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In ashes and sackcloth he did array |
INTRODUCTION
A long wait for most of you; those who have joined the list recently must
have been wondering if the e-mailed newsletter was a mere legend (though
what a legend!). However, the time since the last Harvest is trivial in
geological terms, so it is not surprising how quickly it has passed. Here
we are again, back like the dinosaurs, with the latest (some things more
fresh than others) from the Internet. First, we have exciting news of the
latest developments on the CERES website, where the home-grown resources
go from strength to strength. There are also many resources from elsewhere
in the web world that have tickled our collective fancy.
This Harvest has been brought to you by Christopher Burlinson and those mentioned in the colophon.
In recent months the CERES website has evolved again. The links page has been upgraded and now carries brief factual and critical comments. The most significant developments, however, have been to the COPIA (CERES Online Publications Interactive) section. This now includes the following projects:
HAP HAZARD: a collection of manuscript resources relating to Edmund Spenser. Current offerings include an edition of the textually important Gonville and Caius MS of A View of the Present State of Ireland, and an archive of the letters sand other documents penned or certified by Spenser during his service in the colonial administration of Elizabethan Ireland. This archive covers all the hundred or so letters listed by Petti, and will eventually include a large number that have been identified more recently. Future plans include editions of further historical documents relating to Spenser studies and an annotated edition of Cambridge UL MS Ee.3.53, Knevett's A Supplement of The Faery Queen.
SIDNEIANA: a collection of manuscript resources relating to Sir Philip Sidney and his circle. These are various and all fascinating: perhaps the most innovative are details of early modern musical settings, including audio, of Sidney sonnets.
AENEAS AND ISABELLA: the first COPIA project still boasts its editions of two poems in the tradition of Ovid's Heroides, and an attribution of these poems to Isabella Whitney. This has recently undergone minor revisions.
New projects are on the way, and we are keen to hear about others. Over the next academic year we will be undertaking our most ambitious project yet, an online course in early-modern English palaeography. This will include sample transcriptions (from MSS in libraries around Cambridge), model alphabets, an introduction to dating and describing manuscript hands, and a variety of transcription conventions. Best of all, we hope to include a novel method of testing users of the course as they tackle the sample documents. We are in discussions with CARET, the Cambridge University's Centre for Advanced Research into Educational Technologies, and we are grateful to CARET for financial support.
THE DEMISE OF ARDEN ONLINE
It is difficult to know whether this is a major event or not. The first
release of the Arden Shakespeare's online jamboree was exciting: rarely
had such high-quality material been made available on the web.
Unfortunately, the publishers had to recoup their investment (and
replenish their giant piles of money), and it appears the whole project
foundered when people proved unwilling to pay for it. The presence on the
web of good free Shakespeare sites was an issue, it seems, as was the
widespread feeling that the Internet is not yet a format that tempts
potential subscribers to put up serious money. So Thomson Learning, who
suspended selling Arden Online last May, has pulled the plug. CERES can't
help being worried about this development, as it suggests that the great
expansion of quality resources onto the web might not happen as quickly as
we'd have hoped. However, there are grand projects out there (EEBO, ESTC,
LION, etc.) and we salute them! Also, we at CERES don't mind if large
parts of the Internet can still be populated by cottage industries, as
that's what we are. (With grateful thanks to the Judith E. Wilson Fund of
the Cambridge English Faculty, of course.)
NEW BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUE
The new British Library on-line catalogue is now available at
http://blpc.bl.uk
This is a big step forward from OPAC 97, the previous version. Now we get
more detail on the entries and a better interface, 24 hours a day, 7 days
a week. The site is presented in an admirably efficient and uncluttered
way: nice coding, we cry!
CATALOGUE COLLECTIF DE FRANCE (CCFR)
Now this is something: an attempt at a union catalogue on a national
scale. Yes, all the books de la belle France. Visitez-vous
http://www.ccfr.bnf.fr/ or, in English (anglais)
http://www.ccfr.bnf.fr/rnbcd_visu/acc1_eng.htm
At present this is an impressive resource covering holdings in a wide
variety of libraries, some the obvious regional-municipal ones, others
more obscure. There are good options for downloading and printing out the
bibliographical records. Future plans include integrating the catalogue
with that of the Bibliotheque Nationale. For anyone rooting around for
copies of this or that in French libraries, this is an obvious port of
call.
