On 2011-07-26 2:49 PM, Eric Lease Morgan wrote:
> On Jul 26, 2011, at 10:07 AM, Eric Lease Morgan wrote:
>> I wish a next-generation library catalog would include a field for date,not the date of the publication, but the date the thing was conceived.
> I understand the need for a date published in a library catalog, and I'm not advocating for one and only one date in a bibliographic record.
>
> Instead, I want an additional date denoting when -- in all likely hood --the idea expressed by the creator of the work was conceived/embodied. Put another way, I want to sort search results from older to new. Find all of Shakespeare, sort by date, and then I want to read the oldest one first. Find all things regarding New-Platonism, sort by date, and start reading at the end and go back in time.
"Since Shakespeare wrote for the stage, not for the press, scholars rely
on internal references to contemporary events, or on external references
to the plays performances, to give us some idea when they might have
been written. Other sources of information include theoretical patterns
of change in his use rhymed verse (which seems to diminish in frequency
over his career), the quality of his blank verse (which grows less
formal and more "speech-like" with more enjambed and fewer end-stopped
lines), and the increasing frequency with which known-dated plays use
"feminine endings" or words which add unaccented syllables after those
necessary to form the last iambic foot (i.e., ^/^ rather than ^/--the
designation "feminine" vs. "masculine" or "strong" endings is, of
course, a nineteenth-century term of art). The following are estimates
of the plays order and date of composition based on the work of Hardin
Craig, T.W. Baldwin, E.K. Chambers, F.J. Furnivall, G. König, and George
Saintsbury. More recent scholarship has challenged some of these dates,
but the order is relatively certain." from
<http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng211/shakespeareplay_order.htm>
Wouldn't you need disclaimers like this on any date a librarian assigned
to many types of work? A lot of scholarly labor is hidden behind
assigning dates to works.
Chris Gray
University of Waterloo Library
Received on Tue Jul 26 2011 - 16:24:35 EDT