The Bridge of Signs

November 5, 2024 in Manuscript Studies, Research Group Workshops

The Bridge of Signs

Bridging the Gap
between Original Source
and its Interpretation

Signposts
by the RGME Research Consultant,
Leslie J. French

with a Foreword by the RGME Director and WebEditor,
Mildred Budny

[Posted on 5 November 2024, with updates]

Foreword

by Mildred Budny

As the RGME plans a new series of Workshops to examine manuscripts and other original sources, we reflect on the plan. In our early years based at the University of Cambridge as an outside-funded research project on selected Anglo-Saxon and Related Manuscripts at the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College (1989–1994), we held a series of RGME Seminars on the Evidence of Manuscripts.

From the start, as manifested in our choice of name, Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, and the integrated scope and functions of our very first project, we have taken care to distinguish between the evidence and interpretations made from it, as well as to attend to the stages or steps between them. Such steps extend from examination of the object, through photography, decipherment (if need be), transcription (diplomatic or normalized), edition (semi-diplomatic or normalized), translation, and placement in context, to reach increased, informed, and it may be collaborative, understanding — in steps which involve interpretation of various kinds.

Collection of Jennah Farrell, Manuscript Leaf in Frame. Photograph by Jennah Farrrell.

Now, in our 2024 Anniversary Year with its theme of Bridges, we prepare to launch a series of RGME Workshops on Manuscripts and Other Sources.  They start with a new Loan of a detached leaf on vellum from a medieval Latin Vulgate Bible in the Collection of Jennah Farrell.

With permission, our Director Mildred Budny removed the leaf from its modern frame, to reveal its full extent and its back or verso which the frame had hidden, in time for our 2024 Autumn Symposium: Spotlight on Special Collections as Teaching Events (25–26 October). The Symposium Booklet illustrates both sides of the leaf. You may find the booklet for download as:

Next, we will hold a pair of online Workshops to study the leaf collectively. For example, can we identify what this leaf contains, which manuscript originally contained this detached leaf, where and when it was made, how did it find its way from the manuscript in steps to the Farrell Collection, and what can it tell us about itself and its history?

These Workshops can show and share the detective work. Beginners and advanced scholars alike are welcome, as we compare notes and ‘adopt’ the leaf as a subject of discovery and wonder, while it visits the RGME on generous loan for research, study, and teaching, before it returns to its collection.

Collection of Jennah Farrell, Single Leaf from the Book of Numbers in a Medieval Latin Vulgate Bible manuscript: Recto, top. Photography by Mildred Budny.

Plan

First, we offer observations about the process, and its strategy, as we prepare this series of collective approaches to teach and learn the methods of examining and studying the sources — in such forms as they and their evidence become accessible, directly and/or through surrogates such as photographs, digital facsimiles, reports, and other means.

As a lead-in to our Workshops, we turn to our Research Consultant, Leslie J. French, for a description of the principles and practices which underpin their approaches and methodology, based on the experiences which the RGME has gathered in its years of work, photography, research, teaching, and publication on original materials. His approach provides both foundation and signposts for the work of the Workshops and the preparation of resources for them. Among such resources are photography, bibliographical references, and our growing

Stepping Stones
Observations by our Research Consultant

Poster announcing Bembino Version 1.6 (January 2019)Leslie J. French, our Research Consultant and Font & Layout Designer, has contributed to many RGME activities and publications from our very beginnings in 1989 as part of a major, outside-funded, research project on Anglo-Saxon and Related Manuscripts at the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College in the University of Cambridge. His contributions include

  • the design of our logo,
  • the design and layout of most of our publications,
  • the creation of our multi-lingual digital font Bembino (displayed on our website and elsewhere), and
  • the research and preparations for numerous RGME Research Reports and presentations at our scholarly events.

See also:

In his own words:

Bridge of Signs

by Leslie J. French

View of the Pont Neuf, Paris. Photograph by Claudio Mota via https://www.pexels.com/photo/pont-neuf-bridge-in-paris-9999874/.