DE DOCTRINA CHRISTIANA (MILTON AT OTAGO)
Neo-Latinists and Miltonists interested in new developments, head for
'Milton at Otago' at http://www.otago.ac.nz/English/milton
As well as a section on the performing of Milton marathons (complete with
photographs), and pages of largely local interest, on the Milton courses
available at the University of Otago, the site contains a section
discussing John K. Hale's part in the AHRB-funded team project of
translating and discussing the manuscript of 'De Doctrina Christiana'
(State Papers 9/61). He's hoping to use the site as a noticeboard for
posting questions about the text, many of them on its language and on
editorial issues, to which scholars can reply; although there isn't a
great deal to see at present, the page will expand as his work proceeds.
In the future a 'De Doctina' e-mail discussion group may appear, but in
the meantime this should be an important point of scholarly contact.
ROBIN ALSTON
Robin Alston, former Consultant to the Director General of the British
Library (1975-1995), and editor of ESTC (1976-1992), is publishing a
collection of his papers and essays online. There is material specifically
on the British Library, and on the place of computers in bibliography and
research. The site isn't complete yet, but it does promise that it is
being updated, and is worth keeping an eye on.
http://www.r-alston.co.uk/essays.htm
SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS OF MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE EUROPE
EPACT (European Pact) is a catalogue of medieval and early modern
scientific instruments, put together by the British Museum, the Museum of
the History of Science in Oxford, the Museum Boerhaave, Leiden, and the
Museo di Storia della Scienza in Florence. You can see some splendid
photos of hundreds of instruments (and zoom in on them), and follow links
to explanatory glossaries, articles, bibliographies, and so on. The
various bibliographies, in particular, give this site a very encyclopaedic
quality. It's also very pretty and well-designed, without lapsing into any
kind of kitsch.
http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/epact/
ANALYTIC BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ON-LINE NEO-LATIN TEXTS
Dana Sutton of the University of California, Irvine, has continued to
update and enlarge this bibliography; it now boasts references and links
to 2100 online texts. http://e3.uci.edu/~papyri/bibliography/
Many of these form part of his outstanding site The Philological Museum:
http://eee.uci.edu/~papyri/homepage/webpage.html
PRINTERS' DEVICES
The University of Florida is developing a searchable catalogue of
printers' devices. As is often the case with such sites, the catalogue is
small and incomplete, and so won't supplant other bibliographical
reference works just yet, but it ought to grow as other universities
contribute to it. It isn't immediately obvious how to search for devices
by visual motifs (i.e. when you have a device in front of you and want to
identify it): in order to do this, you need to enter the relevant term
(e.g. castles, coats of arms, stars) in the 'Keyword' section of the
'Search' form.
http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/spec/rarebook/devices/device.htm
UNCATALOGUED MANUSCRIPT CONTROL CENTER
Melissa Conway and Lisa Fagin Davis are co-directors of this project,
which has the aim of updating the existing catalogues of early manuscript
holdings in the USA. In particular, they want to account for the libraries
that have been broken up or have changed hands in the last fifty or so
years. The project is still in the organizational stage, but the
co-directors invite readers to suggest holdings of pre-1600 manuscripts in
the US that they have overlooked. Any ideas?
http://members.aol.com/dericci/umcc/umcc.html
RESTORATION ATALANTIS
At the heart of this new website will be the e-texts of a number of
late-seventeenth century plays: at the moment only Catharine Trotter's The
Fatal Friendship is available, but plays by Dryden, Aphra Behn, Mary Pix
and Thomas Southerne are on their way. The texts don't as yet come with
many notes or much bibliographical information, but they read very clearly
and are searchable. There is also a page of links, criticism, and a
bibliography.
Go to http://www.restorationatalantis.com/
GUTENBERG BIBLE(S)
A real treat for students of the Gutenberg Bible. It is
possible to see five different copies of the book on different websites.
First of all, the two copies (the paper King's Copy and vellum Grenville
copy) from the British Library are on show at http://prodigi.bl.uk/gutenbg/default.asp.
The website is generally very good, with lashings of subsidiary material
and information, but I found it difficult to go immediately to a
particular page: the search facility directs you only to a particular book
of the Bible. The image quality is excellent, as it is on all these sites.
The third and fourth copies are to be found on the pages of Keio
University in Tokyo: one copy from Keio University
(http://www.humi.keio.ac.jp/treasures/incunabula/B42/keio/vol_1/contents.html)
and the second from Cambridge University library
(http://www.humi.keio.ac.jp/treasures/incunabula/B42/index.html). Finally,
the library of Goettingen University is showing its copy on
http://www.gutenbergdigital.de/. The German text might be forbidding at
first, but it's very easy once you click on the 'Gutenberg Digital' logo.
Yet again, the quality of the images seems exemplary, and like the page of
the British Library, it is an attractive site with several links and
connected pages -- sometimes too many, though, and the layout can seem a
little cluttered.
