Deb wrote:I worried that the work would be priced over the heads of many students, and tried to encourage Ben to think about a paperback option at the start. Maybe he?ll do that later. It?s his work, so it?s his decision to make. Now I think he probably made the right decision anyway. The reality is that this is a very significant work and Ben made a very major commitment to its translation, so the cost was high, for him as well as us.
I wouldn't rule out the prospect of Rob Hand releasing a translation of his own sometime, but let?s not worry about ?knowledge being lost?. Bonatti?s work has and will be around in Latin, and the only complete English edition we currently have is ?out there? because of Ben?s efforts. Let?s just keep this guy in coffee!
This is the old "town / gown" dispute, as old as time itself. Our host has identified herself as academic. If it's not already obvious, I am a merchant. ("Pile 'em high! Sell 'em cheap!" is our motto.) For those who doubt the eternal reality of caste, a poke around the seedier areas of any university town will leave no doubts. One distinguishes his caste not on the basis of education (I have a pair of Bachelors & could easily have made Ph.D.), nor by profession, nor by raw IQ (mine is 150-ish) but rather, by temper.
While a merchant's primary goal is to Take the Money & Run, we can be persuaded to toil in the less lucrative gardens of academe. In such settings, we do best with the cooperation of bona fide academics. We so rarely get that cooperation.
Not only can knowledge be lost, the fact of its being lost is its usual fate, as any glance at, say, the Ashmolean library will attest. Most of the volumes in that great hall have sat ignored for centuries. Should the building be destroyed, much that is unique will be lost with it. Which, as all buildings are ultimately destroyed, will be the fate of most of the volumes at the Ashmolean. (Computerized scans? Please don't make me laugh. That stuff is beyond fragile.)
Knowledge, like the blood in our veins, must be constantly renewed to exist at all. Once circulation stops, death ensues. There is, I regret to say, a modern example:
Robert Jansky, (1932-1981). Died of a heart attack while travelling, in southern California, aged 48. Left behind a massive series of books, only one of which, alas, had its copyright assigned to a proper publisher: Astrology, Nutrition & Health. Which is still in print. All his other works, including one on eclipses, have been out of print since the day he died, because nobody knows who owns his copyrights. More than a decade ago I was on the phone with the late Joan McEvers (a friend of Jansky's) who gave me as much information as she knew. The law says that copyright is presumed & will endure until 75 years after the author's death. Which will be 2056. I used to get a lot of requests for Jansky's stuff, but it's been years since the last one. The reason? All the people who knew him, who knew of him have, like McEvers herself, passed away. I in fact have a number of his books in my library. They are, for the most part, poorly printed & poorly bound, which was typical of self-published astrology books of the period. At some point I want to haul them out & give them a once-over. It might could be that Jansky should go back in print, and, if so, I think I would chance it. But it might could be that Jansky, with the benefit of hindsight, was not so hot in cosmic terms & can be left to moulder. Jansky's ultimate fate might just come down to the head on my shoulders. Which is a slender thread, indeed. Such is how knowledge is lost!
Years ago Rob Hand mentioned to me his desire to translate Bonatus. Rob thought it would be easy. But that was years ago. I doubt it will ever happen, and for a number of reasons.
First, in his life, Rob has always gone from project to project. Good Sagittarian that he is. His ARHAT project was nearly a decade ago. He has produced no new titles in many years.
Second, Rob is now 67 years old. I have no knowledge of his financial situation, but it seems to me that he has no pension (having never worked for anyone who might have offered him one), he likely draws little Social Security (for the same reasons), he is past the point in life where he could expect an inheritance. He has recently graduated / is about to graduate from Catholic University in Washington DC & has presumably incurred considerable expenses thereby. He married a few years ago (for the first time) and it might be that his wife has means. I do not know, but I would hope so, as, otherwise, we must presume the man is broke & must earn his living, just like us young squirts. Which might be the reason why Rob travels, ceaselessly, from one conference to the next. They're gigs. He's getting paid. If I'm right, Rob is never going to have the "retirement" time needed for translation projects.
The third reason why Rob is not likely to translate Bonatus is that Prof. Dykes has already done so. Why should Rob put out the (not inconsiderable) effort to make his own translation, when Prof. Dykes might, at any moment, announce a reprint of his edition, coupled with a tour of all the astro shows to sell it.
A month or two before Prof. Dykes published his Bonatus, he wrote me & asked my opinion. I suggested he break the book into smaller volumes, such as has been done with Morin - quite successfully, I might add. This is still my advice. Should he use print on demand & make the result available through Amazon, he is guaranteed $200, perhaps $300 per month, in perpetuity, in exchange for virtually no effort. (In fact, things can be arranged such that it requires no effort at all, and I would be happy to pass on the details.)
Merchants & academics need each other. But so long as there is mutual hatred (and there is), reconciliation will remain difficult, and knowledge, its very existence, will hang in the balance.
Dave
