Announcement of new Celtic Studies title: ‘Celtic Myth and Religion: A Study of Traditional Belief’ (McFarland) by Sharon Paice MacLeod (ISBN 978-0-7864-6476-0)
Posted by: Sharon Paice MacLeod (macleod_eolas@yahoo.com).
*selgā: a catalogue of primary source materials for Celtic studies
*selgā (http://www.vanhamel.nl/wiki) is a new online project for Celtic studies, published by the A. G. van Hamel Foundation for Celtic Studies, a Dutch non-profit organisation based in Utrecht. The project seeks to build a catalogue of texts and manuscripts, thereby providing a reference tool for studying written sources relevant to the field. The foundation intends to uncover a relatively untapped niche by making the catalogue available as a collaborative platform, which is based on the open-source MediaWiki software package. Scholars and students are invited to contribute to the project.
While comprehensiveness would be an unrealistic goal in the short term, *selgā has not been designed as a one-off, but as a continuous project which may be suited to accommodate smaller, more manageable ‘sub-projects’ under its umbrella. At present, over 500 texts – most of them in the realm of early Irish literature – have been indexed giving some basic information and citing relevant publications using an onboard bibliographic system. Links to online resources such as CELT and ISOS are generously included. New entries will be created and existing ones expanded and improved as the project develops.
Inquiries can be e-mailed to Dennis Groenewegen at selga[at]vanhamel.nl.
Posted by: Dennis Groenewegen (selga@vanhamel.nl).
Difficult images needed
All,
One of our affiliated research students here at the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities, shared with the Department of Medical Physics and Bioengineering, needs some images to test his processing methods. I copy his request below. If you have any such material it would be greatly appreciated. Please contact me off-list and I’ll put you in touch: s.mahony@ucl.ac.uk Regards
Simon
“My project involves applying image processing methods to multi-spectral images in order to enhance or reveal difficult-to-read text.
The type of images that I need are the full-spectrum of unmodified, multi-spectral images of manuscripts or documents. The methods that I use will try to enhance text from this manuscripts. Ideally the images should be from palimpsestic text, where at least one of the text is very difficult to see or image with visible light captures.”
Alejandro Giacometti alejandro.giacometti.09@ucl.ac.uk
Dept. of Medical Physics & Bioengineering
Dept. of Information Studies
eXtensible Text Framework (XTF) Website Launched
Robust open-source application makes managing access to digital content simple
The Publishing Group of the California Digital Library (CDL) announces the launch of the eXtensible Text Framework (XTF) website (http://xtf.cdlib.org/), supporting a robust open-source application for providing access to digital content. Developed and maintained by the CDL, XTF functions as the primary access technology for the CDL’s digital collections and similar projects worldwide.
XTF excels in supporting rapid, customized application development and deployment. Its high degree of extensibility and performance (even for large documents and large collections) frees implementers to focus on building sophisticated presentations for their digital object collections.
“It’s all about balancing flexibility and ease of use: putting infinite customization ability in the hands of curators and scholars with a driving need to provide deep access to their special collections,” says XTF lead developer Martin Haye.
XTF-based applications range from primary source image collections to publishing platforms and archival finding aid repositories at the University of California and many other institutions, including Northwestern University, the University of Sydney (Australia), Indiana University, Visual Arkiv (Sweden), Morehouse College, Durham University (UK), and the University of Virginia.
Highly customized implementations include:
- CDL’s eScholarship (http://www.escholarship.org/ ), UC’s open access scholarly publishing platform, which publishes recent research from across the 10 campuses as well as nearly 40 UC-based scholarly journals. XTF customizations include a streamlined facet-selection interface, dynamic PDF snippets called “KWIC Pics,” PDF document previews in the browser, and support for a deep hierarchy of contributing academic units.
