Schedule
Last updated
Last updated
For the first part of Winter term, we will turn our focus to digital texts and how medieval manuscripts and texts can be represented in digital spaces.
Our classes will be divided between discussing the materials to be consulted below (guiding questions will be posted by myself as we go) and workshopping students' catalogue entries.
Listen to/ View:
Coding Codices. Episode 1. Coding Codicology can also be accessed on a number of other podcast platforms of your choice. We'll be listening to a few episodes this term, so you might want to subscribe (2021)
Rianne Koning, Robert Krom, Ilse Rombout and Kees Teszelszky - Presentation on the Medieval Memes Generator (Youtube, 2021)
Consult/ experiment with/ analyze:
For discussion/ contemplation:
This week, we will seek to understand how people interact with digital manuscripts. From the simple Medieval Meme Generator to the more academic online consolidators of the Digital Scriptorium or Europeana, I want you to think about how people with different levels of expertise/ interest interact and use digitized medieval manuscripts differently. Both the podcast and the recorded presentation highlight the explicit interest of 'experts' to connect with a more diverse audience than typical (i.e. not just medievalists). By looking at the above resources, I want us to consider how the user interface (UI, i.e. how you connect with and view a manuscript) changes how you experience/ think of it.
Come ready to discuss:
How do Sexy Codicology and the Dutch National Library seek to accomplish outreach? Do you think they are successful? What could they do better?
How do they define their success? What did they want to accomplish?
The interview with Sexy Codicology highlights a progressive shift in their goals from being populist then more scholarly (e.g. from using social media to creating web resources to consolidate digitized libraries). Try out the DMMap.
What is the User Interface like?
How does it change how you think about manuscripts whether reading the Sexy Codicology blog/ twitter account or looking at the DMMap site.
Try out the Digital Scriptorium or the Europeana sites. Like DMMap, they consolidate information held in other digital repositories. The Digital Scriptorium is medieval in content, whereas Europeana is much broader in its content.
Find a medieval manuscript using one of these two resources. Tell us how you found it and how its UI encourages you to look for manuscripts in certain ways. Be able to talk about at least one manuscript that you found and why it is notable (at least, to you).
To do:
make a medieval meme (using the generator) and post it to Teams before class
find a digitized medieval manuscript to introduce to the class (you will be given 2 minutes to introduce your manuscript to everyone else and tell us how you found it/ why you want to draw attention to it).
Exhibition Brainstorming:
We establish different work groups for our revision of the manuscript catalogue this term. Student's will choose an area of specialization they will concentrate on for the first half of the term.
editorial (maintaining consistent standards, appearance and structure for all the entries)
palaeographical (considering palaeographical questions each week)
art historical (focussing on decorative elements each week)
codicological (focussing on mise-en-page, binding elements)
provenance (developping the historical picture of the folios)
Also consider, if we were to put together an exhibition, how would we want to engage with the public? What do you think might be the differences between a digital exhibition and a physical one?
Folio Workshop:
We will be reviewing and researching, Riley and Keira's catalogue entries.
In advance of class, Riley and Keira will suggest areas of potential research - i.e. areas that need further research, explanation and support
Listen to/ View:
Coding Codices. Ep. 7. Mateusz Fafinski discusses his work on the theory of digital humanities.
Coding Codices. Ep. 8. Dr. Johanna Green speaks about manuscript materiality, digitization projects, and increased access to physical objects. If you want to read more of Dr. Green, you have the option to read her article "Digital Manuscripts as Sites of Touch".
Maia Sheridan/Eddie Martin/Erica Kotze. A conversation about digitising mediaeval manuscripts. (2021)
University of St Andrews, ms BR65 .A9: Collected works of Augustine of Hippo
For discussion/ contemplation:
This week, we want to revisit our early discussion (last term) about the nature of digitized manuscripts. What is a "digitized" manuscript? And how does the idea of digital facsimile's limit what manuscripts can tell us? Or how do digital manuscript facsimiles allow us to do new things?
In class, we will navigate through the manuscript ms BR65 .A9 at the University of Saint Andrews (Scotland) in its present digital interface, but take time to explore the manuscript beforehand.
Come to class ready to discuss:
What is Fafinski's idea of the digital facsimile? How does he present it differently on the podcast and in his article? Does one help understand the other?
How does Green argue that a manuscripts materiality suggests the limitations of digitization?
How does the manuscript appear differently when put on video and when viewed on the St. Andrew's website?
How much can you interact with the manuscript on the website? Or are you limited to passive viewing? What kind of information do they offer to enhance your experience?
Brainstorming for the exhibition:
If we were to display our medieval fragments digitally, how should we display them/ should we allow the audience to engage with them?
