1910.
I am a stockholder of Deli railway company, 1000 gulden! If the firm still existed. Deli was founded in 1883 in Amsterdam, running railway near e-coast of Sumatra. This stock features the signature anti-coun symbol of printer Enschede: music note. Acquired the 1917 stock on book market in Deventer.
Recently acquired: Historie et Fabrication de la Porcelaine Chinoise (景德镇陶录), trans by Stanislas Julien 儒莲, Paris, 1856.
A ca. 100 years old moth/mosquito. Found in my new acquired LuFeng dialect dictionary 1897.
New acquired: Suffer the Little Children to Come unto Me. (Rong Hai Jin Wo) 容孩近我. 1917. Printed by the printing press at the Sacred Heart Cathedral ( 张庄天主教堂，or 胜世堂) in Xian county献县, Zhili直隶, printing approved by Bishop Henri Maquet马泽轩 (1843-1919).
Just acquired: Verslag der Viering van het Honderdjarig Bestaan van het Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen. Printed by Landsdrukkerij Batavia, 1878.
Today I have been to a 17c city library, Librije, in Enkhuizen. The book collection and the wooden furnitures are largely remained at their original location. Librije is housed in a charge but accessible to all citizens since the beginning. A real public library.
New purchase: a rare trilingual dictionary: Malay, English and Chinese, printed in soerakarta, by press Siang Hak in Kwan, rond 1910.
New purchase: Honderd Jaren Lettergieterij in Amsterdam (Tetterode 1851-1951).
An impression from a piece of fallen type - an error in the printing process captured forever. In a copy of Constantius Applanus’s ‘Soliloquiorum’, printed at Cremona in 1496 and given to @theulspeccoll.bsky.social by Stephen Gaselee in 1934. CUL Inc.5.B.20.5[4036]. #fallentype #incunabula
napinillos.substack.com/p/the-honest... This article recently went viral. "You will, at some point, need to advocate for your child at her school. You will need to read a teacher’s email carefully enough to notice what it is and is not saying, and write…
The Honest Case for the Humanities
Or: Why I’m Tired of My Colleagues Making Arguments That Only Work on Us
napinillos.substack.com
Isaac Titsingh’s journey worldwide. From Frank Lequin’s Isaac Titsingh (1745-1812)
New purchase: The Sacred Edict 圣谕广训. Translated and edited by missionary F W Baller 鲍康宁, printed by China Inland Mission and Presbyterian mission press in Shanghai, 4th edition. 1917. With the signature and notes by missionary John Steele.
We’re rewriting Archetype[1] and one of the joys of that is introducing new developers to palaeography. Today’s fun was: the first *p* is actually a *wynn* and not a *p* — only the second *p* is a *p* 😏 [1] the framework that powers Models of Authority, DigiPal & at least 30 other projects.
New purchase: Het Kongsiwezen van Borneo. By J J M de Groot. 1885. With the signature of the author!
Japanese studies folks, I’m pleased to introduce Minna de Honkoku OCR, a new AI system for recognizing kuzushiji. yuta1984.github.io/honkoku-ocr-... It is an AI-OCR system trained on 57 million characters of input data from the crowdsourced transcription platform Minna de Honkoku.
New purchase: 要理问答，北京救世堂印刷所 (北堂, Noordkerk, Lazaristen Drukkerij), by Peking Bishop Stanislas Jarlin C M 林懋德 (林 準) missionary from France, in Beijing in 1921. Typography with Chinese page style and binding.
Nothing angered Dave more than being referred to as a ‘lucky duck’. It wasn’t luck at all. He’d worked hard to get to where he was. He paid his own bills, and even managed to create a nest egg for himself - 15th century, Oxford University, St John's College MS 82, f. 148r
New purchase: Het Chineesch Taaleigen Inleiding tot de gesprokene taal (Noord -Pekineesch dialekt), by Jos Mullie 闵宣化 (1886-1976, Belgian missionary from Congregatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae. Printed in Beijing in 1931, Dutch and Chinese. PeiTang (Noordkerk) Drukkerij 北堂印刷所。
New purchase: LES LIVRES SACRÉS DE L'ORIENT, by G Pauthier, in 1852, with divisible Chinese types which were made by M Legrand.
This noon, I attended @yunxie.bsky.social’s lecture on the materiality of printed Chinese script in 19th-century Netherlands. The talk addressed challenges, networks, reasons, and innovations related to printing Chinese in Europe. Thanks for this new angle on printing culture! #ChinaBooks #Sinology
“preferably in that order” Found a funny footnote in a Sinology paper: “The notion of transcriptional variety even took root in sinological folklore, as the unwritten rites de passage of early European sinology were said to include marrying a Chinese partner, conceiving a transcription for
New purchase: Het Chineesche Zakenleven in Bederlandsch-Indië, door Belasting-Accountantsdienst onder Leiding van J L Vleming Jr. 1926
Dutch man smoking opium served by a slave. (from a Japanese book by anonymous?)
The layout of a Ming-era dibao邸报 prop (fig 1, looks handwritten) in 2024 C-drama Blossom九重紫 actually resembles a real Ming dibao (fig 2)! Although this preserved real dibao is a print, historically speaking, Dibao could also be a handwritten copy. So no need to be too harsh on the production team.
