Historical Documents in the Digital Age is an international workshop organized in Rouen (25-26 Oct. 2012) as part of the DocExplore project, addressing the issues of Computer Science, Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage.

• Session 1: Libraries and archives in the Digital Age
  • J.-F. Moufflet (Service interministériel des Archives de France): “Quels fonds d’archives numériser et avec quels outils les valoriser dans une perspective de recherche ?”
  • Matthieu Bonicel, Bibliothèque Nationale de France: “La constitution de bibliothèques numériques patrimoniales : et après ?”
  • Cressida Williams (Canterbury Cathedral Archives): “Digitisation and the local archives office”

• Session 2: Digital tools for annotating and indexing
  • Stéphane Nicolas, Laboratoire d’Informatique, de Traitement de l’Information et des Systèmes: “Transcrire le passé à l’aide d’outils du présent”
  • Marçal Rusiñol, Computer Vision Center (Centre de visio per computador): “Browsing the contents of digital libraries of historical documents by word spotting – Latest Achievements”
  • Franck Lebourgeois, Laboratoire d’InfoRmatique en Images et Systèmes d’Information: “De l’image au texte – From image to text”

• Session 3: Digital paleography (Amphithéâtre de la Maison de l’Université)
  • Élisabeth Lalou, GRHis: “DocExplore et son usage pour la paléographie”
  • Marc Smith, École Nationale des Chartes – Dominique Stutzmann, Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes: “Nouvelles perspectives en paléographie: imagerie numérique, métrologie, encodage allographétique, statistiques”
  • Véronique Eglin, Laboratoire d’InfoRmatique en Images et Systèmes d’Information: “Digital tools for Middle Age handwriting clustering and identification”
  • Richard Guest, University of Kent: “Novel computer-based techniques for exploring handwritten documents”

• Session 4: ICT in Cultural Heritage
  • Jean-Marc Minière, VirtuaSense: “Les TIC sont-elles en train de transformer la relation au patrimoine culturel ?”
  • Clive Izard, British Library: “Turning over a new leaf: Access and interpretation through technology interpretation”
  • Clotilde Vaissaire-Agard, CF2ID: “Patrimoine numérisé et lecture sociale, quelles convergences ?”

Session 5: Digital Humanities: present and future

• • Alison Wiggins, School of Critical Studies – University of Glasgow: “How Do We Build It So They Will Come?: Editing Bess of Hardwick’s Letters Online”
  • Dominique Stutzmann, Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes: “L’outil et les paradigmes : ergonomie applicative, visualisation des données et leur rôle dans le travail d’historien”
  • Alixe Bovey, Center for Medieval and early Modern Studies: “Pixiliating the Page: Reflections on Illuminated Manuscripts in the Digital Age”

Session 6: Software DocExplore demo

Digital Humanities Congress

Date: 6 – 8 September 2012

Location: University of Sheffield

The first Biannual Digital Humanities Congress was organized by The University of Sheffield’s Humanities Research Institute with the support of the Network of Expert Centres and Centernet (http://www.shef.ac.uk/hri/dhc2012).

The HRI defines the DH as: ‘the use of technology within arts, heritage and humanities research as both a method of inquiry and a means of dissemination’.

The keynote speakers were:

• Professor Andrew Prescott (Head of Department, Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London)
• Professor Lorna Hughes (University of Wales Chair in Digital Collections at the National Library of Wales)
• Professor Philip Ethington (Professor of History and Political Science, University of Southern California and Co-Director of the USC Center for Transformative Scholarship)

Papers on Medieval Topics

• Takako Kato (De Montfort University), ‘Transcribing incipits and explicits in TEI-XML’
• Bill Endres (University of Kentucky), ‘More than Meets the Eye: Going 3D with an Early Medieval Manuscript’
• Guillaume Sarah and Florence Codine (CNRS, France), ‘Transcribing early medieval epigraphy in the digital age’
• Ségolène M. Tarte (University of Oxford), ‘Cognitive Insights in Interpretation Building: Tailoring Software to Expert Practices’
• Elisabeth Salter (Aberystwyth University), ‘In the mind’s eye: reflections on generating reader experience c 1350 – 1600’

You can download the programme and all the abstracts from: http://www.shef.ac.uk/hri/dhc2012.

