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One Day Course: Friday 7 June 2024

How do you describe a medieval manuscript in the digital age? What impact has digitisation had upon the methodology of manuscript description? And how might these new approaches prompt new questions and research directions?  

This course will introduce you to TEI, the Text Encoding Initiative, and the main outlines of the TEI manuscript description module. Through practical exercises – converting existing descriptions into TEI or encoding information directly from manuscripts – you will learn how to use the building blocks of TEI language in structuring and encoding a manuscript description, and discover how TEI affects how information is recorded and categorised. The course will prompt you to consider the strengths and weaknesses of a standardised, digital approach to these unique, analogue artefacts, helping you to develop a reflective practice as a manuscript scholar, and integrate digital approaches in your own studies. 

This course links up with the Introduction to the cataloguing of medieval manuscripts, Introduction to the codicology of medieval manuscripts and Codicology and cataloguing of medieval manuscripts: a hands-on workshop. Taken as a whole, the course addresses fundamental gaps in the teaching available at most universities, offers insights that cannot adequately be gained from printed or digital sources or facsimiles.

Additional Information

Course Requirements

  1. Knowledge of codicology and the processes of book production would be beneficial.
  2. Knowledge of the conventions of cataloguing a manuscripts
  3. Some familiarity with and ability to read medieval handwriting would be helpful (but is not essential)
  4. Students are encouraged to familiarise themselves with introductory guides to palaeography in advance of the course. 

Essential Reading

Lou Bernard, What is the Text Encoding Initiative? How to add intelligent markup to digital resources (OpenEdition Press, 2014) 

  • Introduction 
  • The TEI and XML 

Creating a digital scholarly edition with the Text Encoding Initiative, ed. by Marjorie Burghart (DEMM, 2017)

  • James Cummings, ‘3. Manuscript description’ 

The Oxford handbook of Latin palaeography, ed. by Frank T. Coulson and Robert G. Babcock (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020) 

  • Consuelo W. Dutschke, ‘Cataloguing medieval manuscripts’ 

Quick start guide to the Consolidated TEI Schema (Bodleian / Cambridge University Library) 

Location

This course will take place in Senate House.

Fees

Course fees for LIPS 2024 are below:

  Standard Student
One Day Course  £145  £105

Course Tutor