Having trouble reading this email? You can view it online
 
 

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. “Hidden Collections”
  2. Codex Testeriano Bodmer
  3. Social Network Campaign
  4. Mirador
 
 
June 2015

Issue N° 21
 
 
 
 
"Hidden Collections" – Small and difficult to access collections are now available on e-codices and offer many surprises
 
This new update adds 73 new digital manuscripts from ten different collections. The virtual manuscript library currently contains 1,363 digital manuscripts from a total of 57 collections. Medieval manuscripts in Swiss holdings are predominantly in a few large manuscript collections. More than 7,000 manuscripts alone are from the 20 largest collections, the remaining about 500 manuscripts are from smaller collections, which sometimes include only a single medieval codex. e-codices has gone to great efforts to find even hidden and private collections and to look for unknown treasures in widely scattered holdings. So far we have been able to publish 132 such codices as digital manuscripts on e-codices. This new update adds three more sources. Two martyrologies come from two parish archives in the Canton of Ticino: the Archivio parrocchiale of Castro and the Archivio parrocchiale of Claro. The update also includes one of the two beautiful antiphonaries from the Musée historique de Vevey; this manuscript belongs with the already published antiphonary in three volumes from the Collegiate Church of St. Vincent in the city of Bern. The duplicate of this manuscript, Volume I, is held by the Saint-Laurent Parish in Estavayer-le-Lac.
 
fmb-cb-0905_1v-2r

Castro, Archivio parrocchiale, s. n., f. 1r
 
 
 
 
An Aztec catechism from the late 16th century: Codex Testeriano Bodmer
 
This late 16th century catechism was written for the indigenous peoples of Mexico and contains the most important prayers of the Catholic Church: Persignum, Pater Noster, Ave Maria, etc. The invention of this pictographic script, which resembles a “bande dessinée” (cartoons or comics), has been attributed to the Franciscan Jacobo de Testera (around 1470 – 1543); therefore these catechisms are also referred to as „Testeriani.“ The script draws on the ancient Aztec script, but mostly invents new symbols, thus creating a communication tool for the conversion of Mexico in the 16th century. The first four rows of pictures correspond to the "Persignum":
Per signum Sanctae Crucis de inimicis nostris, libera nos / Domine Deus noster. In nomine / Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. / Amen. fmb-cb-0905_1v-2r

Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 905, f. 1v + f. 2r

  • line 1: I make the sign of the cross / as a Christian / before the cross // <from the> damnation (or) <from> original sin / as a sinner / save me
  • line 2: Lord / the World / and also // I make the sign of the cross / in the name / and
  • line 3: of the father / and / of the son conceived in Mary’s holy womb // and / of the Holy Spirit / also
  • line 4: so be it, Amen / caesura. (Next is the Pater Noster)
 
 
 
Successful Social Network Campaign: Facebook and Flickr
 
Since the spring of 2012, e-codices has been active on two social networks: Facebook and Flickr. Since then these two social networks have become an integral part of our offering, supporting our new focus on manuscript education. Social network users are different from regular users of e-codices. Their use of manuscripts is playful and image-oriented. Compared to similar offerings by libraries and universities, the two social networks are surprisingly successful: we have received over 5,000 likes on Facebook, and our posts are often liked by more than 100 people; Flickr already has more than 2 million page views.
 
Flickr Facebook
 
 
 
open-in-mirador

e-codices viewer: Open in Mirador

mirador

Add Item

new-object

Overview page: IIIF Manifest URL

add-manifest

e-codices search results: Open in Mirador
 
Mirador
 
The new update also installed an additional viewer Mirador so that users, based on their needs, can view manuscripts either in the e-codices viewer (based on Open Seadragon) or in this new viewer. Mirador is an open-source, web-based ‘multi-up’ viewer that supports zoom-pan functionality and the ability to display/compare simple images. At the moment, Mirador’s main advantages are in our view the following functions:
  • it is possible to open different windows in order to compare different manuscripts;
  • it is simple to create one’s own collections, not only from among all of the manuscripts on e-codices, but other manuscripts can be displayed as well, as long as they are iiif-compatible.
Adding a new manuscript:
  1. From the e-codices viewer (single page view) you can open any manuscript in the Mirador viewer with the button "Open in Mirador": ex. Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 264
  2. You can then add another manuscript selecting the free slot "+ Add Item"
  3. Copy the IIIF Manifest URL from any e-codices Overview page and paste it in Mirador's "Add a new object from URL".
The new digital manuscripts, including the corresponding metadata, are automatically added into the Mirador workspace.

You can also open a particular selection of manuscripts from a search directly in Mirador:
  1. Search on e-codices for 15th century Hebrew manuscripts: here
  2. Open this selection in Mirador with the button "Open in Mirador"
  3. This time, selecting the free slot "+ Add Item", you can directly access all the manuscripts from the selection
 
 
 
e-codices
Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland
Rue de l’Hôpital 4, CH – 1700 Fribourg

T + 41 (0) 26 300 71 57
F + 41 (0) 26 300 96 27

www.e-codices.ch
e-codices@unifr.ch
 
If you do not wish to receive any further issues of our newsletter, just hit the following e-mail link
Unsubscribe from the e-codices newsletter
and send the e-mail.