Overview

Date: 5 September 2011, 9.30am-5.30pm

Place: Council Room, King’s College London

In recent years, scholars have begun to develop and employ new technologies and computer-based methods for palaeographic research. The aim of the symposium is to present developments in the field, explore the limits of digital and computational-based approaches, and share methodologies across projects which overlap or complement each other.

Call for Papers

Papers of 20 minutes in length were invited on any relevant aspect of digital methods and resources for palaeography and manuscript studies. Possible topics could have included:

• Project reports and/or demonstrations
• Palaeographical method; ‘Digital’ and ‘Analogue’ palaeography
• Quantitative and qualitative approaches
• ‘Scientific’ methods, ‘objectivity’ and the role of evidence in manuscript studies
• Visualisation of manuscript evidence and data
• Interface design and querying of palaeographical material

To propose a paper, please send a brief abstract (250 words max) to digipal [at] kcl.ac.uk. The deadline for receipt of submissions was 8th May 2011.

Schedule

• 9:30-10:00: Coffee and registration
• 10:00–11:00: Introduction, followed by
  • Plenary Lecture: Elaine Treharne (Florida State University), A Site for Sore Eyes: Digital, Visual and Haptic Manuscript Studies
• 11:00–11:20: Coffee Break
• 11:20–12:30: Session 1. Chair: Orietta da Rold (University of Leicester)
  • Peter Stokes (King’s College London): DigiPal in Theory
  • Stewart Brookes (King’s College London): DigiPal in Practice
  • Erik Kwakkel (Leiden University): The Digital Eye of the Paleographer: Using Databases to Identify Scribes and Date their Handwriting
• 12:30-13:30: Lunch (provided for all registered participants)
• 13:30–15:00: Session 2. Chair: Ségolène Tarte (University of Oxford)
  • Wim Van Mierlo (University of London): How to Work with Modern Manuscripts in a Digital Environment — Some Desiderata
  • John McEwan and Elizabeth New (Aberystwyth University): The Seals in Medieval Wales Project: Towards a New Standard in Digital Sigillography
  • Ben Outhwaite and Huw Jones (Cambridge University Library): Navigating Cambridge’s Digital Library: the Cairo Genizah and Beyond
• 15:00–15:20: Coffee Break
• 15:20–16:50: Session 3. Chair: Malte Rehbein (Universität Würzburg)
  • Franck Le Bourgeois (Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon): Overview of Image Analysis Technologies
  • James Brusuelas (University of Oxford) and John Wallin (Middle Tennessee State University): The Papyrologist in the Shell
  • Els De Paermentier (Ghent University): Diplomata Belgica: Towards a More Creative and Comparative Palaeographical Research on Medieval Charters
• 16:50–17:00: Short Break
• 17:00–17:30: Panel Discussion with Michelle Brown (University of London), Donald Scragg (University of Manchester) and Marc Smith (École Nationale des Chartes), chaired by Clare Lees (King’s College London)

There was no formal evening event, but an informal dinner was held in a local restaurant.

References

• Call for Papers
• Provisional Schedule

International Medieval Congress

The following conference sessions, panels, and business meetings involving digital subjects are being proposed for the International Medieval Congress 2012, which takes place in Leeds, July 9-12, 2012.

The theme of the 2012 conference is “Rules to follow (or not),” although other topics are welcome. For further details, see http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/imc/index.html.

In 2012, Digital Medievalist does not sponsor any session.

Sessions involving digital subjects

Session 403: Seals and Sigillography: What Is Their Future in a Digital Age? – A Round Table Discussion

Arranged in the year that Sigillum, the website for the encouragement of research and the study of seals, was established, this round table will discuss the future for the study of seals and sigillography in the digital age. Is sigillography a study in its own right or is it simply the handmaid of history and art history? One of the goals of Sigillum is to encourage the use of seal and seal matrices in the study, teaching and writing of history (of all kinds, including social history and art history), archaeology, palaeography, archival studies, and other allied subjects. Whatever its status, how should the study develop in this digital age? All those interested in seals and seal matrices, of whatever country and period, are warmly invited.

Session 627: Mabillon’s Heirs: New Diplomatics – Young Scholars

Diplomatic studies, as an old science, have renewed themselves these last years with the new perspectives brought by the study of literacy. The famous technical way of studying documents is not only used for the discrimen veri ac falsi, but also to bring into new light the practices of writing in particular societies, in connection with social studies and cultural studies. These two sessions aim to focus on new projects initiated by young scholars at the beginning of their research, in order to help them to connect themselves with the scientific community and to improve their own way of searching.

