11.0575 a digital incunabulum (Macintosh only)

Humanist Discussion Group (humanist@kcl.ac.uk)
Tue, 10 Feb 1998 19:29:19 +0000 (GMT)

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 11, No. 575.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
<http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
<http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>

Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 13:13:26 +0100
From: "[ISO-8859-1] Mats Dahlström" <MAD@adm.hb.se>
Subject: Diskette incunabula?

Dear HUMANIST:s,

Some ten days ago or so, one of Sweden's major antiquarian
booksellers, "Thulin & Ohlsons Antikvariat" published their new
catalogue (no 301), mainly dealing with "books on books" and
bibliographies:

http://www.connoisseur.se/thu_kat_301.htm

If one scrolls down to the end of the cataloguefile, one discovers an
interesting item:

"[Lot no.] 5.877 Tallmo, K-E: Iakttagarens förmåga att ingripa. 3
disketter i fodral. Diskettinkunabel. Detta är den första romanen
direkt skriven för datamedia. Utkom 1992. Endast för Macintosh. 5,5
Mb. SEK 500"

Or in English: "Tallmo, K-E: The Watchers Ability to Interfere. 3
diskettes. Diskette Incunabulum. This is the first [Swedish] novel
written specifically for computer media. Published 1992.
Only Macintosh."

"Digital books" seem to be entering the market of used / rare
books... Is this a phenomenon well established elsewhere (this is
the first incidence I've seen in Swedish catalogues)?

(By the way - 500 Swedish crowns is quite expensive - the novel is
still available from the author himself, at a cost of 190 crowns...)

Besides - what is Your reaction regarding the term "Diskette
Incunabulum"? "Appropriate"? Clever? Innovative? Silly?

Yours sinc., Mats Dahlstrom
Mats Dahlstroem / Lecturer
University College of Boras, Sweden
Dept of Library and Info. Science
mats.dahlstrom@hb.se
+46 (0)33 - 16 44 21
Fax: (0)33 - 16 40 05
URL: http://www2.hb.se/bhs/mad/www/

Co-director of ITH: Information Technology
Studies as a Human Science
http://www.hb.se/bhs/ith/ith.htm

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