- CDL’s Online Archive of California (http://www.oac.cdlib.org/), a collection of more than 20,000 archival finding aids and 200,000 digital primary sources (images and texts) from more than 150 archives, libraries, and other institutions in the state of California. XTF implementation features full-text search and display, detailed descriptive metadata, and a robust finding aid interface.
- Indiana University’s The Chymistry of Isaac Newton (http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/newton/), a digital repository of transcriptions of Newton’s alchemical manuscripts. Site features a seamless blend of various web tools, including XTF as the search technology.
- The Encyclopedia of Chicago (http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/), a collaboration between the Chicago Historical Society, Northwestern University, and the Newberry Library. Site integrates XTF with an image zoomer to display a large collection of historic photographs and maps, as well as using XTF for search and display of descriptive metadata.
Lightly customized implementations include:
- OhioLink Finding Aids Repository (http://ead.ohiolink.edu/xtf-ead/), this consortium of archives, libraries, and other institutions in the state of Ohio uses the default XTF implementation with dedicated branding and other slight modifications.
- University of Buffalo Finding Aids (http://libweb1.lib.buffalo.edu:8080/findingaids/search) uses a basic XTF application to enable browse and search of collection guides from the university’s archival and manuscript collections.
The new site serves as an expanded resource for programmers, librarians, and the general public to explore and implement the Java and XSLT 2.0-based framework. Features include:
- XTF application download – full release or core updates to maintain customizations (http://xtf.cdlib.org/download/)
- Documentation, including downloadable deployment guide, programming guide, and tag reference (http://xtf.cdlib.org/documentation)
- Video tutorials focusing on basic setup and customization of XTF (http://xtf.cdlib.org/getting-started-tutorials)
- Example XTF implementations highlighting customized features. (http://xtf.cdlib.org/xtf/)
For a full list of XTF’s features and benefits, as well as a technical overview, please visit http://xtf.cdlib.org/about or address queries to Martin Haye at Martin.Haye@ucop.edu.
———————————————–
Lisa Schiff, Ph.D.
Technical Lead
Publishing Group
California Digital Library http://www.cdlib.org/
University of California
Office of the President
415 20th Street, 4th Floor
Oakland, CA 94612-2901
510-987-0881 (t) 510-893-5212 (f)
Posted by: Roberto Rosselli Del Turco (rosselli at ling dot unipi dot it)
Music Encoding Initiative Council announces the release of MEI
The Music Encoding Initiative Council announces the release of MEI 2010-05 – a groundbreaking digital musical notation model.
The MEI Council is pleased to announce the first collaboratively-designed method for encoding the intellectual and physical characteristics of music notation documents and their scholarly editorial apparatus. MEI has the ability to manage complex source situations and will dramatically improve the search, retrieval and display of notated music online, benefiting music scholars and performers. Because of MEI’s software independence, the data format defined by the schema also serves an archival function.
The MEI model is free and available for download at http://music-encoding.org/. The site also offers tutorials, examples, and experimental software for MEI conversion – more will be available in the near future. Information about the future of the project and how to get involved are also on the site.
The MEI Council is an international group of scholars, technologists, and educators representing a broad range of musicological, theoretical, and pedagogical interests. The Council was created through funding to the University of Virginia Library and the University of Paderborn from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
About the University of Virginia
With 14 physical locations as well as the original Rotunda, the U.Va. Library contains more than 5 million books, 17 million manuscripts, rare books and archives, and rapidly growing digital collections. The Library is a leader in developing collections, tools, and collaborations that foster scholarship at the University and worldwide. It is known, in particular, for its strength in American history and literature and its innovation in digital technologies. The MEI project is a continuation of work begun in 2000 at U.Va.
About the University of Paderborn
The University of Paderborn has a special focus on Computer Science, exemplified by its Heinz-Nixdorf Institute. Together with the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold, the University conducts the Seminar for Musicology where, in 2004 and in cooperation with the Carl Maria von Weber Complete-Edition project, preliminary work was performed regarding digital critical editions of music. Its “Edirom” project (also DFG-funded) has been developing platform- independent solutions for musical editions since 2006.