Folio Workshop
We will be reviewing Nigel and Kealey's catalogue entries.
Read:
"Why Do We Digitize? The Case for Slow Digitization," Andrew Prescott, Lorna Hughes, Archives Journal September 2018
Listen to/ View:
Announcement of AI colorization of B&W microfilm. Prepublication of study here:
Explore:
Sketchfab 3D models, repository, Musée de Cluny (Museum of the Middle Ages).
For discussion/ contemplation:
Van Haaren and Pawlikoski provide us with an overview of what are current standard practices of digitization studios. Endres suggests pathways for future development. And Smith suggests what is not captured by digitization. Thibault Clérice and Ariane Pinche suggest how machine learning might assist our efforts to reconstruct lost manuscripts (through AI assisted colorization). After watching these presentations and article (and previously viewed materials), come ready to talk about the past, present and future of digitization.
In particular consider:
what does new technology offer to distinguish it from in-person/ analog efforts at analysis?
what does new technology lack; what can the digital not capture at the moment?
how does this technology change how you consider the digital manuscript?
we often think about the digital facsimile as images. Is this a reasonable assumption to make?
Be ready to talk about:
one thing that surprised you about the processes or technologies of digitization
one thing that reinforced what you already were thinking about digitical facsimiles
what are the limitations on digitization efforts
Exhibition Brainstorming
In our future exhibition, should we offer something beyond simple scans of our materials. Should we edit them digitally, or create facsimiles to help communicate information? (e.g. edit the contrast of the Carthusian bifoilium to highlight the very faint marginalia?).
Going Further:
Read Smith, Astrid J. “What It Is to Be a Digitization Specialist: Chasing Medieval Materials in a Sea of Pixels.” In Medieval Manuscripts in the Digital Age. Routledge, 2020.
The Department of Canadian Heritage has developed a number tutorials and sets of guidelines to help Canadian heritage institutions with the process of digitization.
Please take a look at the Digital Imaging guide to understand imaging terminology.
but spend most of your time and focus on completing the Capture Your Collection: Small Museum Tutorial. Keep in mind that images of all the folios have been photographed, and are already available through a IIIF server online. The exercises are useful tools for your to reflect on the process outlined, but not necessary to complete for our purpose.
This week we tackle the thorny issue of storing and showcasing medieval manuscripts. We can dream that access to medieval manuscripts could be solved by "digitizing everything" and putting it up on the web - but there are limits. Digitization takes time, resources and storage; like other materials, digital data degrades over time (bit rot), data standards change (new software upgrades might not be backwards compatible) as does technology (CDs or 3.25" disks are difficult to consult even if the data on them are perfectly preserved). And as the number of digital facsimiles increase (as does the associated data), how can easy access be preserved?
And how does information get displayed. Consider the different impetuses of archivists and curators. How does organization get organized (and therefore experienced) differently depending on its purpose.
Folio Workshop
We will be reviewing David and Darius' catalogue entries.
Listen to/ View/Explore:
Coding Codices. Ep. 6. Eric Ensley and Matthew Kirschenbaum talk about the archive, both digital and material.
BNF Collection: try to navigate from 1 to 3 using the
Manuscripts Overview (browsing different collections)
Manuscript Department (top level menu)
BNF, manuscrit latin 10622 (presentation via Mirador/ IIIF)
For discussion/ contemplation:
How do digital artefacts/ facsimiles have their own storage requirements?
How does the BNF organize archival and manuscript information. Why do you think it is organized the way it is? How does it function from a User Experience perspective?
How are the England and France and the Siege of Jerusalem exhibitions/ repositories designed? These should be considered case studies that will allow you to think through how you want to structure your future exhibit.
Who is the intended audience?
What information is communicated?
Is the purpose popular or scholarly?
How is the audience expected to experience the information?
What is the dominant form of media used?
How interactive are they?
Exhibition Brainstorming
By the end of our discussion, we should be able to express ways to ensure the preservation/ longevity of our information/ catalogue/ exhibition. And we will decide on the basic format of our proposed exhibition.
Going Further:
Paul, Suzanne. “The Curation and Display of Digital Medieval Manuscripts.” In The
Cambridge Companion to Medieval British Manuscripts, edited by Elaine Treharne and Orietta Da Rold, 267–83. Cambridge Companions to Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020.
Read Heather Bamford and Emily C. Francomano. "On Digital-Medieval Manuscript Culture: A Tentative Manifesto." Digital Philology: A Journal of Medieval Cultures 7, no. 1 (2018): 29-45
Digital editions seek to reproduce the content (text) of medieval manuscripts but have more flexibility in how it is displayed than digital surrogates/ facsimiles or print editions.
