Title
Old Books, New Technologies: Medieval Manuscript Fragments and IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework)
Location
KIPJ Theatre
Session Type
Keynote Address
Start Date
18-4-2023 3:45 PM
End Date
18-4-2023 4:40 PM
Abstract
Medieval manuscripts undertake long and difficult journeys to get from there and then to here and now. Fragmentology concerns itself with the study of manuscripts that have only barely survived the journey, arriving in pieces. As fragmentologists, we interrogate when and how and why the codex was fragmented, investigate the contents and history of a given fragment or set of fragments, and work to rebuild the fragmented codex in the digital realm. By leveraging IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework) and linked open data in this work, scholars are able to avoid siloing images, simplify data modeling, embrace digital sustainability, and create digital objects with leaf-level and manuscript-level metadata. This model can be profitably applied to other fields and methodologies.
Old Books, New Technologies: Medieval Manuscript Fragments and IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework)
KIPJ Theatre
Medieval manuscripts undertake long and difficult journeys to get from there and then to here and now. Fragmentology concerns itself with the study of manuscripts that have only barely survived the journey, arriving in pieces. As fragmentologists, we interrogate when and how and why the codex was fragmented, investigate the contents and history of a given fragment or set of fragments, and work to rebuild the fragmented codex in the digital realm. By leveraging IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework) and linked open data in this work, scholars are able to avoid siloing images, simplify data modeling, embrace digital sustainability, and create digital objects with leaf-level and manuscript-level metadata. This model can be profitably applied to other fields and methodologies.
Comments
Lisa Fagin Davis received her PhD in Medieval Studies from Yale University in 1993. In addition to authoring several monographs and numerous articles about medieval manuscripts, she has catalogued medieval manuscript collections at Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, the Walters Art Museum, Wellesley College, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Boston Public Library, and several private collections. Dr. Davis has taught Latin Paleography at Yale University and regularly teaches an Introduction to Manuscript Studies at the Simmons University School of Library and Information Science. Her current projects focus on digital reconstructions and metadata modeling of fragmented early manuscripts. Dr. Davis was elected to the Comité international de paléographie latine in 2019 and has served as Executive Director of the Medieval Academy of America since 2013.