About the granting agencies
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft is the central, self-governing research funding organization, serving all branches of science and the humanities by funding research at universities and other publicly financed research institutions in Germany and facilitating cooperation among investigators.
The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent grant-making agency of the United States government dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities.
Any views, finding, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.
Posted by: Roberto Rosselli Del Turco (rosselli at ling dot unipi dot it)
Version 1.0 of the Eadui font released under the Open Font License
Many thanks to those who tested my Eadui font, which tries to faithfully reproduce the English Caroline Minuscule hand of the eleventh-century Canterbury scribe Eadui Basan. I’ve released version 1.0 under the Open Font License on the Open Font Library website:
http://openfontlibrary.org/files/psb6m/177
Happy summer to all,
Peter Baker
[From the accompanying document (Eadui.pdf):]
EADUI THE FONT IS NAMED FOR A SCRIBE WHO worked at Christ Church, Canterbury, in the first half of the eleventh century and signed himself “Eaduuius cognomento Basan.” This Eadui Basan was a leading practitioner of the scribal hand known to paleographers as style IV English caroline minuscule. Like caroline minuscules generally, this one is notable for its legibility; and Eadui’s work, at its best, possesses a formal beauty that is matched by few scribes of his time.
This font, based on Eadui’s hand, uses OpenType features to emulate the characteristics of written script: numerous ligatures and contextual variants give the script the slightly irregular look of a handmade thing. Eadui works best with applications that make available the OpenType features of fonts. These include Adobe InDesign and XeTeX; many features of Eadui are also accessible in Mellel and iWorks, fewer in word processors like Microsoft Word and OpenOffice.org.
AccessTEI Launched: New Digitization Benefit for Member Institutions Now Available from TEI
With the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundations Scholarly Communications and Information Technology programme, and in cooperation with Apex CoVantage, LLC, a leader in content management outsourcing, the Text Encoding Initiative is pleased to announce the launch of its new AccessTEI digitization program.
AccessTEI is a digitization program that allows member institutions of the TEI to realize saving and workflow efficiencies in the outsourcing of digitization work normally available only to the largest and most active of institutions. By taking advantage of economies of scale among the TEI membership, AccessTEI is able to offer preferred pricing even on very small jobswhile still providing users with access to individual project management and Quality Assurance programs. Pricing is set by the output kilobyte, providing cost certainty.
Using the AccessTEI web portal member institutions submit work for digitization. In recognition of the fact that TEI members work with a wide variety of content, AccessTEI accepts a very wide variety of original documents from modern print to manuscript and in western and non-western character sets. An innovative pricing matrix allows users to determine the cost effectiveness of any particular job, ensuring that limited resources (including the time of skilled researchers) are applied with maximum efficiency.
Submissions to this program are encoded in TEI Tite, a special TEI-developed customization developed to ensure maximum keyboarding efficiency. Users can easily transform documents encoded in Tite into TEI P5 XML or other standard markup languages.
Contact the TEI to learn about how your project can become a member in order to take advantage of this program. Already a member? Contact membership@tei-c.org to set up your AccessTEI account.
Posted by: Dan O'Donnell (daniel.odonnell@uleth.ca).
Directory of software tools for humanists
Software is a key component that supports research in the humanities. Humanists use a diverse range of tools, from word processors and XML editors to more specialised bespoke tools, at every stage of the research lifecycle.
To enable humanists to locate software tools of relevance to their
research, the tools sections of www.arts-humanities.net has been
extended to describe a large number of software tools, drawn from the experiences of several hundred arts & humanities research projects with digital components catalogued on arts-humanities.net.
http://www.arts-humanities.net/tools
We welcome feedback, and would encourage you to post comments about tools listed on the site. We will continue to add new tool descriptions over the coming months: please contact us if you would like to suggest a tool for inclusion in the collection (admin@arts-humanities.net).