Traditionally, editions have been limited by the availability of type. In the fifteenth and sixteenth century, traditional letter forms in English (thorn [ þ], eth [ð], yogh [ȝ]) , for example, were lost because Swiss, German and French type makers did not use them (and thus did not make the type). But digital typography allows us to more closely mirror the appearance of medieval texts if we wish.
digital editions function as hidden databases and contain a wealth of information that does not necessarily get visualized for the reader
Folio Workshop
We will be reviewing Natasha and Laura's catalogue entries.
Read:
Patrick Sahle, “What is a Scholarly Digital Edition?” in Digital Scholarly Editing: Theories and Practices - Open Book Publishers,” accessed December 30, 2018, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0095
“The Effects of the Seven Sins”: A Critical Edition edited by Krista A. Murchison
this short edition of a poem on the sins is an example of a born digital edition - the text functions almost as a database. How to read this text is explained in more detail in the exercise, Reading a TEI edition.
For a sense of what TEI is about take a look at Lou Burnard's short Open Edition What is the Text Encoding Initiative: How to add intelligent markup to digital resources . All in, this text runs to 114 pages, so read from the "Introduction" until the end of "Varieties of textual structure". Please read the whole thing if you get intrigued.
Additional Examples of TEI encoded Folio descriptions
Antiphonary folio located at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, catalogued on the Fragmentarium website.
TEI xml sheet for the above Antiphonary folio.
To Do:
Before class, complete the exercise, Reading a TEI edition.
Digital editions have greater flexibility because digital files (unlike print) have ways to distinguish the visible text and the underlying code.
In this class, we will work on establishing a draft XML file of a short transcription of a Carleton manuscript fragment
Folio Workshop
We will be working individually on completing our contributions to the catalogue entries.
No classes.
This day will be a final review of the folio's and pushing to get a coherent final draft complete.
Folio Workshop
We will be reviewing Ava, Lilo, Nicholas and Josh's catalogue entries.
To do:
we will establish any final work to be completed on the catalogue entries
For these four weeks, we will be working together to brainstorm, develop and produce an 'exhibition' of our medieval folios and/or our copies/transformations of them into print, manuscript and digital versions.
In this class, we will celebrate the end of term and –perhaps– the launch of our class exhibition (online or physical, or maybe both).
The schedule is in some ways provisional. The first term schedule is set and then second term can be adjusted depending on student interests and what has garnered the most interest in the first term.
In our classes, our readings will largely be about medieval material. But I want you all to consider how the ideas can relate to our own time. Just as the Middle Ages showed a revolution in the technology of the book, how is our own digital society experiencing a rewriting of how we read, write and communicate. In this class, you need to bring yourself as a primary source to be interrogated.
Bring a tablet or computer for looking at digital resources in class. I do understand the ridiculousness of getting together in class face-to-face and then also spending time on our screens....
You can sign out computers from the library if you don't have a laptop/tablet. Currently you need to book them in advance and then pick them up at a scheduled time.
I think we might actually be able to meet in person?! We'll get together in Room 1020, Dunton Tower if all goes well. You'll need to come masked!
come ready to introduce yourself and meet your classmates!
this class will be about discussing the coming year, your (and my) expectations and getting a sense of where we are starting from
we'll look through some of the sites and tools we'll be regularly using this year.
you'll be introduced to Humanities Commons (where you will be responsible for creating an online public facing "academic" profile.
The Middle Ages is a site for debate and to the imagination in the modern world. We come to the study of the time period with many expectations and preconceptions (both positive and negative)
This week, I'll (Marc) lead our seminar with the goal of eliciting students' ideas about the Middle Ages and hopefully to begin questioning them. The Middle Ages is neither a Romantic Age of Chivalry nor the Dark Ages, but rather a time filled with people like us (but also unlike us...). Think about what the ideas of the Middle Ages you come to class with.
Read and annotate Kaufman and Sturtevant, The Devil's Historians. Yes, read the whole book.
the starting point for our study of the medieval book is learning the fundamentals - so we're going to take apart some books and identify their parts
the goal is to learn fundamental terminology and the basics of descriptive bibliography
How can books have a history? Why would you bother to study it? The discipline or subdiscipline of book history is based on the idea that, to understand what a text means, we also need to consider what it is at a material level.
Book history can take many forms - from the technical analysis of textual remnants to tracking changes in intellectual history embodied in texts
In this class, students will be introduced to the idea of book history
In this class, we will look at examples of modern books, and will try to think through some of the ways that they can act as evidence of historical trends
What is the medieval history of writing, literacy and the book?
In this class, we will focus more narrowly on literate culture and the written word in the Middle Ages. This means we will have to think a little about what is the difference between literacy and orality (which are complementary and at times overlapping practices of communication)
In this class, we will also learn to read catalogue records of medieval manuscripts and fragments in order to understand the kind of information medievalists and book history specialists want to know.
