Images of Modernity, Baroque Fantasies, and
the Waning Glory of the Habsburg Empire
(1898-1918)
A Study of Print Culture in the Borderlands
Marija Dalbello
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
dalbello@scils.rutgers.edu
http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~dalbello
The J. Steinbrener Industrial Concern
(1855-1930)
Operations:
Printing operation (printing, binding)
Bookstore (and Warehouses)
Binding equipment factory
Factory for the production of brass objects
Steam factory for production of cellulose
Art prints (lithography) atelier
A photographic atelier
Atelier for products made of bone and ivory
Painting atelier
Factory for the production of decorations (division for
ecclesiastical decorative gilt objects)
Output:
prayer-books, almanacs (25%), school-books, children’s
illustrated books, children’s coloring books, illustrated coffeebooks (e.g. herb atlases), etc.
Other:
holds royal privilege for exclusive rights on printing of certain
types of works
The J. Steinbrener Croatian Line of Almanacs
Title in Croa tian
Title in English
Dates
Novi katolicki koledar
New Catholic Almanac
1898-1910?
Veliki Marijin koleda r za katolicki
puk
Mali Marijin koledar za kato licki
puk
Davor. Hrvatski v ojnicki koledar
Mary's Large Almanac fo r Catholics
1898-1912?
Small Mary's Almanac fo r Catholics
1899-1909?
Davor. Croatian Milit ary Almanac
1899-1913?
Novi saljivi slikovni koledar
New Illustrated Humorous Almanac
1898-1908?
Sareni svjetski koledar
Multicolored World Almanac
1900-1916?
Veliki ilustro vani zabavni koledar
Great Illustrated Entertainin g Alm.
1900-1912?
Our Emperor and King and the Members of the Ruling Dynasty.
From: Multicolored World Almanac 1907
Futuristic warfare ...
A Battle of the
Future.
Five hundred meters above
the earth, winged footsoldiers, supported by a
single aerial battery,
repel an attack of winged
cavalry.
From: New Humorous Illustrated Almanac 1901
What is Life Going to be
Like in 100 Years.
Images from the War
of the Future.
Air infantry.
Artillery bicycle.
From: New Humorous Illustrated Almanac 1899
Armored Infantry
fighting-off war air
crafts.
From: Multicolored World Almanac 1910
Infantry crosses a wide river on a bridge made of
underwater cars.
From: Multicolored World Almanac 1910
War Kites,
Equipped with automatic
photo-cameras floating in the
air
From: Multicolored World Almanac 1910
Dead bodies,
piled up as high as mountains, are covered with special
liquid and burned, as the battleground is disinfected.
From: Multicolored World Almanac 1910
Imagine if ...
“A View into the Future”
From: Multicolored World Almanac 1908
What is Life Going to be
Like in 100 Years.
From: New Humorous Illustrated Almanac 1899
What is Life Going to be
Like in 100 Years.
Student of the future. Group
instruction in the classroom has
ceased, teaching is done by
means of Electro-phonograph.
A View from above our
Streets.
An outing to the moon by
means of a pneumatic train.
From: New Humorous Illustrated Almanac 1899
Police
Butter-seller
Mailman
Everything Knowable …
… is Countable
“Military Power of Various Countries on Land and on Sea in 1904.”
From: Multicolored World Almanac 1904
“Where does Money Come From and Where Does it Go To?”
Multicolored World Almanac 1904
“Where Most People are Moving To and From?”
Immigration /
emigration
statistics
From: Multicolored World Almanac 1905
Languages of the World
East Asian languages
Multicolored World Almanac 1903
“How Does
Population Grow in
Various Countries.”
1880
1920
30 mil.
Multicolored World Almanac 1902
1900
Population
growth in
the last 2
years, by
country
Retrospective Arsenal of
Status Quo…
Memory-Page,
[commemorating] the members of
the Imperial and Royal forces
who gloriously gave their lives
in China.
[inscribed on tombstone]
Heroically died for the Emperor and the
Homeland:
fleet captain Eduard Thomann, noble
Montalmer
naval cadet II. order Toma Mayer
naval cadet II. order Ljudevit Pap
sailor Josip Deste
sailor Ivo Dettan
sailor Marko Badurina
sailor Josip Travanja
sailor Damjan Klancic
Glorious be their Memory!
[text in the lunette]
Whoever heroically died for their country,
that person has built the best monument to
himself in the hearts of his compatriots
which stays for eternity, which no storm
can destroy!
From: Davor. Croatian Military Almanac 1902?
Family Memory-Page.
[table labelled]: In the great world war from our family the following members were
in the battlefield:
Name, Unit, Battlefield and Battles, Other notes.
“Thank you, my
friend!”--uttered
in Croatian the
wounded officer.-Are you Croatian as
well?”
From: Great Illustrated Entertaining Almanac 1901
(Modernist) Time …
… Decompressed
Memory-Page,
[commemorating] the
transition into the new
century
What will the New Millenium
Bring to Humankind?
From: Small Mary’s Almanac for Catholics 1900
Memory-Page
[commemorating] the
occupation of BosniaHerzegowina by the
Imperial and Royal
forces.
From: Davor. Croatian Military Almanac 1903
Print Culture in the
(Central-European)
Borderlands
borderlands
// the border between the Western and Eastern realms (Viennese/Islamic)
//multiple voices in the space
borderlands of multiple interacting forces
// change and boundary experience of reality
// change of paradigm
• Studying the effects of multilingual (multi-script) publishing and
multilingual audiences on the particular book trades
• Examining the continuity in national book-trades through the
Habsburg, Communist, and post-Communist era
• Examining the effect of emigration and internal migrations within
the area of the book trade
• Exploring the boundaries of diversity, cultural and linguistic
translation, and the reception of works
• Identifying publishing models that evolved as a combination of
patronage and purely commercial interest
Print Culture in the Borderlands
1.
historiography
2.
history of the book
3.
history of ideas and documentary practices (1890s-1930s)
4.
literary and cultural history perspective
from canon defined by the national vernacular to total context of creation,
circulation and use of printed artifacts (re-define the national history of
the book at the periphery)
thematic issue “History of the Book in Croatia: The Canon and the
Borderlands” (special issue of JCA)
case studies of print genres and distribution networks (almanacs)
case studies of publishers (continue work on J. Steinbrener house)
transformation of visual culture and modernity
representational / non-representational uses of illustrative photography in
popular printed works (turn of the 19th/20th century) as related to
modernism
visual statistics for the ordinary citizens (visualization of information)
iconography of warfare and militarization
focus on communicative aspects of genre (orality/literacy; text/context)