Session 727: Producing, Keeping, and Reusing Documents: Charters and Cartularies from Northern Iberia, 9th-12th Century

The session will address the ways in which documents were kept, copied and reused in northern Iberia in the period between the late 9th and the 12th century. The first paper will focus on the single charters which survive from the earlier end of this period to investigate how documents were produced and kept before the production of the later monastic cartularies, while the second and the third paper will discuss the rationale behind the construction of some of the most significant cartularies which were compiled in that region between the end of the 11th and the 12th century.

Session 1015: Medievalism: Medieval Rules in Modern Culture and Literature

There are a lot of everyday rules, cultural rules and agreements, literary structures and rules, religious orders and rules of the Middle Aages that have survived up to modern times. But they have not been the same ones. For instance sometimes only a word still exists with another meaning or not exactly equivalent meaning, as ‘Ritterlichkeit’ or with different meaning ‘wib : weib’. We still know some religious customs and rules but they don’t have this high relevance for our everyday life as they had in the middle ages. For some occasions we still have dress-codes but they are aimed other events and other groups of people and other dressings. We still know the lyrics and the epics, the literary texts of the Middle Ages but nowadays they are told in a different way, sometimes for a different audience and, of course, they appear in another media. This session will give three exemples of this turn of rules.

Session 1119: ‘Ruling’ the Script, I: Playing with the Rule

Medieval writing, as part of the interpersonal communication process, had to follow rules that ensure the legibility and convey the meaning of a text. Latin or vernacular, spoken or read, charter on parchment, painting, or stained-glass: different functions, social contexts, and publics lead to variations in the use of scripts during the Middle Ages. This session explores the representational modes of the text as an image and the concept of ‘liberty’ for scripts in regard to the staging of spoken or vernacular texts in epigraphy (Latin/vernacular) and to the degree of stability and variation in vernacular scripts.

Session 1303: GIS as a Tool for Understanding Medieval Road Systems

This session is primarily concerned with the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in creating a method of modeling historical roads. Very often, medieval roads cited in historical sources are no longer existent, and locating a known route could be impossible; GIS surveys, combined with an extensive analysis of historical sources and archeological data, can be an excellent tool to reconstruct the outline of a road, or of a network of roads, offering the historians an invaluable help.

Session 1319: ‘Ruling’ the Script, III: Measure and Sense

Medieval writing, as part of the interpersonal communication process, had to follow rules that ensure the legibility and convey the meaning of a text. The digital humanities in palaeography give birth to a renewed quantitative approach, either as computer-aided palaeography or as digital palaeography with automated image-analysis softwares. This session explores what can be measured (angles, inclination, collective scribal profiles, and allographs) and how this new data can be analysed (databases, factorial analysis, cross-validation). The results give new insights on the dynamic of script evolution, and how it relates to the social contexts of written production.

Session 1402: ‘The Paradox of Medieval Scotland’ Database as a Research Tool – A Round Table Discussion

‘The Paradox of Medieval Scotland’ database covers all individuals mentioned in the 6014 charters (broadly defined) that survive from the period 1093-1286. Relationships between individuals, as well as information about them, are represented as this has been constructed in the documents themselves. The database, completed towards the end of 2010, has been designed as a research tool not only for historians of Scotland, but for anyone with an interest in the process of ‘Europeanisation’, or who wishes to include a comparative dimension to their research. The workshop will consist of a brief introduction to the database, a couple of case studies where it has been used in research, followed by questions and discussion.

Session 1706: Vicissitudes of Cultural Transfers: Case Studies from Late Antiquity to the Late Middle Ages

Perception of the Middle Ages in digital media

Sessions 728 & 828: Playing with the Middle Ages: Video Game Medievalisms, I & II

Video games are one of the most popular ways in which the public engages with the Middle Ages today. While they often may present romanticised or (more often) completely fantastical versions of the period, these are a vibrant way in which the public comes to know the Middle Ages today.

International Medieval Congress 2010

The following conference papers involving digital subjects were given for the International Medieval Congress, which took place in Leeds, July 12-15, 2010.

