Foreword<\/h2>\nby<\/em> Mildred Budny<\/h3>\nAs 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<\/strong> at the Parker Library<\/a> of Corpus Christi College (1989\u20131994), we held a series of RGME Seminars on the Evidence of Manuscripts<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\nFrom the start, as manifested in our choice of name, Research Group on Manuscript Evidence<\/em><\/strong>,<\/em> and the integrated scope and functions of our very first project, we have taken care to distinguish between the evidence<\/em> and interpretations<\/em> 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 \u2014 in steps which involve interpretation of various kinds.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/image00003-Jennah-Farrell-Leaf-in-Frame-her-photo-237x300.jpg\")
Collection of Jennah Farrell, Manuscript Leaf in Frame. Photograph by Jennah Farrrell.<\/p><\/div>\n
Now, in our 2024 Anniversary Year with its theme of Bridges<\/a>, we prepare to launch a series of RGME Workshops on Manuscripts and Other Sources<\/strong>.\u00a0 They start with a new Loan of a detached leaf on vellum from a medieval Latin Vulgate Bible in the Collection of Jennah Farrell.<\/p>\n\n- A Latin Vulgate Leaf from the Book of Numbers<\/a> (Part 1)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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<\/a> (25\u201326 October). The Symposium Booklet illustrates both sides of the leaf. You may find the booklet for download as:<\/p>\n\n- consecutive pages, quarto size (8 1\/2″ \u00d7 11″ sheets)
\n2024 Autumn Symposium Booklet: Consecutive Pages<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n- foldable booklet (11″ \u00d7 17″ sheets)
\n2024 Autumn Symposium Program: Foldable Booklet<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nNext, 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?<\/p>\n
<\/div>\nThese 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.<\/p>\n
\n- Workshop 1.<\/strong> Introduction to the Farrell Leaf: What do we See?
\n(Sunday 17 November 2024 by Zoom)
\nRegistration: Workshop 1: Introduction to the Farrell Leaf<\/a><\/li>\n- Workshop 2.<\/strong> Follow-up for the Farrell Leaf: What have we Learned?
\n(Sunday 15 December 2024 by Zoom)
\nRegistration: Workshop 2: Follow Up for the Farrell Leaf<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/0276_001-Farrell-Leaf-recto-top-180-1024x395.jpg\")
Collection of Jennah Farrell, Single Leaf from the Book of Numbers in a Medieval Latin Vulgate Bible manuscript: Recto, top. Photography by Mildred Budny.<\/p><\/div>\n
Plan<\/h2>\n
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 \u2014 in such forms as they and their evidence become accessible, directly and\/or through surrogates such as photographs, digital facsimiles, reports, and other means.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\n- Handlist of Resources for Manuscript Studies and Fragmentology<\/a>
\n\u2014 for which we invite suggestions and additions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nStepping Stones
\nObservations by our Research Consultant<\/h2>\n
![\"Poster](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Bembino-Poster-1-6-with-border-201x300.png\")
Leslie J. French<\/strong>, 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<\/strong> at the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College in the University of Cambridge. His contributions include<\/p>\n\n- the design of our logo,<\/li>\n
- the design and layout of most of our publications,<\/li>\n
- the creation of our multi-lingual digital font Bembino<\/a> (displayed on our website and elsewhere), and<\/li>\n
- the research and preparations for numerous RGME Research Reports and presentations at our scholarly events.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
See also:<\/p>\n
\n- Interview with Our Font & Layout Designer<\/a><\/li>\n
- The Design and Layout of the Illustrated Catalogue<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
In his own words:<\/em><\/p>\nBridge of Signs<\/h2>\nby Leslie J. French<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pexels-claudio-mota-105200226-9999874-cropped-1024x505.jpg\")
View of the Pont Neuf, Paris. Photograph by Claudio Mota via https:\/\/www.pexels.com\/photo\/pont-neuf-bridge-in-paris-9999874\/.<\/p><\/div>\n
