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Настоящее учебное пособие History in Documents and a Document in History предназначено для студентов, обучающихся по специальностям «Документоведение», «История», «Международные отношения», а также может использоваться широким кругом читателей, изучающих иностранный язык.
Данное пособие разработано на основе коммуникативного подхода и обеспечивает взаимосвязанное развитие речевой, языковой, социокультурной и информационной компетенций студента. Основная цель пособия заключается в развитии языковых и коммуникативных компетенций студентов, изучающих английский язык на направлениях подготовки «Документоведение», «История», «Международные отношения».
В пособии представлен обширный массив текстов аутентичного характера, привлеченных из современных источников, газет, журналов и Интернет-ресурсов страноведческой, исторической направленности, адаптированных для студентов данного уровня. Таким образом, пособие последовательно погружает студента в тематические пласты специальной лексики и грамматики и помогает сформировать навыки работы с литературой по специальности.
Пособие состоит из следующих частей – READING, GRAMMAR, TRANSLATION PRACTICE и VOCABULARY.
Раздел READING состоит из семи модулей, в каждом из которых представлены аутентичные тексты разного уровня сложности. Речевой материал текстов отражает богатство современного английского языка, представляет специальные языковые, речевые выражения, обороты и термины профессиональной речи.
Каждый текст снабжен упражнениями, направленными на развитие навыков устной и письменной речи: лексические, лексико-грамматические и речевые, которые позволяют проверить как общее понимание прочитанного, так и закрепить только что приобретенные навыки. Система упражнений к текстам способствует активному усвоению профессиональной лексики и повторению некоторых аспектов грамматики. Прочное закрепление лексического материала обеспечивается заданиями на словообразование, перифраз, выбор, нахождение эквивалентов, перевод. Лексические упражнения обеспечивают эффективную повторяемость лексических единиц в пределах тематического комплекса. Особенностью раздела READING является то, что он может быть задействован либо в качестве домашнего задания с последующей проверкой в учебной группе, либо самостоятельной работы.
Раздел GRAMMAR представлен тремя модулями. Каждый модуль содержит грамматические упражнения для активизации грамматических навыков устной речи, а также для выработки устойчивых навыков и умений, необходимых как для адекватного перевода текстов по специальности, так и для беспереводного чтения.
Раздел TRANSLATION PRACTICE представляет собой практикум по переводу текстов, максимально приближенных к языку специальности. По усмотрению преподавателя данный раздел можно задействовать как форму самостоятельной работы в виде письменного перевода или предлагать студентам в качестве домашнего задания.
Пособие может быть использовано для развития коммуникативной компетенции – умения получать, перерабатывать и передавать информацию. Содержание учебного материала может представлять интерес для тех, кто интересуется историей и хотел бы изучить прошлое через призму исторических документов.
Part I. Reading
Module I. Historical documents
Text 1. Historical documents
1. Study the following words:
Read the text and do the tasks after it.
Historical documents are papers that contain important information about a person, place, or event.
Most famous historical documents are either laws, accounts of battles (often given by the victors or persons sharing their viewpoint), or the exploits of the powerful. Though these documents are of historical interest, they do not detail the daily lives of ordinary people, or the way society functioned. Anthropologists, historians and archeologists generally are more interested in documents that describe the day-to-day lives of ordinary people, indicating what they ate, and their interaction with other members of their households and social groups, and their states of mind. It is this information that allows them to try to understand and describe the way society was functioning at any particular time in history.
Many documents that are produced today, such as personal letters, pictures, contracts, newspapers, and medical records, would be considered valuable historical documents in the future to such people. However most of these will be lost in the future since they are either printed on ordinary paper which has a limited lifespan, or stored in digital formats that will become obsolete fairly soon.
Some companies and government entities are attempting to increase the number of documents that will survive the passage of time, by taking into account the preservation issues, and either printing documents in a manner that would increase the likelihood of them surviving indefinitely, or placing selected documents in time capsules or other special storage environments.
(Abridged from the original texts provided by Britannica Encyclopedia)
2. Answer the following questions:
1) What is a “historical document”?
2) What types of documents are mentioned in the text? Can you think of any more?
3) What details are scientists usually interested in?
4) What do these details help scientists understand?
5) What documents will become valuable in the future?
6) Why will documents be lost?
7) In what way do governments try to store and increase the number of documents?
3. Match the words on the left with their definitions on the right.
4. Fill in the gaps with the words given in the box:
1) Most daily _____________s will not publish anonymous letters to the editor.
2) Historical _____________s describe the young princess as exceedingly tall, thin, and plain, but with a generous nature.
3) You can ask the children to create a different ending to the story or draw different ____________s to illustrate what they have read.
