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e-codices newsletter


The e-codices newsletter provides information about the latest updates, highlights, and activities of our project and appears about 4-5 times per year.
We are delighted to count you among our readers!

The e-codices team

 
 
In this issue
  1. Why all medieval manuscripts should be systematically digitized
  2. 600 manuscripts from the Abbey Library — On the right path
  3. Two books of hours for Charles VIII
  4. Two new collections
  5. Basel manuscripts in the public domain
 
 
October 2016

Issue N° 25
 
 
 
 
 
Why all medieval manuscripts should be systematically digitized
 
manuscripts
Only a small part of medieval manuscripts is currently the subject of research, mostly due to the fact that manuscript research remains primarily devoted to “close reading.” Numerous scholars devote their entire lives to a single book. Were one to proceed based on the current need of researchers, then the digitization of 20% to 30% of these manuscripts should suffice. This could change if the majority or — if possible — almost all of the European medieval manuscripts were digitally edited. The publication of entire manuscript collections would allow us to ask new questions with regard to the study of provenance and the migration of manuscripts, to studies of successful book production such as of books of hours or pocket bibles, to automated image analysis of hundreds of thousands or even millions of manuscript pages, or to all kinds of statistical studies. In order to fundamentally reform manuscript research in the digital age and to develop innovative new methods of inquiry, we must strive to systematically digitize most — if possible, all — manuscripts. Since 2005, e-codices has been advancing towards this goal step by step: currently 1605 manuscripts from 69 collections are accessible online.
 
 
 
600 manuscripts from the Abbey Library — On the right path
 
With this update, more than half of the Abbey Library’s medieval manuscripts have been made available online. We hope that in the coming years, the continuing support of the SUK-P2 program will make it possible for us to continue to digitally edit about 30 manuscripts per year.
Abbey Librarian Dr. Cornel Dora writes about the significance of the digital Abbey Library: "Eleven years ago, e-codices began as a pilot project for the digitization of Swiss manuscripts. This created an attractive new reading room that has invigorated research and teaching, and for which we are the envy of the world. Little by little we will make our entire manuscript collection available on e-codices and thus will further contribute to and optimize the associated research. I am delighted and proud that the Abbey Library of St. Gall, probably the most significant historical library in Switzerland, recognized its responsibility in this regard through active participation, by being part of this project from the very start."
 
csg-0503ab_3

St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 503ab, p. 3 – Prayer book, Latin and French
 
 
 

Utopia, armarium codicum bibliophilorum, Cod. 110, f. 25r – Book of hours by the Master of Charles VIII – possibly a supplement to Utopia Cod. 111
 
Two books of hours for Charles VIII
 
These two books of hours were created by the same artist. Cod. 111 was a present from the Parisian publisher Anthoine Vérard to the French King Charles VIII (1470-1498). The margins of all pages are decorated with a pictorial narrative of eight consecutive images showing events from the Old and New Testament, accompanied by explanatory verses in French. Cod. 110, assumed to be a supplement to Cod. 111, presumably was created later and remained unfinished because Charles VIII unexpectedly died in 1498. Today both books of hours are part of a private collection. Simultaneous with the digital publication of the books of hours is the release of a study by Ina Nettekoven, „J’aime Tant Fort Une: Stundenbuch Charles VIII”, München: Hirmer, 2016.
 
 
 
Two new collections
 
The Abbey of St. Maurice of the Augustinian canons regular is one of the oldest monasteries of the Western world: last year the abbey celebrated its 1500th anniversary. Digitization of its small collection of medieval manuscripts begins with the Codex Rubeus.
For the first time, the State Archives of Lucerne contribute four modern manuscripts to e-codices, among them the Chronicle of the Swiss Reformation of 1517-1534 by the famous historian and dramatist Hans Salat (1498 – 1561), which presents the Reformation from the Catholic point of view.
 
stalu/PA-0185/bindingK

Luzern, Staatsarchiv, PA 185, Open view – Chronicle of the Reformation
 
 
 
Basel manuscripts in the public domain
 
A year ago, we reported in our newsletter Issue N° 20 that several Swiss collections had begun making their manuscripts on e-codices available in the public domain. Following the Stadtbibliothek Schaffhausen and the Zentralbibliothek Solothurn, the Universitätsbibliothek Basel has decided to tag the images of all of its manuscripts on e-codices with the following logo:

Public Domain Mark
When a work is in the public domain, it is free for use by anyone for any purpose without restriction under copyright law. Public domain is the purest form of open/free, since no one owns or controls the material in any way.
 
 
 
 
e-codices
Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland
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T + 41 (0) 26 300 71 57
F + 41 (0) 26 300 96 27

www.e-codices.ch
e-codices@unifr.ch
 
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