Regards,
Torsten
–
Dr. Torsten Reimer
Development Manager
Community Infrastructures and e-Learning
http://www.arts-humanities.net
Centre for e-Research, King’s College London
http://kcl.ac.uk/iss/cerch/
+44 (0)20 7848 2019
Posted by: Roberto Rosselli Del Turco (rosselli at ling dot unipi dot it)
Corpus Release: Corpus OVI dell’Italiano antico
A new version of Corpus OVI dell’italiano antico is now available online! After this update, this corpus consists of 1978 texts with 21,817,929 words, 443,810 different word forms, 116,224 lemmas and 3,615,478 lemmatized occurrences.
Corpus TLIO aggiuntivo
For not yet lemmatized texts awaiting inclusion in the Corpus OVI, an additional corpus has been created, the Corpus TLIO aggiuntivo, which at present contains 306 texts with 1,189,808 words and 71,900 different word forms.
Archivio Datini
In collaboration with the Archivio di Stato of the Tuscan town of Prato, OVI has developed a lemmatized database containing all published letters (3000 texts with 1,100,987 words and 50,139 different word forms, 7,591 lemmas and 146,741 lemmatized occurrences) in the archive of the great Tuscan merchant Francesco di Marco Datini (1335-1410).
Corpus ARTESIA
Corpus ARTESIA, created by University of Catania, is hosted on the OVI server. It consists of 239 early Sicilian texts, with currently 1,025,367 words.
Further informations
www.vocabolario.org
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
Institute Opera del Vocabolario Italiano
Firenze, via di Castello 46
I-50141
tel. +39 055 452841
fax +39 055 452843
e-mail ovi@ovi.cnr.it
Posted by: Giulio Vaccaro (piovanoarlotto@gmail.com).
New on the Web: Digitization of the Fondo Plutei
The digitization project of the fondo Plutei of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana aims at promoting knowledge of one of the most important manuscript collections in the world, making it known among non specialists and enabling access to an impressive cultural resource to all those users who cannot visit the physical locations of the florentine library. The digital collection resulting from the electronic acquisition of the manuscripts and metadata encoding will include more than 1.350.000 images, corresponding to more than 3900 manuscripts faithfully reproduced by virtue of digital scans, when the project will be completed (end of 2010).
At the present moment (December 2009) more than 600.000 images, corresponding to 1655 digitized manuscripts and their historical catalogues (which have also been digitized), are already accessibile on the web at the address http://teca.bmlonline.it/. These images come with scientific information resulting from a conversion in digital format of the three main printed catalogues, dating to the XVIII century, describing the manuscripts belonging to the Fondo Plutei.
The main goal of the project, besides spreading knowledge of our cultural heritage thanks to digital dissemination (by means of innovative instruments and services, suitable for different user ranges), is preserving the digital resources produced well in the future. A constant improvement of the electronic tools employed in the project will allow to protect and popularize our incredibly rich and valuable cultural heritage.
————
La digitalizzazione del fondo Plutei
Il progetto di digitalizzazione del fondo Plutei della Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana intende promuovere la conoscenza di una delle più importanti collezioni manoscritte del mondo anche fra i non addetti ai lavori e favorire l’accesso ad un patrimonio culturale di inestimabile valore anche a tutti gli utenti che non sono in grado di recarsi fisicamente negli ambienti michelangioleschi della biblioteca fiorentina. La collezione digitale risultante dalle operazioni di acquisizione numerica dei manoscritti e codifica dei metadati sarà costituita a fine progetto (prevista per la fine del 2010) da oltre 1.350.000 immagini, corrispondenti a più di 3.900 manoscritti integralmente riprodotti.
Allo stato attuale (dicembre 2009) sono già accessibili in rete all’indirizzo http://teca.bmlonline.it/ le 606.152 immagini corrispondenti a 1655 manoscritti digitalizzati e ai relativi cataloghi storici (per un totale di altre 6006 immagini). Queste immagini sono corredate dalle informazioni di carattere scientifico provenienti dal recupero in formato digitale dei tre principali cataloghi a stampa settecenteschi che descrivono i codici appartenenti al fondo.