4) All citizens are equal before the _______________.
5) As written _____________s developed, they also used wooden writing boards and wax tablets for work which was not intended to be permanent.
6) Richmond Police are sending warning _____________s to parents of children caught buying or attempting to buy alcohol.
7) When an agreement is reached with the owner, a private _____________ is written and signed.
5. Find out what functions these people do:
Text 2. Four Types of Historical Documents
Read the text and do the tasks after it.
Historical documents are papers that contain important information about a country's people, laws or policies. For example, the U.S. Constitution is a historical document, and so are the birth and death certificates and military records of the country's people. Anthropologists and historians are interested in such papers, and the documents also help people research their ancestry. These are the four types of historical documents.
Political Documents. Political papers that are considered historical documents include the officially signed copy of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and U.S. Bill of Rights. These historical documents are preserved at the offices of the National Archives and Records Administration in Maryland. Under the Freedom of Information Act, they are generally accessible to anyone.
Vital Records. Birth, marriage and death certificates are historical documents and usually are referred to as vital records. They provide people with genealogy information, such as when their ancestors were born, married or died and even cause of death. Vital records are valuable for people who are interested in reviewing or discovering their ancestry.
Census Records. Information from the first U.S. Census, which was in 1790, is available from various sources, including the offices of the National Archives and Records Administration. The United States takes a census every 10 years; the census provides information on population numbers and growth and people's birthplace, age, street address and occupation, among other details. The data is helpful to track ancestors and to confirm information. It also is necessary for government records.
Military Records. Military personnel records are historical documents, too. They contain information about when soldiers, marines and other military personnel members enlisted, their training or qualifications, whether or not they were disciplined and/or awarded medals and their discharge or retirement information. The records include additional information, too.
(Abridged from the original texts provided by http://www.ehow.com)
1. Answer the following questions:
1) What information is given in historical documents?
2) How can historical documents help scientists?
3) What political documents are mentioned in the text? Can you give more examples of political documents?
4) What type of information do vital records provide people with?
5) Who can find vital records important?
6) How often does the United States take a census?
7) What information does a census usually contain?
8) What data can be found in military records?
2. Match the words on the left with their definitions on the right:
3. Find the words in the text for the definitions given below:
1) ____________ advanced and detailed study of a subject, so as to learn new facts.
2) ____________ a person`s ancestors considered as a group.
3) ____________ to keep something in good condition for a long time by some special treatment.
4) ____________ worth a lot of money or very useful.
5) ____________ any thing or place from which something comes, arises, or is obtained; origin.
6) ___________ to enter the armed forces or a course of study.
7) ___________ the separation of a person from military service.
8) ___________ the act of leaving one`s job, career, or occupation permanently, usually because of age.
4. Give Russian equivalents for the following word combinations and pay attention to the use of prepositions:
Text 3. How to analyze a historical document
1. Study the following words and phrases:
2. Read the text and choose the most suitable heading from the list A-H for each part of the text:
A Evaluate whether the information in the document is primary or secondary information.
B Compare the document to others of the same type from the same location and era.
C Determine what type of document you are analyzing.
D Learn whether your document is an original.
E Consider why the document was created.
F Familiarize yourself with the handwriting of the time and place from which your document originates.
G Determine who authored the document, and who may have contributed information.
H Consider the era in which the document was created.
How to analyze a historical document
Historians and genealogists often use old documents to gather information about the past. Evaluating old records is an effective way to learn about the past, and it's often one of the first skills historians and genealogists learn. Here are some tips for how to analyze a historical document.
1 _______________ You might be looking at a will, a pension file, an obituary, a news article, or any number of other document types. Knowing what you're looking at helps you develop an approach for handling the information the document contains. For an obituary, for example, you will want to find out whether the item appeared in a newspaper or a different publication, whether it was written by the publication's staff or a paid placement, and whether there were other newspapers in the same time and place that might cover the same person differently. For a military pension file, you'll want to find out up front which side of a war the soldier served on, since that will have a significant impact on the breadth and depth of the materials you should expect to find in the file. Understanding the background behind the document before you begin to work with it will enhance your ability to extract useful information in your analysis.
2. _______________ A census record, for example, is created primarily to count the number of people in a particular location for taxation and representation purposes. You might find useful information in a census that can be used for another purpose, like genealogical research or social studies. However, understanding the original reason a document was produced helps determine how accurate the information it contains may be for secondary purposes.
3. ________________ Primary information is given by someone with firsthand knowledge; secondary information is not. Both types of information can appear in the same item. For example, a death certificate will contain the doctor's explanation of the cause of death. This is primary information, since the doctor was present during or shortly after death. The same death certificate will usually include the date and place of birth of the deceased. This is usually secondary information, since the person giving the information is typically someone who was not present at the birth of the deceased. Generally speaking, historians consider primary information to be more reliable than secondary information.
