{"id":30,"date":"2019-01-11T17:44:41","date_gmt":"2019-01-11T17:44:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alphabetizer.flap.tv\/blog\/?p=30"},"modified":"2019-01-24T02:45:01","modified_gmt":"2019-01-24T02:45:01","slug":"johos-history-of-alphabetization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alphabetizer.flap.tv\/blog\/johos-history-of-alphabetization\/","title":{"rendered":"Joho’s History of Alphabetization"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For my book, I\u2019ve been looking into the history of alphabetization. The major work in the field seems to be Lloyd W. Daly\u2019s <\/a>Contributions to a History of Alphabetization in Antiquity and the Middle Ages<\/a><\/em>, written in 1967. It\u2019s a short work of intense scholarship bring a huge breadth of knowledge to bear on a tiny sliver of a topic\u2026like using the Hubble telescope to help you pull out a splinter. Lots of fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some stray facts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daly mentions that a 13th century book, Registrum librorum Angliae<\/a><\/em>, is<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a list of authors, not in alphabetic order, and of their \nworks with a numeral key to indicate where in a list of 183 monasteries \neach work might be found. This early union catalogue was apparently \ncompiled as an aid to wandering Franciscan preachers who might be \nlooking for material for sermons anywhere between St. Andrews\u2019 and \nSarum. (p. 77)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The first catalog of a distributed library system. Cool!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For my purposes, I\u2019m struck by scattered examples Daly gives of early alphabetical lists that leave blanks for later entries. The earliest alphabetized list<\/a> he found dates to the 3rd century BCE on the Greek isle of Cos where 150 names are inscribed in stone. The names are broken into three lists, and each is alphabetized. One of them leaves blanks, presumably for names to be filled in later. (p. 44-6). He also refers to papyrus rolls from the 1st Century BCE in Egypt that kept track of the various tax payments individuals made. Since the entries were updated throughout the year, the ledgers had to leave blank space for each person. At the end of the year, some of the more active individuals\u2019 spaces would be crowded with entries, and other individuals would have lots of white space. (p. 44-6). That\u2019s the limitation that space and time impose when you are stuck organizing your information in the physical world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The great French encyclopedia of the 17th Century hit exactly the same limit. Enlightening the World<\/a><\/em>, by Philipp Blom<\/a>, points out that the editors had to decide ahead of time what all the entries and cross-references would be since they were creating the Encyclopedia as a series of volumes, published over time, in alphabetical order. Imagine if Jimmy Wales had had to specify all topics and links in order to get Wikipedia<\/a> built? Hah!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This interesting information about the history of Alphabetization was taken from Joho The Blog: http:\/\/www.hyperorg.com\/blogger\/2005\/08\/11\/history-of-alphabetization\/ – http:\/\/www.hyperorg.com – under the Creative Commons license – https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/3.0\/us\/<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For my book, I\u2019ve been looking into the history of alphabetization. The major work in the field seems to be Lloyd W. Daly\u2019s Contributions to a History of Alphabetization in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, written in 1967. It\u2019s a short work of intense scholarship bring a huge breadth of knowledge to bear on a … Continue reading Joho’s History of Alphabetization<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nJoho's History of Alphabetization - Alphabetize any List!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A brieft history of alphabetization from the 3rd century BCE to modern times.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/alphabetizer.flap.tv\/blog\/johos-history-of-alphabetization\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Joho's History of Alphabetization - Alphabetize any List!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A brieft history of alphabetization from the 3rd century BCE to modern times.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/alphabetizer.flap.tv\/blog\/johos-history-of-alphabetization\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Alphabetize any List!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-11T17:44:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-01-24T02:45:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/alphabetizer.flap.tv\/blog\/johos-history-of-alphabetization\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/alphabetizer.flap.tv\/blog\/johos-history-of-alphabetization\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/alphabetizer.flap.tv\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5903c3d27fa865189a5c243e2832df\"},\"headline\":\"Joho’s History of Alphabetization\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-01-11T17:44:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-01-24T02:45:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/alphabetizer.flap.tv\/blog\/johos-history-of-alphabetization\/\"},\"wordCount\":435,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/alphabetizer.flap.tv\/blog\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/alphabetizer.flap.tv\/blog\/johos-history-of-alphabetization\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/alphabetizer.flap.tv\/blog\/johos-history-of-alphabetization\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/alphabetizer.flap.tv\/blog\/johos-history-of-alphabetization\/\",\"name\":\"Joho's History of Alphabetization - 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