How do books change in the digital age? Does the idea of "the book" matter anymore?
We're skipping over a big topic in this history of books (i.e. print culture) to jump straight to the idea of a digital book. We will confront (more generall) what happens when a book becomes digital (how does the reading and production experience change), and we will start to think about how medieval manuscripts are transformed when they are "digitized".
After the introductory section focussed on getting oriented, we start to engage with the materiality of the medieval book. This will involve getting hands on with medieval manuscripts, but also beginning exercises to understand the process of how medieval manuscripts were made. Together we will learn detailed vocabulary and analytics for describing medieval manuscripts.
Everything written is written on something – rock, parchment, birchbark, papyrus. We're going read and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of different "substrates" (aka "writing supports"). Our focus will be less on monumental writing (i.e. in stone) and mostly on pre-modern paper and parchment. And we'll start to think about your own experiences as writers - how digital space itself is a writing surface with its own limits and possibilities.
Our readings will focus on parchment/paper, but examples of other substrates can be found here:
Fragments of birch bark manuscript in Kharoṣṭi, https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/gandharan-scrolls
Carbonized scroll from Herculaneum, introduction here http://emilyshauser.weebly.com/hocw100/hocw74-herculaneum-papyrus-phercparis-4-herculaneum-italy-1st-century-ce and imaging project discussed here: https://www.nature.com/articles/srep27227
Book of wax tablets, http://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/list/one/csg/1091
Sarah Bond has a blog post about teaching Classical Epigraphy (study of inscriptions). Read through her comments and look at the sketchfab examples she provides. https://sarahemilybond.com/2018/01/29/replacing-the-squeeze-teaching-classical-epigraphy-with-3d-models/
No classes.
Lines, columns, borders, ruling, layout: medieval books demonstrate different forms to organize meaning. Over the course of the Middle Ages, writers move from a simply linear form of writing (e.g. a scroll) to different ways to organize
This class, you will use medieval methods to delineate text blocks, columns, lines, for a future text you will work on. For the medieval book, forms follows function.
Class might start a little bit late in order to allow students to attend the campus Remembrance Day ceremonies.
Writing (characters, letter forms and symbols) convey meaning according to recognizable formats. How letters look, for example, follow established (and historically defined) norms. We will examine medieval bookhands (which is what we call distinct styles of writing used for producing books). Some time will be spend with non-Latin scripts, but mostly we'll focus on Western European texts.
In this class we will make a medieval "pen", try writing with it to try to reproduce the pen strokes making up medieval letters, and start to train your oculus palaeographicus.
Recognizing medieval letter forms is one thing, being able to recognize words and sentences is another. In this class, we will consider how medieval scribes abbreviated words (according to a discernable system), and used punctuation in ways very different (but foundational) to ours.
Abbreviations, punctuation, symbols etc. are part of a developing technology of the book. Consider the digital side to this,
In this class we will begin to try to read medieval scripts and make sense of the texts
Adriano Capelli's now quite old text on Abbreviationes remains the reference work of record. Luckily it has been semi-translated, updated and made more accessible. Read the intro to Capelli laying out a theory of medieval abbreviation, translated into English here.
Use Capelli on a smart phone here (unfortunately the interface is only in French or German at this point). The searchable version for a browser on a computer is here. A digitized copy of the print version can be read on Archive.org.
Medieval texts demonstrate a wide range of illustration for practical, illustrative and even meditational purposes. We will consider how different materials, methods and skills are used to allow medieval artists to draw, pigment and decorate medieval manuscripts.
We will seek to employ some medieval methods for copying images to transfer images onto your ongoing.
Medieval books could be covered and protected in a number of ways. We will look at some of the most important ways in which medieval books were bound
We will also seek to bind together a simple pamphlet, and fold a letter into a sealed carrying case.
Student presentations on medieval folios.
How were medieval manuscripts stored and how did they survive? We will consider the ways how medieval manuscripts (once made, used and read) moved around or were exchanged, sold, stolen and destroyed.
In the fifteeenth century, the use of print spread in Western Europe. Early print shows early printers mimicked the format of manuscripts, but then steadily developed new forms of presenting information that suited the new medium
In this class, we will look at and seek to understand how to use early modern and modern editions of medieval manuscripts, learning terminology, abbreviations and structures used
This class we will be working hands-on in the print lab to typeset an edition of the medieval manuscripts we have in the Carleton collection. Students are encouraged to visit the Book Arts Lab on their own time to work further on their editions.
This class we will attempt to complete the printed version of our manuscripts. Students are encouraged to visit the Book Arts Lab on their own time to work further on their editions.