Increased digitization of manuscript and printed resources has dramatically improved scholars’ ability to view content.  However, increased accessibility does not imply increased comprehension.  There still remains a gap between what might be observed on a page, and its interpretation.
We seek to bridge that gap between the artefact on one bank and the reader on the other.  This may be a very large gap, particularly for newcomers to the field who are unfamiliar with the script, abbreviations, text and structure of the documents they are viewing.
Our aim is to create a series of pillars, or supports, across the gap, and to build the bridge, section by section, between.

Across the Bridge
from Pillar or Pier, Step by Step

From the physical object we have first (nowadays) the digital scan or photographic image.  We encourage institutions to produce scans or photographs at the highest practical resolution, and to include scales and color guides where possible.  (See our Style Manifesto.) Lossless compression offers the best quality, but lower-quality compressed (jpeg) images have a place along the way for rapid download and review, e.g. to locate a particular passage or illustration.
From there, we must cross to the textual matter.  In the work for a Palaeographical and Textual Handbook (which had its debut at an early RGME Seminar on the Evidence of Manuscripts in March 1990), we have developed the concept of a depiction as the next element of support.  By representing the individual glyphs in a standard format (font), while preserving the original layout and abbreviations, we can guide the reader to a correct interpretation of the letter forms.  Many times, a single depiction, coupled with its image, suffices to teach the approach to script and text that then covers the remainder of the artefact.

1) Specimen Manuscript Page and its Photograph

On the manuscript, see

Private Collection, Roman Breviary Leaf in Frame: Page with Part of Vespers for Holy Trinity Sunday. Photography By Mildred Budny. Reproduced by permission.

2) Depiction

Depiction of the Page and its Layout by Leslie French for the RGME.

The page layout does not always reflect the structure of the text.  A transcription preserves the sequence of letters but re-arranges them to present the intended structure (for example moving a rubricated title into a heading).  The transcription also uses a single font size for the bulk of the text, with the option of enlarged and/or colored initials where present in the original.
The next gap, mid-stream as it were, lies between the individual letters and the words and phrases they represent. A semi-diplomatic edition takes the transcribed text and groups it into ‘words’ that a reader might recognize.  Abbreviations are explicitly expanded, usually by italics, so that it is possible to go back-and-forth between the stages in order to understand the original presentation.
Approaching the other bank, we move more towards interpretation.  Not all the words may make sense, either from an incorrect reading,  from scribal or printing errors, of from a faulty exemplar.  When the text is well-known, with multiple other examples available, we can create a ‘normalized’ edition, with silent expansion of the abbreviations and ‘variorum’ notes calling out the differences between the specific text and any generally-accepted alternatives.  In other cases a judgement call may be needed, but also noted as such in the edition.
Sighting land, we need to consider translations as a final step.  One further pillar helps the traversal.  A ‘close’ translation aims to preserve as much as possible of the original grammatical structure and phrasing,  particularly regarding verb tense and mood or the case of nouns.  The resulting English may seem awkward, or stilted,  but matching up the word forms is an essential part of understanding the text.  in some cases, the choice of an active or passive form may underlie the author’s intent as to how an action should be interpreted.
Finally, we can arrange the translation into a more readable form.  For metrical, alliterative, or rhyming texts producing an ‘equivalent’ translation may involve vocabulary and word order that is not present in the original but conveys instead the spirit of the composition.
Our bridge is not a one-way crossing.  By moving between the stages in both directions, readers can not only use the results but also learn the approach and, we might hope, apply it in their travels and travails.
*****

Questions and Suggestions

Interested? Join our online Workshops!  (See above.)
Questions and suggestions?  For example, do you have favorite resources for looking at manuscripts or other written sources, learning from them, and working with them? Online and/or in print? Would you like to share them with us as we compile tools for the workshops?

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Paris, Musée Carnavalet, Projet pour le Pont Neuf, circa 1577. Image via Wikimedia via Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

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