Digital Medievalist Sessions and Papers

103: Exploring and Teaching Medieval Church

Sponsor: Christianity and Culture Project, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York

Organiser: Dee Dyas, Christianity and Culture Project, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York

Moderator: W. Mark Ormrod, Department of History, University of York

Exploring the Audio-Visual Context of Liturgy in English Parish Churches, by Dee Dyas, Christianity and Culture Project, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York

115: Insular Mapping: Britain and Ireland in Exegesis, Histography, and Cartography

Sponsor: Medieval Forum, Queen’s University Belfast

Organiser: Keith Lilley, School of Geography, Queen’s University, Belfast

Moderator: Catherine A. M. Clarke, Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Research (MEMO) / Department of English, Swansea University

The Gough Map of Britain and its Geographical and Histographical Traditions, by Keith Lilley

318: Exploring the Monstrous, II: Geographies of the Monstrous

Sponsor: MEARCSTAPA (Monsters: The Experimental Association for the Research of Cryptozoology through Scholarly Theory and Practical Application)

Organiser: Asa Mittman, Department of Art and Art History, California State University Chicago

Moderator: Larissa Tracy, Department of English and Modern Languages, Longwood University. Virginia

Navigating the Margins: Sources, Analogs, Wandering Monsters, and the digital Mappaemundi, by Asa Mittman

506: From DE RE DIPLOMATICA to Literary: Renewed Doplomacys and Young Scholars, I

Sponsor: GDR ‘Diplomatique’ (GDR 3177-CNRS)

Organiser: Paul Bertrand, Institu de Recherche et d’Histoire des Texts, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Orléans/GDR

Moderator: Sébastien Barret, Institu de Recherche et d’Histoire des Texts, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Orléans/GDR

Exploring Charters through Statistics and Semantics: Production and Circulation of Literacy in Medieval Burgundy (9th-12th centuries), by Nicolas Perreaux

507: POLITICS, WARFARE, AND WINE: THE Gascon ROLLS PROJECT, 1317-1468

Sponsor: School of History, University of Liverpool

Organiser: Simon J. Hards, The Gascon Rolls Project, School of History, University of Liverpool

Moderator: Paul H. W. Booth, The Gascon Rolls Project, School of History, University of Liverpool

The Gascon Rolls: Unfinished Business and Renewal of Interest, Malcolm Vale

Constructing a Collaborative Digital Framework to Edit and Publish the Gascon Rolls, by Simon J. Harris and Paul Spence, The Gascon Rolls Project, Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King’s College London

Ramon Durand: The Exceptional Career of an Official Revealed, by the Gascon Rolls and Guilhem Pepin, The Gascon Rolls Project, University of Oxford

703: MEDIEVAL COMMEMORATION, III: MEDIEVAL MEMORIA ONLINE, NEW RESEARCH TOOLS

Sponsor: Centre for Medieval Studies, Universiteit Utrecht

Organiser: Truus van Bueren, Medieval Memoria Online, Universiteit Utrecht

Moderator: Arnoud-Jan A. Bijsterveld, Departement Sociologie, Universiteit van Tilburg

MeMO DS: A Description Standard for memoria-Related Source Material, by Roif de Weijert, Medieval Memoria Online, Universiteit Utrecht

Prayer and Politics: A Rich Internet Application, by Truus van Bueren

Respondent: Anna Adamska, Ondelïoekinstituut voor Geschiedenis en Cultuur (OGC), universiteit Utrecht

804: DIGITAL APPROACHES TO MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE DRAMA

Sponsor: Records of Earry English Drama

Organiser: John A. Geek, Records of Early English Drama / Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto

Moderator: John A. Geck

‘This insuhstantial pageant’: Using Second Life to Research Provincial Performance Venues, Diane Jakacki, Department of English Language & Literature, University Of Waterloo

Mapping Early English Theatre, Sally-Beth MacLean, Records of Early Engiish Drama, University of Toronto

Mapping the London Theatre Bibliography: Structure and Geography, John Bradley, Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King’s College London

822: MEDIEVAL MOTIFS AND FIGURES on THEIR JOURNEY THROUGH THE CENTURIES (15th-21st CENTURIES), II: MEDIEVAL FIGURES IN NEW MEDIA

Sponsor: lnterdisziplinares Zentrum fur Mittelalterstudien, Universitat Salzburg

Organiser: Siegrid Schmidt, Interdisziplinares Zentrum fur Mittelalterstudien, Universitat Salzburg