Increased digitization of manuscript and printed resources has dramatically improved scholars’ ability to view content.\u00a0 However, increased accessibility does not imply increased comprehension.\u00a0 There still remains a gap between what might be observed on a page, and its interpretation.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nWe seek to bridge that gap between the artefact on one bank and the reader on the other.\u00a0 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.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nOur aim is to create a series of pillars, or supports, across the gap, and to build the bridge, section by section, between.<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
Across the Bridge
\nfrom Pillar or Pier, Step by Step<\/h2>\nFrom the physical object we have first (nowadays) the digital scan or photographic image<\/strong>.\u00a0 We encourage institutions to produce scans or photographs at the highest practical resolution, and to include scales and color guides where possible.\u00a0 (See our Style Manifesto<\/a>.) Lossless compression<\/a> offers the best quality, but lower-quality compressed (jpeg<\/a>) images have a place along the way for rapid download and review, e.g. to locate a particular passage or illustration.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nFrom there, we must cross to the textual matter.\u00a0 In the work for a Palaeographical and Textual Handbook<\/strong> (which had its debut at an early RGME Seminar on the Evidence of Manuscripts<\/a> in March 1990), we have developed the concept of a depiction<\/strong> as the next element of support.\u00a0 By representing the individual glyphs in a standard format (font<\/a>), while preserving the original layout and abbreviations, we can guide the reader to a correct interpretation of the letter forms.\u00a0 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.<\/div>\n1) Specimen Manuscript Page and its Photograph<\/h3>\n
On the manuscript, see<\/p>\n
\n- Two Pages from a Roman Breviary in Gothic Script<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/20190226_145904-Benedictus-Deus-Leaf-Closer-cropped-1-780x1024.jpg\")
Private Collection, Roman Breviary Leaf in Frame: Page with Part of Vespers for Holy Trinity Sunday. Photography By Mildred Budny. Reproduced by permission.<\/p><\/div>\n
2) Depiction<\/h3>\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Holy-Trinity-3-Depiction-Page-3-with-border.png\")
Depiction of the Page and its Layout by Leslie French for the RGME.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\nThe page layout does not always reflect the structure of the text.\u00a0 A transcription<\/strong> preserves the sequence of letters but re-arranges them to present the intended structure (for example moving a rubricated title into a heading).\u00a0 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.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe next gap, mid-stream as it were, lies between the individual letters and the words and phrases they represent. A semi-diplomatic edition<\/strong> takes the transcribed text and groups it into ‘words’ that a reader might recognize.\u00a0 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.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nApproaching the other bank, we move more towards interpretation.\u00a0 Not all the words may make sense, either from an incorrect reading,\u00a0 from scribal or printing errors, of from a faulty exemplar.\u00a0 When the text is well-known, with multiple other examples available, we can create a ‘normalized’ edition<\/strong>, with silent expansion of the abbreviations and ‘variorum’ notes<\/strong> calling out the differences between the specific text and any generally-accepted alternatives.\u00a0 In other cases a judgement call may be needed, but also noted as such in the edition.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nSighting land, we need to consider translations as a final step.\u00a0 One further pillar helps the traversal.\u00a0 A ‘close’ translation<\/strong> aims to preserve as much as possible of the original grammatical structure and phrasing,\u00a0 particularly regarding verb tense and mood or the case of nouns.\u00a0 The resulting English may seem awkward, or stilted,\u00a0 but matching up the word forms is an essential part of understanding the text.\u00a0 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.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nFinally, we can arrange the translation into a more readable form.\u00a0 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.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nOur bridge is not a one-way crossing.\u00a0 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.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n*****<\/div>\nQuestions and Suggestions<\/h2>\nInterested? Join our online Workshops!\u00a0 (See above.)<\/div>\n<\/div>\nQuestions and suggestions?\u00a0 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?<\/div>\n\nPlease leave your Comments or questions below, Contact Us<\/a>, or visit<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n- our FaceBook Page<\/a><\/li>\n
