Seibold stellt in seinem Buch 62 Freundschaftsalben vor, die wahrend eines Zeitraums von etwa 250 Jahren (Mitte 16. Jahrhundert - Beginn des 19. Jahrhundert) gefuhrt wurden. Anhand dieser Beispiele wird versucht, die Gesetzmassigkeiten, welche der Stammbuchpraxis zugrunde liegen, darzustellen, was seinen Niederschlag vor allem in einer Untersuchung des Beziehungsgeflechts zwischen den Eignern der Bucher und den Personen, welche von ihnen um Widmungen gebeten wurden, findet, bis hin zu einer Wurdigung der technisch-materiellen und organisatorischen Rahmenbedingungen. Die Niederschriften wurden haufig erganzt um Zeichnungen, welche zumeist in Gouachetechnik ausgefuhrt wurden. Hier gelangen Wappen, Alltagsgeschehen, Allegorisches und Mythologisches zur Abbildung, womit auch die Frage nach den ausfuhrenden Kunstlern virulent ist. Damit wird der Horizont der Stammbuchforschung anhand neuer Erfahrungsobjekte erweitert, bis hin zu einer Quellenanalyse.

The album amicorum, or book of friends, a precursor to modern-day autograph books, originated in Germany in the middle of the sixteenth century and very quickly became fashionable among students moving from one university to another in the course of their academic careers. Professors and fellow students made contributions to these albums, including inscriptions and illustrations, which were often by significant scholars or professional artists of the time.   This book by June Schlueter is the first full-length study in English of the album amicorum and secures its place as an insightful but under-examined genre in the study of early modern culture. Schlueter focuses specifically on the many traces of Shakespeare's London contained in alba amicorum during the period, as scholars traveled to London and recorded their impressions and their encounters with Londoners. These selections from alba amicorum provide a perspective on the culture, politics, religion, economics, and entertainment of the sixteenth century. These firsthand insights provide an integral historical picture of early modern England.

Catalog of an exhibition held at the Österreichisches Museum für Volkskunde Wien, May 5-November 22, 2015.

Every literary household in nineteenth-century Britain had a commonplace book, scrapbook, or album. Coleridge called his collection "Fly-Catchers", while George Eliot referred to one of her commonplace books as a "Quarry," and Michael Faraday kept quotations in his "Philosophical Miscellany." Nevertheless, the nineteenth-century commonplace book, along with associated traditions like the scrapbook and album, remain under-studied. This book tells the story of how technological and social changes altered methods for gathering, storing, and organizing information in nineteenth-century Britain. As the commonplace book moved out of the schoolroom and into the home, it took on elements of the friendship album. At the same time, the explosion of print allowed readers to cheaply cut-and-paste extractions rather than copying out quotations by hand. Built on the evidence of over 300 manuscripts, this volume unearths the composition practices of well-known writers such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Sir Walter Scott, George Eliot, and Alfred Lord Tennyson, and their less well-known contemporaries. Divided into two sections, the first half of the book contends that methods for organizing knowledge developed in line with the period's dominant epistemic frameworks, while the second half argues that commonplace books helped Romantics and Victorians organize people. Chapters focus on prominent organizational methods in nineteenth-century commonplacing, often attached to an associated epistemic virtue: diaristic forms and the imagination (Chapter Two); "real time" entries signalling objectivity (Chapter Three); antiquarian remnants, serving as empirical evidence for historical arguments (Chapter Four); communally produced commonplace books that attest to socially constructed knowledge (Chapter Five); and blank spaces in commonplace books of mourning (Chapter Six). Richly illustrated, this book brings an archive of commonplace books, scrapbooks, and albums to the reader.

In seinem Lebensruckblick erzahlt der kaiserliche Hofagent Stephan Andreas Haslinger (1740-1807) seinen Kindern die Geschichte eines "self-made man", der vom armen Schneidersohn zum Feudalherrn aufstieg und uber Umwege als Kapellmeister sowie Sekretar ungarischer Magnaten an den Hof Josephs II. gelangte. Der Autobiograph wirft Schlaglichter auf das kroatisch-ungarische Kulturleben ebenso wie auf Familienleben, Wirtschaftskrisen und Krankheitswellen im Wien der Klassik.