The Pridi Banomyong Library Rare Book Room, Thammasat University, Tha Prachan campus, owns a number of rare and useful items of potential interest to students and researchers.
Among them is the Nouveau Larousse illustré (New Larousse Illustrated), an illustrated French language encyclopedia published by Éditions Larousse between 1897 and 1904, in 7 volumes and a supplement.
It was a reduced version of the Grand dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle (Great universal dictionary of the 19th century) of Pierre Larousse, but updated and written in a more neutral, scientific style under the editorship of Claude Augé.
The encyclopedia consisted of 7,600 pages containing 237,000 articles, with 49,000 black and white illustrations, over 500 maps and 89 color plates.
The TU Library collection also includes several other different editions of Larousse dictionaires, old and new.
A former schoolteacher, Claude Augé, great-nephew by marriage of Pierre Larousse, a noted lexicographer or dictionary writer, joined the Larousse company as an assistant accountant.
He then wrote numerous school books and was gradually promoted to the editorial directorship of the company.
He was convinced of the effectiveness of using illustrated materials to teach students, so he introduced a universal encyclopedic dictionary which he called Nouveau Larousse illustré.
This was the first example of a Larousse encyclopedia containing color illustrations.
It involved 345 authors and illustrators, all under the direction of Claude Augé.
Their names are listed at the end of the seventh volume, but the articles are anonymous.
It was intended as a redesigned update of Pierre Larousse ‘s Grand Dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle in 15 volumes and 2 supplements.
That publication included 24,000 pages, written by only 89 contributors, also anonymously.
Pierre Larousse was mainly interested in describing the world.
He believed that
Faith in the law of progress is the true faith of our age.
He hoped to make his dictionary an instrument of popular education, and often included personal viewpoints, such as opposition to the Catholic Church in France.
By contrast, the Nouveau Larousse illustré was designed to be objective and scientifically precise, with exact definitions, relevant examples and especially helpful, well-reproduced imagery.
About illustrations, Claude Augé noted:
The image must constantly be the auxiliary of the idea. It speaks to the eyes and spares the reader the fatigue of overly dense descriptions, overly long explanations.
Augé also wrote in a preface to the new publication:
As for the spirit which inspired the Nouveau Larousse illustré, it is the purely scientific spirit: we mean by this that we consider this encyclopedia not as a war machine, not as a polemic work, but as a statement of facts and ideas.
This dictionary is considered as a predecessor for more modern similar publications with its encyclopedic format.
It sold over 250,000 copies in thirty years.
So, readers of the French language worldwide were able to learn about the ranat ek lek, mentioned in the seventh volume of the publication.
The ranat ek lek is a metallophone used in the classical music of Thailand.
The ranat ek lek consists of flat metal slabs placed over a rectangular wooden resonator.
It is played with two bamboo sticks with padded ends.
It is the smaller of the two sizes of Thai metallophone; the larger one is called ranat thum lek.
A metallophone is any musical instrument in which the sound-producing body is a piece of metal (other than a metal string), such as tuned metal bars, tubes, rods, bowls, or plates.
Most frequently the metal body is struck to produce sound, usually with a mallet, but may also be activated by friction, keyboard action, or other means.
Metallophones have been used in music in Asia for thousands of years in gamelan ensembles.
This musical instrument was originated in the reign of King Rama IV.
Claude Augé edited many publications on music, and his interest in Asian sounds extended to the music of Siam.
Also defined is the saw u, the Thai bowed string instrument.
It has a lower pitch than the saw duang and is the lowest sounding of the saw family.
The saw u was invented since the age of the present Bangkok period or perhaps from the end of the preceding in the age of Ayudya.
By the end of the 19th century, the saw u was added to the pi-phat-mai nuam ensemble which uses padded playing sticks and the pi phat derk dam ban which is a special pi phat ensemble in a particular form of theater.
The saw u was generally played in a pi phat ensemble with other accompanying instruments. The soundbox is made from a coconut shell that is covered on the open front by cowskin.
The saw u is held vertically and has two silk strings that are played with a bow.
The bow is between the strings and the player tilts the bow to play each string.
The bow is made out of horse tail hair like every other bow and must have rosin put on it occasionally, as with Western stringed instruments.
The saw u is fragile and is traditionally held on the lap by a seated musician.
It can be played as a solo instrument, but is mainly used in ensembles because of its dark, and mellow tone.
The saw u is most effective playing slow to moderately paced melodies.
Phuket is referred to in this volume as Thalang, derived from the old Malay Telong or cape, as well as the Western term Junk Ceylon, an erroneous form of the Malay Tanjung Salang or Cape Salang.
The same volume of the Nouveau Larousse illustré also discusses Gustave Rolin-Jaequemyns, a Belgian lawyer, diplomat and Minister of the Interior who served as an advisor to King Rama V.
Rolin-Jaequemyns helped Siam modernize to meet Western standards; in recognition of his achievements, he was awarded the title Chow Phya Abhai Raja, the highest distinction ever granted to a foreigner.
His influence extended over foreign policy, the judiciary, administration, finance, and the military.
Rolin-Jaequemyns’ reputation as an expert on international law was widely recognized. He played an important role in codifying the laws of war.
The reference work described Rolin-Jaequemyns in the spirit defined by the editor Augé:
The work we are publishing today is not an abridgement of the Grand dictionnaire Larousse. It is related to its predecessor by the essentially encyclopedic idea that presided over its development.
In the interest of efficient teaching of students, Augé aimed his reference work at the widest possible readership.
In doing so, he made articles briefer than in the preceding publications of Larousse, stating:
We do not need these considerable collections which, on each question, on each event, give a real monograph of the subject, and force the reader who is trying to look up a date or fact, to read through pages and pages of material.
This user-friendly approach meant that Nouveau Larousse illustré had a text half as long as that of the earlier Grand dictionnaire universel.
An encyclopedic spirit was maintained by high-quality articles which were clearer, more concise and practical than in other works, helping make aspects of Siamese life and history better known around the world.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)