the digitisation of chaucer
DESCRIPTION
Keynote lecture for the conference ‘From glass case to cyber-space: Chaucerian manuscripts across time/ Syrffio’r silff: hynt a helynt llawysgrifau Chaucer’ at the National Library of Wales / Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru, 14-16 April 2014TRANSCRIPT
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Petition by Adam Pinkhurst rel. to his lands in Surrey and Sussex, c. 1400: The National Archives, SC8/134/6633
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William Schipper, 'Dry-Point Compilation Notes in the Benedictional of St Æthelwold', British Library Journal, 20 (1994),
17-34
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The dry point note ‘In’ illustrated by Schipper is not readily visible in this ‘vanilla’ digitisation of f. 27v of the Benedictional of St Æthelwold. Ideally we need a series of images exploring
different aspects of this folio.
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A.S.G. Edwards, ‘Back to the Real’, Times Literary Supplement, 7 June 2013
• Digital surrogates more expensive version of microfilm
• Make it difficult to assess material characteristics• Discourage engagement with originals and
provide excuse for libraries to restrict access• Expensive activity which diverts resources from
more pressing priorities such as training in palaeography and conservation of originals
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A.S.G. Edwards, ‘Back to the Real’, Times Literary Supplement, 7 June 2013
“Is it worth it? Do the ends justify the unquantifiable cost of the means? Digitization appears to be proceeding unchecked and unfocused, deflecting students into a virtual world and leaving them unequipped to deal responsibly with real rare materials. I suspect that the combination of poorly prepared students and reductions in library staffing levels will make real manuscripts ever more difficult to access directly”.
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Edwards: The Codex Sinaiticus is an interesting test case for apologists of digitization. Last year I was told that the Codex Sinaiticus site got about 10,000 hits a month. That might seem a strong justification for digitization. But it seems doubtful whether even a small fraction of that number have the appropriate training – codicological, linguistic and textual – to approach the work in an informed way. If my audience analysis is even broadly correct, the British Library is investing heavily not in scholarship, but in a new branch of the entertainment industry.
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Lost leaves from Codex Sinaiticus found in St Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt in 1976
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Text of Mark 1:1 in the British Library portion of the Codex Sinaiticus under standard light, showing corrections including insertion of the phrase ‘Son of God’.
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The same section of Mark 1:1 under raking light, with transcription and translation
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Imaging of the Beowulf manuscript using fibre optic backlighting to reveal letters and words concealed by nineteenth-century conservation work:
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Two sets of transcripts made for the Danish antiquary Thorkelin, now in the Royal Library Copenhagen, compared with the original manuscript
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Micro CT scan of the internal structure of a papyrus roll burnt at Herculaneum. The imaging was undertaken as
part of a project directed by Professor Brent Seales, University of Kentucky
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Kathryn Rudy, ' Dirty books : Quantifying patterns of use in medieval manuscripts using a densitometer ' Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art , vol 2 (2010) , no. 1-2 , pp. 1-26
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Using the Diamond Light Source to Recover Palimpsest Text
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