4. _________________ Consider whether those individuals may have had accurate information, and whether they may have had biases or reasons to provide information that was not accurate or truthful.
5. ________________ This will help you interpret terms that may be unfamiliar or whose meanings have changed over time. For example, the word "infant" generally refers to a baby under the age of 2 today, but in the documents from the British colonies in the 1700s, "infant" meant anyone under the age of 21.
6. _________________ Wills, for example, often contain standard language that is other wills of a particular time and place. If your document contains different language than the norm, that might indicate a unique situation or circumstance.
7. _________________ If you obtained it from a repository (such as a library or archive), ask the staff if it is an original document. If you own the document or received it from a lay person, have a qualified professional review it to determine whether it's an original. Local historical societies and colleges can often help with this. Documents that have been transcribed, abstracted, copied or otherwise derived from the original may contain errors. Work with original documents (or photographic copies of documents) whenever possible to ensure accuracy.
8. _________________ For example, Old German handwriting has letters that are very different than those used today. Becoming familiar with the handwriting styles of the era will help ensure that you're interpreting your document correctly. Numerous books and websites are available to help you translate handwriting from different times and places. Staff at local historical societies in the location where the document originated can often help with this as well.
(Abridged from the original texts provided by http://www.ehow.com)
3. Answer the questions:
1) What document types are mentioned in the text?
2) What information is important for analyzing an obituary?
3) Why do you need to know which side of war a soldier served on?
4) What is a census record created for?
5) Why is it important to understand the purpose of creating a document?
6) What`s the difference between primary and secondary information?
7) Which type of information is more reliable?
8) Why is it important to know the period of time in which the document was created?
9) Why is it better to work with original document?
10) How can knowing the handwriting styles of the era help you to analyze the historical document?
4. Find synonyms for the following words in the text:
1) to estimate _____________
2) influence, effect ____________
3) exact, precise ______________
4) to define _______________
5) certain, undoubted ____________
6) to add, share, supply ______________
7) to show, denote, reveal _______________
8) to inspect, analyze ____________
9) mistake, fault ____________
10) to explain, decipher ______________
5. Find the words in the text for the definitions given below:
1) _______________ a manner or method of doing something.
2) _______________ to raise to a higher degree; intensify; magnify.
3) _______________ select (a passage from a text, film, or piece of music) for quotation, performance, or reproduction.
4) _______________ to come into sight; become visible.
5) _______________ the dead person.
6) _______________ to make a written copy, especially a typewritten copy, of (dictated material, notes taken during a lecture, or other spoken material).
7) _______________ to remove by drawing out gently or take away.
8) _______________ to receive or obtain from a source or origin (usually followed by from).
9) _______________ to make certain to happen.
10) _______________ to take its origin or rise; begin; start; arise.
6. Fill in the gaps with the words given in box. For some points the first letters are given. Translate the sentences into Russian:
1) I e____________ that text directly out of our new library system.
2) The point is this – we cannot a_____________ ideas from the historical epoch in which they appeared.
3) The d__________ was found with multiple head injuries on a footpath.
4) Dog owners must by law e___________ their pet wears a collar and tag with their name and address on it.
5) The word magazine d____________s from an Arabic word meaning a storehouse, a place where goods are laid up.
6) The exotic creature, which ______________ from central and South America, is probably an escaped pet.
7) Interviews were ______________ by the researcher who carried out the interview.
8) He is diplomatic and cautious in his ____________ to sticky situations.
9) From the moon, Earth a____________s as a bright blue-and-white object in the black sky.
10) She spends time on e___________ing her image with fitness routines and new styles.
7. Make the summary of the text.
Revision I.
Check yourself. Remember the following words and phrases:
Module II. Early documents
Text 1. Types of documents
Read the text and do the tasks after it.
Documents that have been preserved are originals, drafts, or copies. Originals are formal documents drawn up on the order of the sender or donor, and they were designated to serve the recipient or beneficiary as evidence of the transaction recorded. Handwritten copies of documents, made either before or after the deed was actually executed (sealed), are not classified as originals. If made before an “original,” they were rough drafts of it; if made afterward, they were copies.
The particularly Anglo-Saxon method of chirography gave the possibility of producing several “originals.” By this process two or more specimens of a document were written on the same page of the vellum sheet, and the free space between the texts was filled in with the word chyrographum (“handwriting”) or other words and symbols. Then the sheet was cut irregularly right through these words or symbols. The originals thus separated could later be reassembled. An exact fit was complete proof of authenticity.
