Weidauer translation project
Reid Goldsborough
in Early Electrum Coinage) is one of the standard references, frequently
used in coin attributions, for what are arguably the world's first
coins. Many of us know enough German to understand auction catalogs but
not books such as this one.
The project to translate Dr. Weidauer's book, announced here and
elsewhere earlier, is now complete. If you're interested in obtaining
for $20 a copy of the translation, read on.
This past April I asked about a half dozen European auction houses if
they knew of Dr. Weidauer and how to contact her, and if so to forward
to her my email inquiry about having her book translated into English. I
received a cooperative response from M锟絥zen & Medaillen, which
graciously indicated they would write her a letter and enclose a
print-out of my email. Dr. Weidauer responded to me via email in May.
I had asked Dr. Weidauer's permission for a group of us to have her
114-page book, still important 34 years later, translated into English
so we could better understand her thinking about this fascinating
subject. She replied, in part, "I am glad to hear that my book is used
and of course a translation into English will be much easier for you.
I'm quite willing to give the permission." An effort to contact the
publisher went unanswered, with the publisher perhaps wondering,
understandably, why we were bothering them about a book that has been
out of print for more than a quarter of a century.
The next step was finding a translator. To make a long story shorter,
Dane Kurth, widely known online as the current administrator of the
online auction archive service Wildwinds.com, agreed to take on the
task. She did a marvelous job, truly outstanding, not only handling the
translation, including the numismatic terms, but also retaining the same
pagination of the original (she placed some of the shorter footnotes
into the body of the text and others at the end of the particular page)
and even incorporating into the text small scans of the Lydian script of
coin legends. I did some copyediting/proofreading afterward. I don't
expect Dane to be terribly eager to do another project like this as she
said when finished that she was glad it was over! Kudos again to Dane
for her efforts.
We have two versions of the translation, one in an early Microsoft Word
(1.x) format so it will be widely accessible, the other a PDF version
for anybody who can't read or import the Word file (all you need for PDF
files is Adobe Reader, which is a free download). The Word and PDF
files, which contain the same information, are of the text and the
catalog (descriptions of coins illustrated in plates) of the book. Not
included are scans of the 29 plates of coin and other photos.
This effort was never intended as a republication of this book, just a
translation aimed at people who have already bought it and want to
better understand it. That's what I asked permission for, and that's
what I received. The translation therefore will primarily be useful to
people who already have Probleme der fr锟絟en Elektronpr锟絞ung. If you
don't have the book, you should be able to find a copy from an ancient
numismatic bookseller.
The way Dane and I decided to set this up was for me to handle
responding to inquiries, receiving payments, and emailing out her
translation. This is not a for-profit effort but an expense-sharing
effort. I don't know exactly how many people will want this translation,
though after putting out feelers earlier this year it appears that it
will be relatively few. So we decided to set a fee of $20 for anybody
who wants a copy of the translation emailed to them. This is an
email-only project. I won't be able to mail out printed pages. For
payment PayPal is preferred, and payment must be in American dollars.
If you'd like to purchase a copy, let me know if you want a Word DOC
file (3.2 MB in size) or Adobe PDF file (1.4 MB in size) by sending an
email to:
For early electrum buffs, you'll likely find some material in Dr.
Weidauer's book you agree with and some you disagree with. I did.
Perhaps others might consider similar efforts to translate other key
books in their specialty areas. Like putting up numismatic Web sites, I
look at translation projects as a good way of spreading numismatic
knowledge and enjoyment.
--
Consumer: http://rg.ancients.info/guide
Connoisseur: http://rg.ancients.info/glom
Counterfeit: http://rg.ancients.info/bogos
Anka
wrote:
> Lisa Weidauer's 1975 book Probleme der fr„1¤7hen Elektronpr„1¤7gung (Problems
> in Early Electrum Coinage) is one of the standard references, frequently
> used in coin attributions, for what are arguably the world's first
> coins. Many of us know enough German to understand auction catalogs but
> not books such as this one.
>
> The project to translate Dr. Weidauer's book, announced here and
> elsewhere earlier, is now complete. If you're interested in obtaining
> for $20 a copy of the translation, read on.
>
> This past April I asked about a half dozen European auction houses if
> they knew of Dr. Weidauer and how to contact her, and if so to forward
> to her my email inquiry about having her book translated into English. I
> don't have the book, you should be able to find a copy from an ancient
> numismatic bookseller.
>
> The way Dane and I decided to set this up was for me to handle
> responding to inquiries, receiving payments, and emailing out her
> translation. This is not a for-profit effort but an expense-sharing
> effort. I don't know exactly how many people will want this translation,
> though after putting out feelers earlier this year it appears that it
> will be relatively few. So we decided to set a fee of $20 for anybody
> who wants a copy of the translation emailed to them. This is an
> email-only project. I won't be able to mail out printed pages. For
> payment PayPal is preferred, and payment must be in American dollars.
>
> If you'd like to purchase a copy, let me know if you want a Word DOC
> file (3.2 MB in size) or Adobe PDF file (1.4 MB in size) by sending an
> email to:
>
>
> For early electrum buffs, you'll likely find some material in Dr.
> Weidauer's book you agree with and some you disagree with. I did.
>
> Perhaps others might consider similar efforts to translate other key
> books in their specialty areas. Like putting up numismatic Web sites, I
> look at translation projects as a good way of spreading numismatic
> knowledge and enjoyment.
>
> --
>
> Consumer:http://rg.ancients.info/guide
> Connoisseur:http://rg.ancients.info/glom
> Counterfeit:http://rg.ancients.info/bogos
Ausgezeichnet!
Reid Goldsborough
> Ausgezeichnet!
Gesundheit!
Mike Marotta
> Ausgezeichnet!-
Hier ist mein zweiter Post. Ich haette viele Scherzen ueber den armen
Reid geschrieben, Dann hatte ich ueber den Friar Tuck gedachtet:
Thank you Lord for the lesson in humilty.
He did a good thing. An English language printout helps.
Mike M.
Michael E. Marotta
False humility is false pride.
Anka
In der Tat. Meine Anmerkung zur Uebersetzung war aufrichtig.
~Anka
Ian
Reid Goldsborough
Well said. <g> Hey, did you ever get what I mailed you last time? Like
them? If not, let me know and I'll send you something else. (I tried
emailing you but might have used an old, invalid email address.)
Ian
> Ian wrote:
>> Mike Marotta wrote:
>>> On Oct 31, 2:43 pm, Anka <ank...@aol.com> wrote:
>>>> Ausgezeichnet!-
>>>
>>> Hier ist mein zweiter Post. Ich haette viele Scherzen ueber den armen
>>> Reid geschrieben, Dann hatte ich ueber den Friar Tuck gedachtet:
>>> Thank you Lord for the lesson in humilty.
>>>
>>> He did a good thing. An English language printout helps.
>>>
>>> Mike M.
>>> Michael E. Marotta
>>> False humility is false pride.
>
> Well said. <g> Hey, did you ever get what I mailed you last time? Like
> them? If not, let me know and I'll send you something else. (I tried
> emailing you but might have used an old, invalid email address.)
>
weekend to email.