Recent research says “Facebook Concept Used by 16th
Century Scholars”
Our obsession with social networking is not exclusive to
the 21st century, according to researchers from Royal Holloway university.
The idea of creating networks of members and sharing
information dates back to the 16th century Italian Academies, which saw young
scholars create nicknames for themselves and develop emblems and mottoes to
form groups with which they exchanged information.
The discovery was made during a £1,130,000 collaborative
research project between Royal Holloway, the British Library and Reading
University, in which a team of academics are cataloguing and investigating the
works of the Italian Academies, dating from 1525 to 1700. The project provides
information about the academies, their members, publications, activities and
emblems.
Researchers were surprised to realise just how similar
the activities of these 16th and 17th century scholars were with society today.
Professor Jane Everson, Principal-investigator, said:
"Just as we create user names for our profiles on Facebook and Twitter and
create circles of friends on Google plus, these scholars created nicknames,
shared -- and commented on -- topical ideas, the news of the day, and exchanged
poems, plays and music.
"It may have taken a little longer for this to be
shared without the internet, but through the creation of yearbooks and volumes
of letters and speeches, they shared the information of the day."
The scholars created satirical names for their academies
such as Gelati and Intronati. Professor Everson explains: "They are jokey
names, which really mean the opposite of what they say. Intronati has nothing
to do with thrones; it means dazed, stunned, knocked out and so not able to
think straight -- but really the Intronati were engaged in serious study,
debates, dramatic performances and the like from the moment they were founded
in the 1520s -- and they are still as active as ever in their home city of
Siena. The Gelati were not going around singing 'just one cornetto'. Gelati
means the frozen ones -- so a pun on the fact that these academicians far from
being totally inactive through being frozen cold, were busy debating, exploring
ideas, challenging received opinions and changing the cultural world of their
home city of Bologna, and indeed of Italy and far beyond."
Just as the names of the academies and the nicknames of
the individual members were fun, so are the emblems and mottos which illustrate
the name of the academy. The scholars took great delight in creating puzzling
emblems with hidden meanings.
Professor Everson adds: "They do sometimes take some
working out, but it is great fun when you can see the hidden meanings in the
images."
Source: sciencedaily
Image source: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/926792
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