But to provide documents having the force of “originals,” copies of the original were usually made and formally certified, by public notaries, or by high ecclesiastical or secular dignitaries. Copies certified in this way were accorded the same legal value as the originals. In practice, lack of critical judgment on the part of the certifiers often led to the certification of forged records. In documents known as transumpts, which recited earlier documents or charters as part of their text, it often happened that the earlier document was forged, but, being included in the new, it received validation.
The original documents and copies considered above were issued at the request of the recipient or beneficiary or of his legal heir. It also happened quite often that the sender or donor wished for various reasons to retain a record of the documents issued by him. The chanceries (record offices) of secular rulers or great ecclesiastics therefore kept copies of outgoing documents in registers, and often of incoming documents, too. The popes were among the first to adopt the old Roman practice of keeping registers; although nearly all the earlier ones have been lost, an almost uninterrupted series of papal registers is extant from the pontificate of Innocent III onward.
An important group of registers are the rolls kept by the medieval kings of England; the earliest extant rolls date from the 12th century. The keeping of registers in the chanceries of the French kings began about the year 1200, in Aragon about 1215, in Sicily under the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick II (died 1250), and in the German imperial chancery from the early 14th century.
Another manner of studying documents is in the formula books of the various chanceries. Notaries drawing up the various forms of medieval documents did not usually compose each new text afresh but, rather, copied from books in which such text formulas had been collected, a practice that can be traced back to Roman procedure. These model texts frequently contained only the legally relevant passages, while the individually applicable parts, such as names, figures, and dates, were either abridged or totally omitted. During the time of the Frankish kings, important collections were made, such as the Formulae Marculfi (early 8th century) and the Formulae imperiales (828–832). Significant collections of formulas serving as models for papal documents have been preserved from the 13th century.
(Abridged from the original texts provided by Britannica Encyclopedia)
1. Answer the questions:
1) What documents are original?
2) What are drafts?
3) What are copies?
4) How could people create several originals?
5) How did the method of chirography work?
6) What was the method of chirography used for?
7) How can a document get the force of the original?
8) What led to the certification of forged documents?
9) Under what circumstances forged documents could receive validation?
10) What were registers used for?
11) What are the examples of registers?
12) What did the formula books contain?
2. Match the words to their definitions:
3. Fill in the correct word from the list below. Then, use the collocations to make your own sentences:
incoming, formula, forged, proof, validation, dignitaries, keeping, imperial
1) …………………. register
2) …………………. chancery
3) …………………… records
4) to receive …………………
5) ………………… documents
6) …………………. books
7) …………………. of authenticity
8) secular …………………….
Text 2. Classification of documents
Read the text and do the tasks after it.
The documents of the Middle Ages are usually classified under two groups: public documents, which are those of emperors, kings, and popes, and private documents, which comprise all others. Another way of classifying documents is according to whether they are evidentiary or dispositive. The former merely record a valid legal act already executed orally, while the actual issuing of the latter forms in itself the legal act. This distinction, found among Roman documents from the 3rd century A.D. onward, gradually ceased to exist after the early Middle Ages.
After the collapse of the Carolingian empire in the 9th century, private documents lost much of their function and were replaced by simple memorandums about legal acts and the witnesses to them. It was not until the late 11th and early 12th centuries that sealed charters of high secular or ecclesiastical dignitaries were again gradually considered as dispositive. Papal documents can be classified mainly as either letters or privileges, and royal documents can be classified as diplomas or mandates. Privileges and diplomas give evidence of legal transactions designed to be of long duration or even of permanent effect, while mandates and many papal letters contain commands.
1. Answer the questions to the text:
1) Give definitions to public documents and private documents.
2) What`s the difference between evidentiary and dispositive documents?
3) What documents replaced private documents?
4) When and why did private document lose their functions?
5) What was the classification of papal and royal documents?
6) What is the difference between papal and royal documents?
2. Find all the types of documents mentioned in the text and give definitions to them in your own words.
Text 3. Materials used for the early documents
Read the text and do the tasks after it.
Documents were written on a variety of material. In antiquity there were documents of stone, metal, wax, papyrus, and, occasionally, of parchment, but only papyrus and parchment (and, very occasionally, wax) were used during the Middle Ages. From the 12th to the 13th centuries, paper was also available.
Papyrus, made from the stem of the papyrus plant, was produced mainly in Egypt. The Merovingian kings wrote their documents on papyrus until the second half of the 7th century, and the popes did so until far into the 11th century. North of the Alps papyrus had finally disappeared by the 8th century, when it was replaced by parchment.
