Mirador: Medieval Manuscripts (and Much More) in a New Light
Event details
| Date | 04.06.2015 |
| Hour | 14:00 › 15:00 |
| Speaker | Jeffrey F. Hamburger, Harvard University, Cambridge (UK) |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
In collaboration with the Stanford University Library, Harvard University (represented by the University Library, HarvardX, and the Committee for the Digital Humanities) have for the last two years been working to develop a new IIIF-compliant image viewer designed, above all else, to faciliate the study of medieval manuscripts. The viewer, however, can be used for any object that can be reproduced in the form of digital photography, and work is underway to expand the viewer’s capacity to encompass other forms of digital representation, such as time-based media (music, video). In addition to a sophisticated viewer incorporating many features required by scholars (and students), Mirador also incorporates advanced annotation capabilities which will, in due course, be undergirded by a database that links back, not only to specific images, but to specific locations on images. Annotation user groups can be adjusted, as can the tagging system employed.
In addition to introducing and demonstrating Mirador in its latest incarnation, the presentation will sketch six case studies that are currently in the process of being formulated and that will be proposed to the Mellon Foundation as part of a grant application designed to text and expand Mirador’s functionality in relation to current scholarly and pedagogic requirements. The case studies are i) an edition of a Middle English text, which requires the collation of over 50 manuscripts, ii) an analysis of English legal statutes, which requires complex tagging, iii) the analysis of Latin inscriptions in illuminated manuscripts, whose visual aspects cannot adequately be represented by a conventional edition, iv) aninteroperable database of Byzantine coins, drawing on three of the world’s major collections, v) a liturgical database of French and Flemish Books of Hours, vi) the annotation of ethnographic recordings and films, and vii) the incorporation of Mirador into a series of commissioned works of installation art pieces for which the program will provide both documentation and a means of audience interaction.
The presentation will conclude with discussion of the potential of the program to aid in research on illuminated manuscripts, the speaker’s special area of interest, with a focus on a little-known group of liturgical manuscripts from the Dominican convent, Paradies bei Soest, dating to the period 1300–1425.
In addition to introducing and demonstrating Mirador in its latest incarnation, the presentation will sketch six case studies that are currently in the process of being formulated and that will be proposed to the Mellon Foundation as part of a grant application designed to text and expand Mirador’s functionality in relation to current scholarly and pedagogic requirements. The case studies are i) an edition of a Middle English text, which requires the collation of over 50 manuscripts, ii) an analysis of English legal statutes, which requires complex tagging, iii) the analysis of Latin inscriptions in illuminated manuscripts, whose visual aspects cannot adequately be represented by a conventional edition, iv) aninteroperable database of Byzantine coins, drawing on three of the world’s major collections, v) a liturgical database of French and Flemish Books of Hours, vi) the annotation of ethnographic recordings and films, and vii) the incorporation of Mirador into a series of commissioned works of installation art pieces for which the program will provide both documentation and a means of audience interaction.
The presentation will conclude with discussion of the potential of the program to aid in research on illuminated manuscripts, the speaker’s special area of interest, with a focus on a little-known group of liturgical manuscripts from the Dominican convent, Paradies bei Soest, dating to the period 1300–1425.
Links
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Organizer
- Sabine Susstrunk
Contact
- Sylvie Thomet