Researching the Modern History of Medieval Manuscripts: Resources and Collaborations

This workshop showcases some of the collaborative research currently being undertaken into the modern history of medieval manuscripts. The CULTIVATE MSS Project (funded by the European Research Council) examines the trade in medieval books between 1900 and 1945, and analyses the impact of the trade on the formation of modern library collections and the development of scholarship. One of the central hypotheses of the project is that the manuscript trade contributed to the projection of values onto medieval manuscripts and subsequently to conceptions of the Middle Ages. 

The project is based at Senate House, and makes use of the exceptional resources for the study of manuscripts in that library, which were also developed throughout the twentieth century. A key partner for the project is the Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts, based at the University of Pennsylvania. Initiated by Larry Schoenberg in the context of his own collection, the redeveloped database contains over 250,000 records of observations of manuscripts based on data from a wide range of sources. 

The user community can add and edit data to improve both the records and the framework it provides for understanding provenance history. One of the current projects to benefit from the Schoenberg Database is the Mapping Manuscript Migrations project, developed by a research team in Oxford, Paris and Finland. The workshop will examine how such tools are shaping research into provenance history and train users to work with the Schoenberg Database. 

This workshop was held on 14 January 2020, 10.00-16.00 in the Bloomsbury Room, Ground Floor, Senate and was free and open to all. 

Programme:

10.00 Welcome, Laura Cleaver, Institute of English Studies (CULTIVATE MSS Project)

10.10 – SESSION 1

Laura Cleaver, The CULTIVATE MSS Project: reconstructing the trade in medieval manuscripts c. 1900-45.

Tansy Barton, The Palaeography Collection at Senate House Library: Past, Present and Future

11.30 Coffee break

11.45 – SESSION 2

Lynn Ransom, Introduction to the Schoenberg Database

Toby Burrows, Mapping Manuscript Migrations

13.00 Lunch (not provided)

14.00-16.00 – SESSION 3

Lynn Ransom and Emma Thomson, workshop with the Schoenberg Database