Parchment was made from animal hides and was thus easier to obtain. In southern Europe it was made mainly from sheep and goat hides; the insides of the skin were thoroughly smoothed and calcined, while the hairy sides were left rougher. In central and northern Europe, parchment was usually made from calves’ skins, and both sides of the hides were thoroughly smoothed and calcined.
Paper came originally from China. During the 8th century AD, it spread to the Arab world and from thence to Byzantium, where it was manufactured from linen and was used from the 11th to the 13th centuries for imperial documents. After that time ordinary paper was used in the Byzantine Empire. In the West the use of paper, most common at first in southern Italy and Spain, had begun to spread by the beginning of the 12th century. Germany and southern France began to import paper from Spain and Italy in the 13th century, and soon afterward it had reached England by way of Bordeaux. But paper did not altogether replace parchment, which long remained in use, especially for solemn documents.
(Abridged from the original texts provided by Britannica Encyclopedia)
Notes:
Middle Ages – средние века
The Merovingian kings [ˏmerǝʋˋvindʒiǝn] – франкская династия королей Меровинги
the Alps – Альпы
the Byzantine Empire – Византийская империя
Bordeaux – г. Бордо
1. Answer the following questions:
1) What were documents made of in the past? What materials were used for writing?
2) Which of them were used during the Middle Ages?
3) Who was the main producer of papyrus?
4) Why did North of the Alps papyrus disappear?
5) What was parchment made from?
6) Where did paper appear for the first time?
7) What was paper made from?
8) What countries in the West Europe used paper?
2. Make sentences using the words from A and endings from B:
3. Find in the text the English equivalents to the following words:
доступный / производить (3 слова) / шкура (2 слова) / папа римский / стебель / разглаживать, выравнивать / прожигать, прокаливать, кальцинировать / торжественный / полотно, лен / оставаться
4. Find in the text synonyms to the following words:
vanish (v) _________________________________________
accidentally (adv) ___________________________________
perfectly, completely (adv) ____________________________
substitute (v) ______________________________________
serious, ceremonial (adj) _____________________________
extend (v) ________________________________________
attain, gain (v) _____________________________________
common, regular (adj) _______________________________
Text 4. Languages used in early documents
Read the text and do the tasks after it.
The medium for writing was ink, generally a mixture of oak gall and copper vitriol. Originally black, ink made north of the Alps sometimes shows a reddish-brown hue, while that made in Italy may contain tinges of brown and yellow. Over the centuries most of these colours have lightened as a result of atmospheric conditions. The Byzantine emperors used purple ink for their signatures. This custom was occasionally taken over by the Lombard rulers of Italy and, later, by the Norman kings of Sicily. Another custom of Byzantine origin is the use of gold lettering.
Throughout the entire Roman Empire, the language used in documents was primarily Latin. Greek was also used, and, during the latter part of the 6th century AD, it slowly superseded Latin in the East. From then onward, Greek was the language of Byzantine documents until the end of the Byzantine Empire (1453). In the West, the collapse of the empire and the establishment of barbarian kingdoms led to a vulgarization of Latin, written as well as spoken.
Latin has always been used for papal documents and for most public and private charters, and it was used for international documents well into post-Renaissance times, until it was superseded by French as the language of diplomacy. In public and private documents, use of the vernacular alongside Latin gradually developed. Apart from its early and unique appearance in the documents of the Anglo-Saxons in England, no vernacular was used in charters before the 12th century. At the Norman Conquest (1066), use of Anglo-Saxon in English documents soon stopped, and no more vernacular was used there until some Norman French was introduced in the 13th century, and Middle English in the 15th century. There was an increasing use of the vernacular in Italian and French documents from the 12th century and in Germany from the 13th; but in medieval times Latin was never outstripped by the vernacular.
(Abridged from the original texts provided by Britannica Encyclopedia)
1. Answer the following questions:
1) What was ink made of?
2) What colour was ink?
3) What languages were documents written on?
4) What caused the vulgarization of Latin?
5) What documents were written in Latin?
6) In what countries was vernacular used?
2. Find the English equivalents for the following words:
средство / золотое тиснение / цвет, оттенок (3 слова) / заменить (2 слова) / выцвести / происхождение / весь / падение, крах / основание
3. Match the words on the left with their definitions on the right:
4. Make nouns from the following verbs:
5. Say what part of speech are the following words. Translate them into Russian. Make your own sentences with these words:
➢ generally _______________
➢ originally _______________
➢ occasionally _______________
➢ primarily ________________
➢ slowly ________________
➢ gradually ________________
➢ early ________________
Text 5
Read the text and do the tasks after it.
