Protecting Archeological Sites in Tunisia and Libya, Roman Mosaics In Roman Africa Stories In Stone from Getty Publications

With all the political unrest, rebellion, revolution and increasing military activity in North Africa, especially in Libya, I've been checking for news mentioning the archaeological sites and Museums displaying objects of the rich history of Roman Africa.  Luckily recent news suggests that archaeological sites and Museums in Libya and Tunisia appear to to be safe, so far.  This is great news and hopefully both Tunisia and Libya will stabilize and I won't lose more sleep about the fate of Roman era sites and mosaics and will dream instead about actually visiting Libya and Tunisia to view the archaeological sites and museums in person.While the history of the region involves much more than the influence of ancient Rome, that remains my core interest.
 
There is a fabulous book about the mosaics and archaeological sites of Roman Africa, primarily focused on Tunisia, which provides a wonderful history of the Roman era in North Africa.  Stories In Stone:  Conserving Mosaics of Roman Africa, Masterpieces from the National Museums of Tunisia, Edited by Aïcha Ben Abed, Getty Publications, 2006.  This heavily illustrated overview of Roman Africa was published to coincide with and memorialize the Getty Museum Exhibit, Stories In Stone, October 26, 2006-April 20, 2007 with artifacts drawn from the National Museums of Tunisia.  I was not able to visit the Getty Museum while the show was on, but I did purchase the book.

The content and art package provide a comprehensive overview of the Roman Era in North Africa and with 140 color illustrations and 1 map, this is both a great read, a great reference and a great source for visual appreciation of Roman Era art and artifacts.  The artifacts of the exhibit and book came from the three major archaeological museums in Tunisia, the Bardo Museum in Tunis, the Sousse Museum, and the El Jem Museum.

I don't own any books concerning the Roman Era focused on Libya but I am encouraged to NOT see any horror stories about damaged or looted sites or museums, although the chaos there seems to be on the increase.  If I were to acquire a book about the Roman sites of Libya it would be Libya: The Lost Cities of the Roman Empire, by  Antonio Divita, Ginette Divita-Evrard, Lidiano Bacchielli, photographs by Robert Polidori, Konemman, 1999.  This is a lavishly illustrated overview of the Roman Ruins in Libya.  There are only a handful of these available today and if you are interested, act fast for the lowest price!

Leptis Magna, perhaps the biggest and best preserved Roman City is a UNESCO site and an active archaeological site.  There are many more Roman sites to be explored in Libya and I hope to do so in person some day.

Great Libraries, The Redwood Library and Athenæum Newport Rhode Island. Oldest Lending Library in America, Oldest Library Building, The First Roman Doric building in North America



Redwood Library, Newport RI (photo by T.E. Stone, July 2009)



A few summers ago while enjoying a short vacation in Newport, Rhode Island, Anne and I stumbled upon The Redwood Library and Athenæum.  The lure of the Cliff Walk, the numerous mansion museums and the always inviting kite flying area generally dominates a visit to Newport but this time, while enjoying a stroll through the old town neighborhood, we discovered the "oldest lending library and the oldest library building in continuous use," in America.  I'm pretty certain that the summer crowds that visit Newport are rarely wondering about this old library but they should as it is a building to honor and an institution to celebrate.

The Redwood Library (read a brief history here) was founded in 1747 by Abraham Redwood and associates and opened in 1750.   The building was designed by Peter Harrison (1716-1775) and was the first example of classical style architecture in North America.  The building design is Roman Doric and perhaps based on drawings from a 1735 edition of Andrea Palladio's Architecture.


The foundation of the lending library was a collection of 750 book purchased in England in 1749 by Redwood and shipped to the library.  Today, about 90% of the original collection remains in the Special Collections of the library.  The library is trying to replace those volumes lost over time, especially during the Revolution when the library was used as an officer's club for British forces.  The original collection was comprised of books of interest in the mid- eighteenth century and included books on ship building, classic literature, law, religion, science and art.  A complete overview of the original collection is available here.

I hope you do visit The Redwood on your next trip to Newport.  It is worth a visit simply to learn about the history of the library, the architecture and the original collection. Going strong after 261 years, The Redwood is an important library and cultural treasure.

