Mac,
The problem is that there is no modern equivalent to the role of a praeses
in the early modern dissertation or academic disputation. Sometimes the
praeses is responsible for the content of the published dissertation
rather than the student who might be listed as respondent. Even when
called an "auctor," the person responsible for the intellectual content of
the printed dissertation might be the praeses. AACR2 follows earlier
rules about the access points for these things and who might best be
considered the author. All of this is to be distinguished from the
praeses as the one presiding at a discussion, such as a church council
(corporate authorship).
While this might be a small and specialized problem, these academic
dissertations are confronted by almost anyone cataloging early modern
materials. I first ran across them when cataloging a 1980s facsimile of
Latin original with a German translation on distilling alcohol. Major
research libraries may have hordes of them, and they are important for the
history of scholarship ranging from astronomy through theology to zoology.
When I was at the University of Pennsylvania, we had large numbers of
them already cataloged but also hundreds cataloged as collections and
unanalyzed. Assuming they are still uncataloged (they were Protestant
dissertations on Scripture, including a good deal of Christian Hebraist
scholarship), those will need to be cataloged in RDA someday.
Please just include praeses with no references. Most people may not know
what it is, but the people who need these items and can use them will
know. For the rest, clarification is a Google search away. Wikipedia
says under Old German academic use, "In German academia a doctoral advisor
is called the Doktorvater. However in the 18th century and before, the
doctoral system was quite different. Instead of a Doktorvater, as such,
the candidate had a praeses to act as mentor and who would also head the
oral viva voce exam. In the 18th century the praeses often chose the
subject and compiled the theses and the candidate had only to defend.
Sometimes there were several candidates at the same time defending the
same thesis, in order to save time." The OED quotes from the first
edition of AACR, "1967 Anglo-Amer. Catal. Rules: Brit. Text 27 Enter a
dissertation written for defence in an academic disputation (according to
the custom prevailing in European universities prior to the 19th century)
under the praeses (the faculty moderator) unless the authorship can be
well authenticated."
--
Laurence S. Creider
Interim Head
Archives and Special Collections Dept.
University Library
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, NM 88003
Work: 575-646-4756
Fax: 575-646-7477
lcrei...@lib.nmsu.edu
On Thu, December 6, 2012 2:21 pm, J. McRee Elrod wrote:
> Robert Maxwell said:
>
>>Whatever the code definition says, a praeses is not the same thing as a
thesis advisor.
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> So a term for thesis advisor is missing from RDA?
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> If the praeses has no role in thesis creation, why would one need a
relationship desinator for him or her? Perhaps for a report of the
disputation? I'll add [thesis advisor] to the list, change "consider"
to "cf." after praeses, and suggest "moderator".
>
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> __ __ J. McRee (Mac) Elrod (m...@slc.bc.ca)
> {__ | / Special Libraries Cataloguing HTTP://www.slc.bc.ca/
___} |__ \__________________________________________________________
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> A praeses is the person who presides at the defense of an academic
disputation, which is not the same thing as a modern thesis defense. An
academic disputation took place as part of the pre-19th century German
procedure for getting a doctoral degree, in which the student defended a
thesis assigned to him but written by somebody else. For an explanation
see AACR2 21.27. Praeses is a technical term and means what it means.
Obviously not everyone knows what a praeses is, but it wouldn't be
helpful to replace it with something that it's not.
>