A correct assessment of the hand in which it was written is vital to ascertaining the provenance and authenticity of a document. Thus, the knowledge of paleography, different styles of ancient writing, is a skill essential to diplomatics. The broad basis of such knowledge begins with acquaintance with the general styles of writing current at particular times and places. This varied with the way the pen was held; whether the writing was cursive or had the letters formed separately; whether it was majuscule, all the letters being contained between a single pair of horizontal lines, or minuscule, with parts of the letters extending above and below the lines. There is a further distinction between what is called book hand and the business, or court, hand at one time used for documents.
In Europe the Roman capital letters were distinguished as rustic or square, uncial, and Roman majuscule and minuscule cursive. They influenced all subsequent writing in the West. The Roman curial style (from the Curia, or papal court), used in the papal chancery until the 12th century, was a derivation of late Roman minuscule cursive. After the disintegration of the Western Empire, the Merovingian Franks used a Roman provincial script for their documents. Distinctive forms developed elsewhere, in Visigothic Spain and in Ireland. The Irish script, a half uncial (uncials are rounded letters) and a minuscule script, spread to Anglo-Saxon England and thence to the European continent. Under the
Carolingian rulers, a particularly clear and attractive minuscule book hand (Caroline minuscule) was developed; modifications of this gradually became used in documents and eventually spread also to Italy, England, and Spain. A “Gothic,” more pointed form of script developed since the 11th century in northern France and soon spread all over Europe, so that writing became more spidery in appearance. In the early years of the Renaissance, Italian scholars such as Poggio (Poggio Bracciolini) and Niccolò Niccoli developed a minuscule based on the Carolingian, and variants of this style were used by the Venetian Aldus Manutius and other pioneers of printing.
(Abridged from the original texts provided by Britannica Encyclopedia)
Notes:
Curia – папская курия
the Carolingian rulers
Visigothic Spain
Gothic
the Venetian Aldus Manutius
1. Read the text and give the title to it.
2. Give Russian equivalents to the following words:
1) ascertain ______________________
2) assessment ____________________
3) provenance ____________________
4) authenticity ____________________
5) diplomatics ____________________
6) cursive _______________________
7) rustic ________________________
8) chancery _____________________
9) derivation ____________________
3. Find in the text the definitions for the following:
➢ paleography
➢ majuscule
➢ minuscule
➢ uncial
➢ Caroline minuscule
➢ Gothic
➢ Curia
4. Say which words or phrases the pronouns given in bold refer to.
5. Ask questions to the text using these question words:
Who?
What?
When?
Where?
How?
Text 6. Paper
Read the text and do the tasks after it.
Paper is thin material used for writing upon, printing upon or packaging, produced by the amalgamation of fibers, usually vegetable fibers composed of cellulose, which are subsequently held together by hydrogen bonding. Though the fibers are usually natural in origin, a wide variety of synthetic fibers, such as polypropylene and polyethylene, may be incorporated into paper as a way of imparting desirable physical properties. The most common source of these kinds of fibers is wood pulp from pulpwood trees, largely softwoods and hardwoods, such as spruce and aspen respectively. Other vegetable fiber materials including those of cotton, hemp, linen, and rice may be used.
The word paper comes from the Greek term for the ancient Egyptian writing material called papyrus, which was formed from beaten strips of papyrus plants. Papyrus was produced as early as 3000 BC in Egypt, and sold to ancient Greece and Rome. The establishment of the Library of Alexandria in the 3rd century BC put a drain on the supply of papyrus.
Paper is considered to be one of the Four Great Inventions of Ancient China, as the first standard papermaking process was developed in China during the early 2nd century. During the Shang and Zhou dynasties of ancient China, documents were ordinarily written on bone or bamboo, making them very heavy and awkward to transport. The light material of silk was sometimes used, but was normally too expensive to consider.
It is widely regarded that the Han Dynasty Chinese court official invented the modern method of papermaking from wood pulp in 105 AD. However, true paper without writing has been excavated in China dating to the reign of Emperor Wu of Han from the 2nd century BC. It was used for purposes of wrapping or padding for protection of delicate bronze mirrors. Although paper used for writing became widespread by the 3rd century, paper continued to be used for wrapping and other purposes.
Toilet paper was used in China by at least the 6th century AD. Toilet paper continued to be necessary in China. During the Hongwu Emperor's reign in AD 1393 the Bureau of Imperial Supplies manufactured 720,000 sheets of toilet paper for the entire court produced of the cheap rice-straw paper. For the emperor's family alone, 15,000 special sheets of paper were made, in light yellow tint and even perfumed.
During the Tang Dynasty paper was folded and sewn into square bags to preserve the flavor of tea. During the same period, it was written that tea was served from baskets with multi-colored paper cups and paper napkins of different size and shape. During the Chinese Song Dynasty not only did the government produce the world's first known paper-printed money, or banknote, but paper money which was bestowed as gifts to deserving government officials were wrapped in special paper envelopes.