A Watercolor of The Redwood Library

  

Collecting George Santayana-American Philosophical Royalty With An Attitude

From Time Archive

My daily news reading always involves a quick peak at the headlines aggregated by the editors of the website, Arts and Letter Daily.  Late last week, this headline caught my attention, "George Santayana thought highly of himself – and little of others, especially his Harvard colleagues and their “trivial and narrow scholarship”... more»".  What a wonderful headline, I thought, and clicked through to an interesting article on George Santayana, one of my favorite authors to both read and collect.

The link was to an article in The Weekly Standard, a review of a new Santayana selection of essays and a related title.  I imagine that destination might have ruffled the feathers of many loyal Arts and Letters Daily readers as the traditional audience of the respective sites rarely interact.  My interest in Santayana has a similar irony in that I am a devoted fan and lifetime student of Immanuel Kant and his transcendental philosophy which Santayana disliked.  Santayana was a philosophical naturalist, before philosophical naturalism was a movement and he disliked Kant's transcendentalism because he felt it ignored the facts to be discovered via the natural sciences.  Luckily, I don't need to adhere to any consistency when it comes to philosophy or in my book collecting pursuits.  I still read and study Kant but don't collect Kant(ian) books.  I still read and enjoy Santayana and I do collect his books.

Santayana was born in Spain but raised in Boston on Beacon Street among the Boston Brahmin.  He earned a doctorate in Philosophy from Harvard University, writing his dissertation under the guidance of Josiah Royce and was a Professor in the Department from 1888 until 1911.  In 1912 Santayana left America and resigned his position at Harvard University.  He resignation was for cause, the cause, his dislike of the way philosophy was done at Harvard and Santayana went public with his opinions. 

Santayana was not only a Professor of Philosophy but also a supremely gifted and talented author of philosophy, essays, poems, drama, letters and one masterpiece, novel.  Many of his  books remain in print because even now, a century removed from his time, his writing remains fresh, his ideas motivate reflection and he was a defining American Philosopher of the 20th century.

A critical edition of the complete works of Santayana is being edited by a team at IUPUI and published by The MIT Press.  To date, 5 volumes have been published in 14 books (Volume 5 comprised 10 books of letters).  This critical edition is slowly moving along but with 24 more volumes to be edited and prepared for publication, it may be another 100 years in the making!  The first 4 volumes are out of print and sadly, don't even show up on the web page for the Series listing.  While I was an Editor at The MIT Press, I was the publishing contact for the Series and since I considered myself part of the market for the books, I could never take a complementary copy since the market was very small, especially for the 10 books of Volume 5! I have some catching up to do if I want to acquire the 14 books published to date and be prepared for those to follow.

Collecting Santayana is fairly straightforward.  He was a prolific writer and a best selling author and there is a solid supply of affordable original editions of his books.  A simple search for first edition, hardcover, books by George Santayana published between 1888 and 1940 results in list of 263 titles with only a handful priced over $100.  A good place to start a Santayana collection is with his only novel and one of my favorite books of all times, The Last Puritan:  A Memoir in the form of a Novel, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1936 (Constable, London, 1935).  Be careful when thinking about acquiring a first edition of this classic book.  I once acquired a copy that the bookseller assured me was a 1936 first edition, first printing and for $18.00 I believed him.  Later, I realized that a true first edition would have included an "A" on the copyright page and the backcover list of Scribner's Santayana titles included books first published in the late 1940's!  Since Santayana believed that his philosophical work and his writing overall was American to the core, I believe that collecting the US publications is the way to go rather than the sometimes, earlier, UK editions. 

Turning to Santayana's philosophical work, the 5 volume, The Life of Reason, including Reason in Common Sense, Reason in Society, Reason in Religion, Reason in Art and Reason in Science is essential.  These are fairly scarce but at least, copies that are available are reasonably priced.  After reading and collecting The Life of Reason Santayana's memoir Persons and Places is the next obvious choice as it is considered one of the great memoirs of all time.   Persons and Places was published in three volumes including The Background of My Life, The Middle Span and My Host, The World  were all published by Scribner's.  My personal interest is in acquiring either the original publication of The Genteel Tradition in American Philosophy or the first collection of essays where it appeared.

Collecting Santayana is collecting for reading and thought and a Santayana section is a must for anyone developing a private library with an interest in the American tradition of philosophy and the history of ideas.  For a wonderful introduction to Santayana and his philosophical and literary character, Irving Singer's, George Santayana Literary Philosopher, Yale University Press, 2000 is a great read.