Il progetto si pone come obiettivo primario, oltre la valorizzazione della nostra eredità culturale in ambiente digitale (attraverso l’implementazione di strumenti e servizi innovativi, in grado di soddisfare le necessità di fasce di utenza diversificate), la conservazione sul lungo periodo delle risorse digitali prodotte, nell’ottica del potenziamento degli strumenti elettronici per la tutela e la diffusione di un patrimonio di inestimabile valore e ricchezza.
Informazioni utili:
Teca digitale on line all’indirizzo: http://teca.bmlonline.it/
Contatti:
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
Piazza San Lorenzo, 9 – 50123 Firenze
tel. 055 210760 – fax 055 2302992
www.bmlonline.it – Sabina Magrini: bmlurp@beniculturali.it
Società Internazionale per lo Studio del Medioevo Latino (S.I.S.M.E.L.)
50124 Certosa del Galluzzo – Firenze
tel. 055 2048501 – fax 055 2320423
www.sismelfirenze.it – Emiliano Degl’Innocenti: emiliano@sismelfirenze.it
Posted by: Roberto Rosselli Del Turco (rosselli at ling dot unipi dot it)
Parliament Rolls of Medieval England web site
British History Online at the Institute of Historical Research (http://www.british-history.ac.uk) would like to announce an important new addition to its premium content section: the Parliament Rolls of Medieval England (http://www.british-history.ac.uk/prome). This source consists of scholarly descriptions of every parliament held in England between 1275 and 1504. It covers 10 monarchs, from Edward I to Henry VII (since no parliament was held in the reign of Edward V, he is not included). The rolls for some of these parliaments, particularly the earlier ones, do not survive, but where they are extant have been fully transcribed; supplementary material about the business of the parliament is given in an appendix. Opposite the original text, which may be in Latin, Anglo-Norman, or Middle English, is a modern English translation. To make PROME easier to use, the text and translation have been put into tables, so that the corresponding paragraphs are simple to locate.
This new content is available to current subscribers at no extra cost. Subscription details can be found at http://www.british-history.ac.uk/subscribe.aspx.
Emily Morrell
Publications Manager
School of Advanced Study
University of London
Senate House (Rm 265)
Malet Street
London WC1E 7HU
http://www.sas.ac.uk/
emily.morrell@sas.ac.uk
Tel 020 7862 8655
Fax 020 7862 8657
Posted by: Roberto Rosselli Del Turco (rosselli at ling dot unipi dot it)
Early English Laws website launch
I’m delighted to announce that the Early English Laws website is now live. This three-year, AHRC-funded project (a collaboration between the Institute of Historical Research, London and the Centre for Computing in the Humanities at King’s College London) will publish new editions and translations of all English legal codes, edicts and treatises produced up to c.1215. The latest news and updates can also be followed on the project blog, which is accessible from the website.
–
Dr Jenny Benham
Project Officer
EARLY ENGLISH LAWS
Institute of Historical Research, University of London
Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU
Direct line: 020 7862 8787
Email: jenny.benham@sas.ac.uk
www.history.ac.uk
Posted by: Roberto Rosselli Del Turco (rosselli at ling dot unipi dot it)
Mingana collection launch
Dear everyone (apologies for cross posting)
I am delighted to announce that next Wednesday, 8 July, we will be launching the Mingana Collection and Virtual Manuscript Room online. We are having a launch celebration at the Barber Institute, at the University of Birmingham. Speakers include a number of experts in Arabic texts and manuscripts. Some manuscripts from the Mingana collection will be on display. Admission is free, lunch and refreshments will be provided, but pre-registration is essential. If you are interested in attending, please contact Frouke Schrijver
(FXS821@bham.ac.uk)
Everyone and anyone on this list is welcome to come to the launch! There is some information about the project at http://arts-itsee.bham.ac.uk/vmrsite/. We are keeping the actual url under wraps as we work on the site; we will announce this on Tuesday evening, next week.