In America, archaeological evidence indicates that paper was invented by the Mayans no later than the 5th century AD. It was in widespread use among Mesoamerican cultures until the Spanish conquest. In small quantities, traditional Maya papermaking techniques are still practiced today. The paper was thin and translucent, not like modern western paper, and thus only written on one side. Books were invented in India, of palm leaves where we derive the name leaf for a sheet of a book. The first paper mill in Europe was in Spain in1120. Paper was manufactured in both Italy and Germany by 1400, just about the time when the woodcut printmaking technique was transferred from fabric to paper.
1. Answer the following questions:
1) What is a papermaking process?
2) What type of wood is used to make paper?
3) What substances are incorporated into paper and why?
4) What is the origin of the word “paper”?
5) When and where was the modern method of papermaking invented?
6) When and where was papyrus invented?
7) What materials were used for writing in China before paper?
8) What purposes was paper used for in China?
9) What for was paper used during the Tang and Song Dynasties?
10) What types of toilet paper were used by emperor`s court in China?
11) What other peoples made paper?
12) How are the Mayas linked to the papermaking process?
2. Find the English equivalents in the text:
3. Match the words on the left with their definitions on the right.
Text 7. Parchment
1. Read the text and translate the words and phrases given in bold:
Parchment is a thin material made from calfskin, sheepskin or goatskin. It is used as a material for writing on, for documents or the pages of a book, codex or manuscript. Parchment is not waterproof. Herodotus mentioned writing on skins as common in his time in the 5th century BC. He stated that the Ionians of Asia Minor had been accustomed to give the name of skins to books. This word was adapted by Hellenized Jews to describe scrolls.
Parchment was developed in the city of Pergamum. Perhaps, the word “parchment” evolved from this name in about 263–241 BC. In the 2nd century BC a great library was set up in Pergamum that rivalled the famous Library of Alexandria. Writing on prepared animal skins had a long history. The earliest of such documents are: a fragmentary roll of leather of the Sixth Dynasty preserved in the Cairo Museum; a roll of the Twelfth Dynasty now in Berlin; the mathematical text now in the British Museum; and a document of the reign of Ramses II. Early Islamic texts are also found on parchment. One sort of parchment was called vellum. This word was used to mean fine parchment. This parchment was made from calfskin.
There was a short period during the introduction of printing where parchment and paper were used interchangeably: although most copies of the Gutenberg Bible are on paper, some were printed on parchment. In the later Middle Ages, parchment was largely replaced by paper. Paper was much cheaper and more abundant than parchment. Parchment is also extremely affected by its environment and changes in humidity, which can cause buckling. Books with parchment pages were bound with strong wooden boards and clamped tightly shut by metal clasps or leather straps.
After being flayed, the skin is soaked in water for about one day. This removes blood and grime from the skin and prepares it for dehairing liquor. The dehairing liquor was originally made of fermented or vegetable matter, like beer. By the Middle Ages an unhairing bath included lime. The liquor bath was in wooden or stone vats. Sometimes the skins stayed in the unhairing bath for eight or more days depending how concentrated and how warm the solution was. Replacing the lime water bath also sped the process up.
After soaking in water the skins were placed on a stretching frame. The skins could be attached by wrapping small, smooth rocks in the skins with rope or leather strips. Both sides were left open to the air so they could be scraped with a sharp, semi-lunar knife to remove the last of the hair and get the skin to the right thickness. The skins were made almost entirely of collagen. They formed natural glue while drying and if you take off the frame they keep their form.
To make the parchment more aesthetically pleasing or more suitable for the scribes, special treatments were used. For example, parchment makers rubbed pumice powder into the flesh side of parchment while it was still wet on the frame. It was used to make it smooth and to modify the surface to enable inks to penetrate more deeply. Powders and pastes of calcium compounds were also used to help remove grease so the ink would not run. To make the parchment smooth and white, thin pastes of lime, flour, egg whites and milk were rubbed into the skins.
During the seventh through the ninth centuries, many earlier parchment manuscripts were scrubbed and scoured to be ready for rewriting, and often the earlier writing can still be read. These recycled parchments are called palimpsests. In some universities the word parchment is still used to refer to the certificate presented at graduation ceremonies, even though the modern document is printed on paper or thin card.
2. Answer the following questions:
1) What is parchment made from?
2) Where was parchment used?
3) When and where was parchment developed?
4) What is the origin of the word “parchment”?
5) Where are the earliest parchment documents stored?
6) What is the difference between parchment and vellum?
