Saturday, June 26, 2010

Remix Rules of the 13th Century

LEFT: Saint Bonaventure, by Claude François (Frère Luc) (here)

"A man might write the works of others, adding and changing nothing, in which case he is simply called a 'scribe' (scriptor).

"Another writes the work of others with additions which are not his own; and he is called a 'compiler' (compilator).

"Another writes both others' work and his own, but with others' work in principal place, adding his own for purposes of explanation; and he is called a ‘commentator’ (commentator).

"....Another writes both his own work and others' but with his own work in principal place adding others for purposes of confirmation; and such a man should be called an 'author' (auctor)."
- Saint Bonaventure, 13th Century Franciscan (d. 1274), via Moby Dick Remixed: Appropriation as a New Media Literacy (Anna van Someren)

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Entrance Song for the Feast of Saint Bonaventure
Feast Day: July 15

"The learned will shine like the brilliance of the firmament, and those who train many in the ways of justice will sparkle like the stars for all eternity." --Daniel 12:3
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"The current emphasis on digital remixing makes visible the degree to which all cultural expression builds on what has come before."
-Henry Jenkins, 21st century
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There was no copyright law until 1709's Statute of Anne, in GB. But there had been wrangles much earlier.

Reputedly in 557 A.D. Abbot Finnian of Moville and St. Columba disputed over St. Columba's copying of a Psalter belonging to an Abbot. The dispute over ownership of the copy led to the Battle of Cúl Dreimhne (also known as the Battle of Cooldrumman), in which 3,000 men were killed.

And in 1623 a setting of the Psalms, by the composer Salomone Rossi, included a rabbinical curse on anyone who copied the contents.

(Wikipedia, History of Copyright Law)

4 comments:

Marz said...

a rabbinical curse ... harsh.
(fave. word of the day: rabbinical)

And I'm happy to know the Bible includes the word SPARKLE.

Marz said...

P.S.
The macronization of his face is spot on; I can hear him saying it.

(Define This Captcha Game! :
amangsts - a tribe of "tragically gifted" and angsty teens who live in the forest and bicker constantly.)

Anonymous said...

OMGoddess! This is so cool! After jumpin' up here to see what gugeo treasures I might find to stimulate my dreams--(after two solid days of sweating/cooking and graduation party prepping/collaborating/throwing/hosting and cleaning up after. Praying for storms to not spoil our party at the park and dodging raindrops and lightning bolts as we schlepped stuff into and out of cars again ... Neal B. of Lunds and formerly the Guthrie Theatre stopped by after work and we ended up talking about his difficulties with writing, which I was totally surprised to learn about, since he's got such a gift of gab, such a store of knowledge and, and is such a spiral conversationalist. So, I was just imagining his hands and face superimposed on this painted saint... and laughing, cuz as we were talking about his writing challenges, I was thinkin' about you and your communication book, Frescadita! Hmm...chicken and egg stuff again who thought or invented or made up some stuff first and left a record of it somewhere so it could sparkle (or do something else) over the ages and end up as a chunk of Wikipedia compendia or as a subject in some copyright law drama somewhere. Fresca, is that what Wikipedia is, compendia, I'm just pretendin' I even know what that word might mean. I am just a common tater. i'm wondering about this rabbinical curse and the whole ASCAP crap that is making it so difficult for small businesses who want to promote live music by paying musicians who perform works composed by others, but can't afford the exorbitant ASCAP fees that the composers never see any real money from, anyway. Ah, hell, it's all interconnected: one big butterfly effect.

Nighty-night!

Stefalala

Fresca said...

MRET: That quill does look an awful lot like a No. 2 yellow pencil, doesn't it?
Per Wikipedia, they weren't invented until 1890
"when the L. & C. Hardtmuth Company of Austria-Hungary introduced their [yellow] Koh-I-Noor brand, named after the famous diamond. It was intended to be the world's best and most expensive pencil...."

STEF: Neal would make a great model for portraits of historical figures of all stripes!
We should dress him up and take photos...

(I have noticed that a gift for gab does not seem to translate into a gift for writing--sometimes they even seem contradictory.)

Yep. Per Wikipedia itself, a compendium is "a concise, yet comprehensive compilation of a body of knowledge").
I think of my blog as a magpie's nest.

Right--that's the problem with copyright--monsters grabbed the gold and guard it in a cave.

Congrats on getting your girl through high school!