Moderator: Ursula Bieber, Institut fur Slawistik, Universitat Salzburg

Arthurian Figures in the Middle High German Database, by Margarete Springeth, Interdisziplinares Zentrum fiur Mittelalterstudien, Universitat Salzburg

1009: SET IN STONE

Sponsor: University of Liverpool

Organiser: Rebecca Williams, School of History, University of Liverpool

Moderator: Brigitte Resl, School of Historyr University of Liverpool

Ethnic Identities in Viking-Age Stone Sculpture: A GIS Approach, by William Cook, Department of History, Lancaster University

1010: MIDDLE ENGLISH STYLISTICS, PATTERNS, AND MUSIC

Organiser: IMC Programming Committee

Moderator: Anne McTaggart, University of Alberta

Stylistic Consistency in the Letters of Thomas Betson, by Osamu Ohara, Department of English, Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo

1130: RIDDARASOGUR: ICELANDIC ROMANCES

Sponsor: The Viking Society for Northern Research

Organiser: Alaric Hall, School of English, University of Leeds

Moderator: Cathy Hume, School of English, University of Leeds

An Interesting Paper about a Boring Saga: The Saga of Sigrgarðr the Valiant, by Alaric Hall

1203: PROSOPOGRAPHY, ANTHROPONVMY, AND SPACE, I: LOTHARINGIA IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES

Organiser: Albrecht Brendler, Abteilung für Mittelalterliche Geschichte, Eberhard-Karls-Universität, Tübingen, Walter Kettemann, Universität Duisburg-Essen and Jens Lieven, Historisches InstitutI Ruhr-Universität, Bochum

Moderator: Walter Kettemann

Anthroponymie et provenance des laiques du Liber memorialis de Remiremont, by Albrecht Brendler

1223: PERFORMANCE AND THE PAGE, III: EXPLORING TRANSMISSION AND CoMPOSITION

Sponsor: School of Modern Languages & Cultures, University of Glasgow

Organiser: Kate Maxwell, Department of Music & Department of French, University of Glasgow

Moderator: Hanno Wijsman, Universiteit Leiden / Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes, Paris

Glasgow MS Hunter 252 Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles””: A Dialectological Perspective, by Geoffrey Roger, French Section,

School of Modern Languages & Cultures, University of Glasgow

1227: LATER BYZANTINE SDCIETY: NETWORKS AND CAREERS

Organiser: IMC Programming Committee

Moderator: Judith Ryder, Wolfson College, University of Oxford

Calculating Byzantium? Social Network Analysis and Complexity Sciences as Tools for the Exploration of Medieval Social Dynamics, by Johannes Preiser-Kapeller, Institut für Byzanzforschung, Osterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien

1303: PROSOPOGRAPHY, ANTHROPONVMY, AND SPACE, II: ALEMANNIA AND RHETIA IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Organiser: Albrecht Brendler, Abteilung für Mittelalterliche Geschichte, Eberhard-Karls-Universität, Tübingen, Walter Kettemann,

Universität Duisburg-Essen and Jens Lieven, Historisches InstitutI Ruhr-Universität, Bochum

Moderator: Gerd Lubich, Ruhr-Universität, Bochum

Discovering History in the Mirror of Liturgical Commemoration: The Bishopric of Chur, Rhetia, and Pfäfers in the Liber viventium Fabariensis, by Walter Kettemann and Jens Lieven

1307: 14th-CENTURY ENGLAND, IV

Sponsor: Society for Fourteenth-Century Studies

Organiser: Chris Given-Wilson, St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of St Andrews

Moderator: Gwilym Dodd, School of History, University of Nottingham

Why Make Back-Ups?: The Mortimer Cartulary and the Technological Revolution, Barbara Wright, Independent Scholar, Otley

1515: LOCATING MEDIEVAL ROADS

Organiser: IMC Programming Committee

Moderator: Keith Lilley, School of Geography, Queen’s University, Belfast

The Spatial Analysis and the Aerial Photos for the Reconstruction of the Ancient Roads, by Davide Gherdevich, Universita degli Studi di Trieste

1608: MEDICINE FOR THE BODY AND MEDIEVAL HOSPITALS

Sponsor: University of East Anglia

Organiser: Christopher Alan Bonfield, School of History, University of East Anglia

Moderator: Caroie Rawcliffe, School of History, University of East Anglia

Therapeutic Medicine for Bodily Health in Medieval English Hospitals, by Christopher Alan Bonñeld