7) When and why was parchment replaced by paper?
8) Why was the skin soaked in water?
9) What could speed up the process of making parchment?
10) What for were the skins placed on a stretching frame?
11) What are palimpsests?
12) What did they use to make parchment smooth and white?
3. Describe the process of making parchment using the Passive Voice:
Example: The skin was flayed.
4. Find the English equivalents in the text:
5. Match the words on the left with their definitions on the right:
6. Do you know the translation of these words?
7. What do you know about these people and places? Find information and make a report:
Herodotus
Library of Alexandria
The British Museum
Gutenberg
Ramses II
Text 8. Birch bark manuscript
1. Read the text and translate the words and phrases given in bold:
Birch bark manuscripts are documents written on pieces of the inner layer of birch bark. It was commonly used for writing before the advent of mass production of paper. Birch bark for writing was used for many centuries and in various cultures. The oldest dated birch bark manuscripts are numerous Buddhist texts from approximately the 1st century AD. The scientists believe that they have originated in Afghanistan. Russian texts discovered in Novgorod have been dated to approximately the 9th to 15th century AD. Most of those documents are letters written by various people in Old Novgorod dialect.
The Buddhist birch bark texts were stored in clay jars and acquired by the British Library in 1994. The British Library birch bark manuscripts were in the form of scrolls which were very fragile and already damaged. They were five to nine inches wide, and consisted of twelve to eighteen inch long. Overlapping rolls were glued together to form longer scrolls. A thread sewn through the edges also helped hold them together. The script was written in black ink. The manuscripts were written on both sides of the scrolls, beginning at the top on one side, continuing with the scroll turned over and upside down, so that the text concluded at the top and back of the scroll. The longest intact scroll from the British Library collection is eighty-four inches long.
The collection of texts includes a variety of known commentaries and sutras, including discourses of Buddha. The condition of the scrolls indicates that they were already in poor condition. The bark has been used for centuries in India for writing scriptures and texts in various scripts. In Kashmir, early scholars recounted that all of their books were written on Himalayan Birch bark until the 16th century. The Bakhshali manuscript consists of seventy birch bark fragments written in Sanskrit and Prakrit. The text discusses various mathematical techniques.
A large collection of birch bark scrolls were discovered in Afghanistan during the civil war around the turn of the last century. The approximately 3,000 scroll fragments are in Sanskrit or Buddhist Sanskrit, using Brāhmī script, and date to a period from the 2nd to 8th century CE. Birch bark is still used in some parts of India and Nepal for writing sacred mantras.
On July 26, 1951, during excavations in Novgorod, a Soviet expedition led by Artemiy Artsikhovsky found the first Russian birch bark writing in a layer dated to AD 1400. Since then, more than 1,000 similar documents were discovered in Staraya Russa, Smolensk, Torzhok, Pskov, Tver, Moscow, Ryazan, although Novgorod remains by far the most prolific source of them. In Ukraine, birch bark documents were found in Zvenigorod, Volynia. In Belarus, several documents were unearthed in Vitebsk and Mstislavl.
Although their existence was mentioned in some old East Slavic manuscripts, the discovery of birch bark documents significantly changed the understanding of the cultural level and language spoken by the East Slavs between 11th and 15th centuries. According to scientists most documents are ordinary letters by various people. The letters are of a personal or business character.
Additionally, there are birch bark letters written in modern times, most notably by victims of the Soviet Regime. People in forced settlements and GULAG camps in Siberia used strips of birch bark to write letters to their loved ones back home, due to inaccessibility of paper. Examples of these letters from Latvian victims of the Soviet regime are currently being considered to be included in the UNESCO “Memory of the World” heritage list.
Notes:
Common Era or Current Era (CE) is a year-numbering system (calendar era)
for the Julian and Gregorian calendars that refers to the years since the start of this era, that is, the years beginning with AD 1. The preceding era is referred to as before the Common or Current Era (BCE).
2. Answer the following questions:
1) What is a birch bark manuscript?
2) What were the oldest birch bark manuscripts?
3) How long is the longest birch bark scroll?
4) Where were the Buddhist birch bark texts stored?
5) On which side of the scroll were birch bark written?
6) What helped to hold birch bark scrolls together?
7) What for did the people in India use the bark?
8) When and where was the largest collection of birch bark scrolls discovered?
9) Where and when were the first Russian birch bark documents found?
10) What other places were birch bark manuscripts found?
11) Why was the discovery of Russian birch bark documents important?
12) Who wrote birch bark letters in modern times?
3. Find the English equivalents in the text:
4. Match the words on the left with their definitions on the right.
5. Do you know the translation of these words?
Darmowy fragment się skończył.
