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Singapurs Bibliothekswesen erfreute sich besonders zu Beginn der 2000er Jahre großer internationaler Aufmerksamkeit. Grund dafür waren die tiefgreifenden Strukturveränderungen, die der Stadtstaat in seiner Bibliothekslandschaft durch die Verabschiedung eines umfangreichen Bibliotheksgesetzes, dem National Library Board Act, vornahm. Die Kombination aus zentraler staatlicher Verwaltung, gesetzlicher Verankerung, guter finanzieller Ausstattung und dem Bewusstsein über die Bedeutung einer hohen Kundenorientierung, machen Singapurs Bibliothekswesen heute besonders im Bereich der Öffentlichen Bibliotheken zu einem der Modernsten weltweit. Neben den Öffentlichen sollen aber auch die Wissenschaftliche Bibliotheken des Stadtstaats in diesem Beitrag betrachtet werden, um so einen vollumfänglichen Überblick über die Bibliothekslandschaft Singapurs zu geben. In the early 2000s, Singapore's libraries garnered international attention because of the far-reaching structural changes in the library system the city-state introduced by a comprehensive library bill, the National Library Board Act. A unique combination of central government administration, legal basis, excellent funding and high-profile customer focus makes Singapore's library system one of the most modern in the world to date, especially in the public libraries sector. The paper also looks at academic libraries to provide a full overview of Singapore's library landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay argues against a history of mathematics that celebrates a unique Greek 'outlier' in world history, while raising the question of the new type of histories of mathematics that we should write today. Taking examples from the history of mathematical sources in Sanskrit and histories of mathematics written in South Asia, this essay deconstructs some assumptions behind narratives of Greek and European exceptionalism. In particular, it challenges the notion that ancient Greece possessed a unique democratic culture that fostered scientific debate and that only Greece possessed brash authors able to challenge common sense. The essay provides a reflection on the political histories that European exceptionalism – in particular regarding mathematics – has directly or indirectly shaped. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a comparative study of city states in the Christian and Islamic spheres of the later medieval Mediterranean world, with a particular focus on Italy, Syria and al-Andalus. Medieval city states are not usually associated with the Islamic world, but rather with a narrative that has foregrounded the exceptional nature of European cities in world history, especially the famous city republics in Northern and Central Italy, and the role that city states played in the formation of European states. Yet city states were a phenomenon that could be observed across urbanized regions of the Mediterranean world where cities turned into important political arenas in the context of sustained political fragmentation. City states are best approached as political systems that were characterized by brittle regimes and experienced high levels of political volatility: they often lacked a clear boundary between the 'inside' and 'outside' of city states and were characterized by the multiple political organizations that crystallized in, and fought hard to control, urban political space. The most commonly shared type of political organization in city states was the urban lordship, but city-based lords usually found themselves in intense competition with elite-based collective associations, families and factions, and popular political organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Italian communes from 1300–1600 bought and sold numerous towns and castles from Crete (enfeoffed to Venice in 1205) to Arezzo (offered to Florence in 1384) to Tabarka (given as mortgage to a Genoese family in 1540). Despite the popularity of this custom, however, existing scholarship claims Renaissance cities expanded territorially through violent conquests that centralized government finances and promoted militant imperialist discourses. Drawing on case studies of the Florentine purchase of two cities — Lucca (1342) and Pisa (1405) — this article reveals how the buyers of Renaissance cities instead drew upon a vast, little-studied network of private creditors to pay for new lands. The vendibility of space, moreover, helped foster a commercialized ideology of empire. Diarists heralded their city's superior commerce. Civic leaders tied the good of their communes to keeping its honour and faith with city-sellers. And polemicists stained opponents with accusations of fraud while demoting cities such as Pisa and Lucca to mere merchandise. Buying cities thus allowed Renaissance merchant elites to demonstrate not only their city's superior material wealth, but also mercantile prowess — their ability to bargain for a good deal (buon mercato). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]