Linguistics ante litteram Archive
logo_kuleuven.png The Linguistics Ante Litteram Archive offers thousands of references to historiographical papers and books dealing with Linguistics ante litteram. It makes use of the free open-source reference manager Zotero. This initiative, the follow-up of the Renaissance Linguistics Archive, is a co-operation between KU Leuven and Universität Potsdam. 1200px-Universit%C3%A4t_Potsdam_logo.svg.png

Why?

In contrast to the academic study of languages that was institutionalized as a distinct university discipline from the first half of the nineteenth century onward, language research in the previous centuries was not practiced as an independent discipline. Whereas the ars grammatica was long time considered a mere propaedeutic exercise, other linguistic research (dealing with comparative, historical or philosophical issues) constituted an auxiliary branch of learning for the benefit of philosophy, theology, history or ethnology. This is why researchers investigating linguistic thought from periods other than the 19th through 21st centuries are not only confronted with primary sources embedded in various scholarly traditions, but also with crucial secondary sources that have not been published in journals devoted to linguistics.

This is why the Renaissance Linguistics Archive was founded in the early eighties. Whereas bibliographic projects were highly esteemed during the late eighties and the early nineties —from 1988 onwards, the Renaissance Linguistics Archive enjoyed the support of the Patronage of the Commission of the European Communities— the situation seems to have become less favourable since the end of the nineties, probably owing to the emergence, development, and proliferation of alternative heuristic tools (such as search engines and online databases). The manual collection of bibliographic data is a very time-consuming (and hardly ‘academically rewarded’) occupation, even if the data are kindly provided by colleagues. Moreover, given the masses of new publications in our publish-or-perish climate of scientific research, it was impossible to attain completeness.1

The Linguistics ante litteram Archive aims to resuscitate the old project in a new format that is better adapted to modern scholarly needs. It wants to offer an additional auxiliary means for scholars interested in Early Modern and Enlightenment linguistics. We hope that the many references gathered here —thanks to scholars willing to share them and thanks to the modern technology enabling us to do so in an easy way— might facilitate considerably the heuristic process.

How?

Anyone using Zotero can subscribe to the Group Library Linguistics ante litteram archive. More information on Zotero Groups can be found at the Zotero Support Site. Let's summarize the few steps you have to take in order to make optimal use of our library:

1. Download the free reference manager Zotero.
2. Make a Zotero-Account and sync your personal library on-line.
3. Become a member of our Group Library Linguistics ante litteram archive.
4. You can search and download all references.

The advantage of using Zotero lies in the fact that you can perform searches in one of the folders or in all folders together, and that you can make and export bibliographies with one mouse click (see screenshot). Scholars making use of other reference managers can also benefit from or contribute to the database by downloading the library in various formats (RIS, RDF, BIBTEX, …). Right now, the Group Library contains three folders consisting of about 4500 records. All scholars working in the field and working with Zotero are invited to share their own references (preferably labelled or tagged), in order to enhance the project.

Although this library is meant as a heuristic tool in the first place, it can also be used for citing. However, the references might still contain (minor) mistakes. Before citing, please always control the references.

What? The contents

1. Renaissance Linguistics Archive

Contents
About 3500 fully searchable records of the Renaissance Linguistics Archive.
Tags and Metadata
The references are provided with tags referring to Grammarians, Languages, Geographical Areas and Subjects.
Creators of the folder
Cf. the site of the Renaissance Linguistics Archive project.
Citing?
Only with caution
Download
(Right-Click and save as)
BIB-file | RDF-file | RIS-file
Dates
Creation: December 2009
Last Update: December 2009

2. Precomparative Linguistics in Early Modern Europe

Contents
About 600 fully searchable records on precomparative linguistics in the Early Modern Period, with special attention given to the Low Countries. Selective Bibliography, based on Moedertalen en Taalmoeders […] (Brussels, 2010).
Tags and Metadata
No tags are available.
Creator of the folder
Toon Van Hal
Citing?
Only with caution
Download
(Right-Click and save as)
BIB-file | RDF-file | RIS-file
Dates
Creation: January 2010
Last Update: 27 January 2010

Who?

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