I hope to see some of you at the launch,
best wishes
Peter Robinson
Posted by: Peter Robinson (P.M.Robinson@bham.ac.uk).
Musicastallis: Musical iconography in the medieval choir stalls
Dear co-medievalists,
The University of Paris-Sorbonne is proud to announce the release of a new version of the Musicastallis online database, located on new servers :
http://www.plm.paris-sorbonne.fr/musicastallis/
This website illustrates and describes more than 850 scenes carved in medieval choir stalls from Europe. This new version improves greatly the user experience by allowing iconographical sources comparision, internal and external links towards other choir stalls ensembles, UTF-8 support for multilingual requests, analogical scenes proposition, a complete bibliography, a bilingual lexicon and thematical slideshows.
The English version is partially available, but still being translated. The fully working version is currently in French.
Xavier Fresquet, Database Administrator
PhD student in Music and Musicology
University of Paris-Sorbonne, Paris IV
Frdric Billiet, Project Director
Music Department Chair
University of Paris-Sorbonne, Paris IV
Medieval Science and Medicine Databases
Science and Medicine Databases
The following searchable databases are now available via the website of the Medieval Academy of America: http://www.medievalacademy.org/
eTK – a digital resource based on Lynn Thorndike and Pearl Kibre, A Catalogue of Incipits of Mediaeval Scientific Writings in Latin (Cambridge, MA: Mediaeval Academy, 1963) and supplements.
eVK2 – an expanded and revised version of Linda Ehrsam Voigts and Patricia Deery Kurtz, Scientific and Medical Writings in Old and Middle English: An Electronic Reference. CD (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000).
See the link “Science and Medicine Databases at UMKC” listed as “new” on the homepage (as well as on the “Links” page). The homepage also contains a slide show of images from Brunschwig’s De arte distillandi. The citation under the slide show images is a hot link to the Linda Hall Library of Science and Technology, and the images themselves are links to larger versions.
Electronic Thorndike-Kibre (eTK) and Electronic Voigts-Kurtz (eVK2)
An expanded and updated digital version of Lynn Thorndike and Pearl Kibre, A Catalogue of Incipits of Mediaeval Scientific Writings in Latin (TK), rev. ed. 1963 with two supplements, has been produced with the permission of the copyright holder, Medieval Academy of America. While TK consolidates all manuscript information for a text into a single entry, eTK divides entries from the book into 33,000 records, each for a manuscript witness to a text.
Scientific and Medical Writings in Old and Middle English, by Linda Voigts and Patricia Kurtz, 2nd ed. (eVK2), an updated and expanded version of the CD published by the University of Michigan Press (2000), provides more than 10,000 records for the earliest technical and learned writings in English.
The digital records in both eTK and eVK2 are organized in multiple searchable fields and allow searching of incipit words and word strings and searching by manuscript, library, author, title, subject, translator, date, and bibliography.
Both electronic references allow scholars to retrieve new information and to make connections previously unthinkable in the study of medieval science and medicine. Both tools are now freely available via a link from the website of the Medieval Academy of America: http://www.medievalacademy.org/
New Digital Medievalist News Server!
Hi there!
Digital Medievalist has setup a news server based on sending items to a wordpress blog. The results are then incorporated back into our website based on the atom feed available from wordpress.
It is hoped that this will allow DM users to post news items more easily. To post an item please fill in our news posting form and your item will be submitted pending moderation. Eventually we will introduce browsing of news articles by the tags above.
You should be allowed to use any HTML or shortcodes which are allowed in a wordpress.com blog.
Thanks for your contributions, and if you have any questions do not hesitate to ask.
-James Cummings
James.Cummings@digitalmedievalist.org
