Nota Bene: Making Digital Marks on Medieval Manuscripts (Medieval Interventions)

148 Pages·2018·2.387 MB·English

by  Tamsyn Mahoney-Steel (editor)

3
MEDIEVAL INTERVENTIONS
We stand at the cusp of an exciting moment in digital medieval studies. The advent
of ubiquitously available digitized manuscripts alongside platforms that host encoded
medieval texts has democratized access to the cultural heritage of the Middle Ages, and
gives us the potential for greater understanding of that era. Seen through the lens of
late medieval French literature, in particular the Roman de la Rose and the works of
Guillaume de Machaut, this book exhorts us to be optimistic about what we can achieve. Nota Bene
Challenging the pessimism inherent in views that see our historical situatedness as a
barrier to truly understanding the medieval era, Tamsyn Mahoney-Steel argues that
digital networks of manuscript images, texts, and annotations, can not only aid us in
MAKING DIGITAL MARKS
comprehending medieval literary culture, but are, in fact, complementary to medieval
modes of thought and manner in which manuscripts transmitted ideas. Using her teach- N ON MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS
O
T
ing of Guillaume de Machaut and her work with the Roman de la Rose Digital Library,
A

Mahoney-Steel envisages a future in which the digital humanities can enable us to build B
E
transhistorical relationships with our medieval objects of study. N
E

|

M
“This is an exciting manifesto about digital editions in theory and practice though the
a TAMSYN MAHONEY-STEEL
h
lens of a scholar who studies medieval music. Tamsyn Mahoney-Steel gives us a mas-
o
n
terful analysis on how and why digital editions are powerful means to explore and teach
e
y
[medieval] texts. She weaves a multi-dimensional argument in favor of the intertextual- -
S
ity of the digital manuscript and its capacity to study both the content and the context— t
e
e
even though less so the materiality—of a text.” l
Ece Turnator, Digital Humanities Librarian, MIT
Tamsyn Mahoney-Steel is the Digital Scholarship Specialist for
Johns Hopkins University Libraries. She holds a PhD in medi-
eval studies from the University of Exeter and has published on
the medieval motet, Linked Open Data, Guillaume de Machaut,
and collaborative work in the digital humanities.
P
E
T
E
R
L
A
N
G
www.peterlang.com
3
MEDIEVAL INTERVENTIONS
We stand at the cusp of an exciting moment in digital medieval studies. The advent
of ubiquitously available digitized manuscripts alongside platforms that host encoded
medieval texts has democratized access to the cultural heritage of the Middle Ages, and
gives us the potential for greater understanding of that era. Seen through the lens of
late medieval French literature, in particular the Roman de la Rose and the works of
Guillaume de Machaut, this book exhorts us to be optimistic about what we can achieve. Nota Bene
Challenging the pessimism inherent in views that see our historical situatedness as a
barrier to truly understanding the medieval era, Tamsyn Mahoney-Steel argues that
digital networks of manuscript images, texts, and annotations, can not only aid us in
MAKING DIGITAL MARKS
comprehending medieval literary culture, but are, in fact, complementary to medieval
modes of thought and manner in which manuscripts transmitted ideas. Using her teach- N ON MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS
O
T
ing of Guillaume de Machaut and her work with the Roman de la Rose Digital Library,
A

Mahoney-Steel envisages a future in which the digital humanities can enable us to build B
E
transhistorical relationships with our medieval objects of study. N
E

|
M
“This is an exciting manifesto about digital editions in theory and practice though the
a TAMSYN MAHONEY-STEEL
h
lens of a scholar who studies medieval music. Tamsyn Mahoney-Steel gives us a mas-
o
n
terful analysis on how and why digital editions are powerful means to explore and teach
e
y
[medieval] texts. She weaves a multi-dimensional argument in favor of the intertextual- -
S
ity of the digital manuscript and its capacity to study both the content and the context— t
e
e
even though less so the materiality—of a text.” l
Ece Turnator, Digital Humanities Librarian, MIT
Tamsyn Mahoney-Steel is the Digital Scholarship Specialist for
Johns Hopkins University Libraries. She holds a PhD in medi-
eval studies from the University of Exeter and has published on
the medieval motet, Linked Open Data, Guillaume de Machaut,
and collaborative work in the digital humanities.
P
E
T
E
R
L
A
N
G
www.peterlang.com
Nota Bene
MEDIEVAL INTERVENTIONS
New Light on Traditional Thinking

Stephen G. Nichols
General Editor

Vol. 3

The Medieval Interventions series is part of the Peter Lang Humanities list.
Every volume is peer reviewed and meets
the highest quality standards for content and production.

PETER LANG
New York  Bern  Berlin
Brussels  Vienna  Oxford  Warsaw
Tamsyn Mahoney-Steel

Nota Bene

Making Digital Marks
on Medieval Manuscripts

PETER LANG
New York  Bern  Berlin
Brussels  Vienna  Oxford  Warsaw
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Mahoney-Steel, Tamsyn, author.
Title: Nota bene: making digital marks on medieval manuscripts /
Tamsyn Mahoney-Steel.
Description: New York: Peter Lang, 2018.
Series: Medieval interventions; vol. 3
ISSN 2376-2683 (print) | ISSN 2376-2691 (online)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017038875 | ISBN 978-1-4331-3138-7 (hardback: alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4539-1633-9 (ebook pdf) | ISBN 978-1-4331-4763-0 (epub)
ISBN 978-1-4331-4762-3 (mobi)
Subjects: LCSH: Literature, Medieval—Criticism, Textual. | Literature, Medieval—
Study and teaching. | Manuscripts, Medieval—Digitization. | Manuscripts, Medieval—
Editing. | Digital humanities. | Text processing (Computer science) | Document
markup languages. | Civilization, Medieval—Research—Technological innovations.
Classification: LCC PN671 .M34 | DDC 809/.020785—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017038875
DOI 10.3726/978-1-4539-1633-9
Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data are available
on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de/.
© 2018 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York
29 Broadway, 18th floor, New York, NY 10006
www.peterlang.com
All rights reserved.
Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm,
xerography, microfiche, microcard, and offset strictly prohibited.
To four extraordinary women:
Auntie Dee, Aunt Donna, the memory of Momma Kay,
and my mother, Pauline.

contents
List of Illustrations ix
List of Examples and Table xi
Preface xiii
Introduction 1
Chapter 1. Interpreting the Medieval Text 21
Chapter 2. Encoding and Decoding Texts: Marking-up
Texts for Analysis 39
Chapter 3. Teaching with Digital Annotation Tools 55
Chapter 4. Annotating the Everted Network 73
Chapter 5. Envisioning an Annotated Environment: The
Roman de la Rose Digital Library 89
Conclusion 113
Index 123