Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2019 April 22

= April 22 =

German Law Reference
This article makes a claim: "The Leipzig District Court had ruled in a landmark decision in September 1979 that it considered software to be 'neither a scientific work nor a creative achievement.'" If you search the Internet, you will assume that this is true because there are hundreds of web pages that use this article as a source of reference. However, the article doesn't provide a reference. It doesn't state which case was being tried in September 1979. I've searched for each and every case handled by the Leipzig District Court in September 1979 and none of them remotely deal with computer software. Therefore, can we consider a web page on zeit.de to be a reasonable reference? They are well-known to publish third-party (unreviewed) articles, especially in the online version. If nobody can come up with the case being referenced, I see this as being considered "truth" because people want it to be true, not because it is true. Can anyone find the case being referenced? 68.115.219.139 (talk) 12:44, 22 April 2019 (UTC)


 * As I understand it, German law doesn't really have a principle of stare decisis in the way that the Common Law of most English speaking countries traditionally does, so that the decision (if it exists) might not be that important anyway. I'm not too sure what a "landmark decision" even is, in a system without effective stare decisis, unless the highest court is involved... AnonMoos (talk) 12:57, 22 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I neglected to mention that it is being used as a resource (currently #14) in copyright infringement. 68.115.219.139 (talk) 13:36, 22 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Even if it had, Leipzig was part of the GDR and thus their pre-1990 decisions wouldn't influence precedent anyway. I've studied German law for 14 years now and I can't remember a single time a GDR-era ruling was mentioned as precedent. As for the question, from what I can gather searching online the decision dates 14 September 1979 and was probably published in Neue Justiz 5/1981 on page 236. Unfortunately, Neue Justiz is only published since 1990 by Nomos, so I cannot access prior editions in their archive. You might have some luck asking someone at de:Wikipedia:Bibliotheksrecherche/Anfragen (the de-wiki equivalent of WP:REX) to make you a scan of the magazine in a university library; most law school libraries should hold a copy somewhere and it shouldn't be too hard to find a law student willing to help. Regards So  Why  16:09, 22 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I will check the library here. We have an extensive international law section. 68.115.219.139 (talk) 16:52, 22 April 2019 (UTC)

What's a formula to guesstimate the # of unique books at the largest public library building of a US metro area from population?
Whatever population fits the curve best (population of the library district? metro population?)

Unique books as in 2 copies of the fourth edition and 2 of the third is one title, not four.

If a central library has multiple buildings I'd count that as 1 library. i.e. Manhattan has 1 building for science, technology, business and industry reference books, another a half mile away for anything you can borrow and other reference books and the original Gilded Age classical temple across the corner has the rest. I don't know if multiple central libraries is unusual or not. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 14:50, 22 April 2019 (UTC)


 * If I'm understanding your question correctly List of largest libraries suggests this would be the New York Public Library.--Shantavira|feed me 19:03, 22 April 2019 (UTC)
 * The OP wants a formula to guess the number of books in the largest public library for every U.S. metro area based on metro area population. Sleigh (talk) 09:00, 23 April 2019 (UTC)

Greek mythology during Islamic golden age
Was Greek mythology studied much during the Islamic golden age? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.121.140.210 (talk) 23:59, 22 April 2019 (UTC)


 * Wikipedia has some articles tangentially related to the subject, see Transmission of the Greek Classics which has a section on Arabic language translations of Greek works, as does Greek contributions to Islamic world. Here is an external article on the subject, but all of those are more in general on Greek/Islamic scholarship.  This article looks even more promising for your research.  -- Jayron 32 12:02, 23 April 2019 (UTC)


 * 209.121.140.210 -- The short answer is "No", at least as far as Muslims reading and writing in the Arabic language. The Arabs were greatly interested in Greek philosophy, astronomy, medicine, and certain other aspects of science (often called "natural philosophy" before the 19th century).  They were generally not very interested in fiction literature (plays, poems, novels etc.), history (other than a certain dry chronology of condensed annals), or in pagan Greek culture for its own sake.  (The alleged Greek influences on the Arabian Nights mentioned in the "Transmission of the Greek Classics" article are not a real counter-example, since it's extremely unlikely that such influences arrived through Abbasid-era translations of Greek belles-lettres works into Arabic..) AnonMoos (talk) 15:08, 23 April 2019 (UTC)


 * To extricate Greek mythology from Greek literature is somewhat impossible however. Homer, for example, was translated into Arabic in the Islamic Golden Age and his works were well represented in Baghdad's library.  One cannot read the Illiad and be entirely unaware of the Greek Gods and their mythos.  -- Jayron 32 15:19, 23 April 2019 (UTC)


 * I hadn't heard that (and it goes against the general tendency of much of what I have heard). I wonder what the nature of this translation was (since much of the Greek text of the Iliad wouldn't have meant much to medieval Arabs without extended explanations) and whether any of it survives today.  Greek literary motifs and allusions certainly didn't establish themselves in Islamic literature (unlike Persian ones). AnonMoos (talk) 15:41, 23 April 2019 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure on how widespread such knowledge was, but it existed. For all we know, it may have been a single translation that sat dusty on the shelves of one library, and never did anything.  -- Jayron 32 15:47, 23 April 2019 (UTC)