- our Facebook Group<\/a><\/li>\n
- our Twitter Feed<\/a> (@rgme_mss)<\/li>\n
- our Bluesky<\/a> nest @rgmesocial.bluesky.social)<\/li>\n
- our Blog on Manuscript Studies<\/a> and its Contents List<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Donations and contributions, in funds or in kind, are welcome and easy to give.\u00a0 See<\/p>\n
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<\/strong> at the Parker Library<\/a> of Corpus Christi College (1989\u20131994), we held a series of RGME Seminars on the Evidence of Manuscripts<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n From the start, as manifested in our choice of name, Research Group on Manuscript Evidence<\/em><\/strong>,<\/em> and the integrated scope and functions of our very first project, we have taken care to distinguish between the evidence<\/em> and interpretations<\/em> 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 \u2014 in steps which involve interpretation of various kinds.<\/p>\n Collection of Jennah Farrell, Manuscript Leaf in Frame. Photograph by Jennah Farrrell.<\/p><\/div>\n Now, in our 2024 Anniversary Year with its theme of Bridges<\/a>, we prepare to launch a series of RGME Workshops on Manuscripts and Other Sources<\/strong>.\u00a0 They start with a new Loan of a detached leaf on vellum from a medieval Latin Vulgate Bible in the Collection of Jennah Farrell.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> (25\u201326 October). The Symposium Booklet illustrates both sides of the leaf. You may find the booklet for download as:<\/p>\n 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?<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Collection of Jennah Farrell, Single Leaf from the Book of Numbers in a Medieval Latin Vulgate Bible manuscript: Recto, top. Photography by Mildred Budny.<\/p><\/div>\n 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 \u2014 in such forms as they and their evidence become accessible, directly and\/or through surrogates such as photographs, digital facsimiles, reports, and other means.<\/p>\n 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<\/p>\n See also:<\/p>\n In his own words:<\/em><\/p>\n View of the Pont Neuf, Paris. Photograph by Claudio Mota via https:\/\/www.pexels.com\/photo\/pont-neuf-bridge-in-paris-9999874\/.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n On the manuscript, see<\/p>\n Private Collection, Roman Breviary Leaf in Frame: Page with Part of Vespers for Holy Trinity Sunday. Photography By Mildred Budny. Reproduced by permission.<\/p><\/div>\n Depiction of the Page and its Layout by Leslie French for the RGME.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Please leave your Comments or questions below, Contact Us<\/a>, or visit<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Donations and contributions, in funds or in kind, are welcome and easy to give.\u00a0 See<\/p>\n\n
\n
\n2024 Autumn Symposium Booklet: Consecutive Pages<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\n2024 Autumn Symposium Program: Foldable Booklet<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\n(Sunday 17 November 2024 by Zoom)
\nRegistration: Workshop 1: Introduction to the Farrell Leaf<\/a><\/li>\n
\n(Sunday 15 December 2024 by Zoom)
\nRegistration: Workshop 2: Follow Up for the Farrell Leaf<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nPlan<\/h2>\n
\n
\n\u2014 for which we invite suggestions and additions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nStepping Stones
\nObservations by our Research Consultant<\/h2>\nLeslie J. French<\/strong>, 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<\/strong> at the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College in the University of Cambridge. His contributions include<\/p>\n\n
\n
Bridge of Signs<\/h2>\n
by Leslie J. French<\/h3>\n
Across the Bridge
\nfrom Pillar or Pier, Step by Step<\/h2>\n1) Specimen Manuscript Page and its Photograph<\/h3>\n
\n
2) Depiction<\/h3>\n
Questions and Suggestions<\/h2>\n
\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/P1140241_Carnavalet_Ecole_francaise_Projet_Pont-Neuf_vers_1577_rwk-cropped-check-if-OK-1024x474.jpg\")