Bibliophiles (and bibliography-philes) will no doubt be licking their
lips at the thought of this, and it would be interesting to see whether
the technological means can be made easily available for comparing the
images from the different sites on the same page, without having to flick
from one site to another. And there's more to come, one suspects. The
'Gutenberg Bibel' website (http://www.gutenberg.de/bibel.htm) gives a list
of the other surviving copies of the book. And hardened groupies can
purchase reprints at http://www.gutenberg-reprint.de/
SHAKSPER WEBSITE
SHAKSPER ('The Global Electronic Shakespeare Conference') now has a
website at http://ws.bowiestate.edu/ The opening page has something of a
no-frills appearance, but the site is well-organized and worth exploring.
As well as information on the SHAKSPER mailing list (which you can join
from the website), and up-to-date, searchable and browsable files of
previous postings, there are copies of conference papers and academic
articles, many with a cultural materialist slant, and quite a few on the
subject of electronic editing. There is also a well-tended list of links.
CONCORDANCE SOFTWARE
'Concordance' is a programme for those who want to make concordances. It
comes with all manner of flashy and swish features, and allows you to edit
and make use of your concordance in ways that you probably never imagined.
It is a commercial affair, and costs a commercial price: at $89 it isn't
cheap, but it's not prohibitively expensive, either, and there is also a
30-day trial version that you can download for free. Probably not
something to buy out of casual interest, but it does come with the highest
recommendations from those who have tried it. Go to
http://www.rjcw.freeserve.co.uk/ to check it out.
TRADITIO CLASSICORUM
This is a pretty large database of secondary literature on the reception
of classical literature, listed by classical author. This method of
organisation makes it a quick reference point, especially of you're
chasing up Pacuvius rather than Ovid. For Anglophone scholars it may also
be most useful for its coverage of articles in languages other than
English. Zap to
http://www.ruf.uni-freiburg.de/theologie/forsch/lohr/lohr-ch4.htm
BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX TO THE ELIZABETHAN THEATER
Found at http://www.clark.net/pub/tross/ws/bd/kathman.htm
This is a draft list of all people known to have been involved with
theatre in England between 1558 and 1642. The list includes playwrights
(including authors of masques, royal entertainments, and academic plays in
Latin and English), actors (including English actors in Europe and foreign
actors/performers in England), songwriters known to have written songs for
plays or masques, theatrical managers and entrepreneurs, carpenters
(really contractors, in modern parlance) who built playhouses, patrons of
acting troupes, all Lords Chamberlain and Masters of the Revels, ancillary
employees of the theater (such as tiremen or gatherers), and miscellaneous
other people who do not fall into any of the above categories, but who are
important to Elizabethan theater history (e.g. Francis Meres). This
resource provides sources and bibliography for each entry and makes up a
substantial and unusual collection of information.
NEW AT LITERATURE ONLINE
Golly gosh, cup runneth over. Now there is a collection of 61 full-text
electronic journals. If you want to see if they have your favourites,
there is a browsable list at http://lion.chadwyck.co.uk/toc/toc_first.htm Highlights include Renaissance Quarterly, Shakespeare Quarterly, and SEL.
PDF format remains CERES' favourite method of digitizing journals (the
appearance is preserved but you can still search the text), but any
increase in online journal texts is good!
ROBIN HOOD SITE
An ambitious and scholarly site with a good database of literary
representations, as well as other collections relating to Mr Hood:
http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/rh/rhhome.htm
DUCHESS OF MALFI ONLINE
http://larryavisbrown.homestead.com/files/Malfi/malfi_home.htm
A marked-up online text, with notes informed by various modern editions, a
commentary, and some pictures of a 1998 production: a resource especially
useful to students, probably.
SIMPLE BOOK REPAIR MANUAL
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~preserve/repair/repairindex.htm
Perhaps a curiosity in CERES terms, but a fascinating resource produced by
the Dartmouth College Library Preservation Services. This is the
electronic version of the print version which includes a Quicktime movie,
a wide-ranging manual, a glossary, and a bibliography.
ELIZABETHAN HERALDRY
http://renaissance.dm.net/heraldry/index.html
This is a really enjoyable site, with well-informed content and good
illustrations. It manages to be both a genuine reference resource and an
entertaining visit.
BIBLIOTHECA PRIVATA
http://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/archiv/1591
This is an edition, with introduction, of the two catalogues of the
'bibliotheca privata' of Frederic IV, Count Palatine and Elector.
Available as a pretty big PDF file (1.6MB), it offers fascinating insight
into the content and the adminstration of a substantial renaissance
princely library.
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY, ON LINE
http://www.slu.edu/colleges/AS/ENG/sidney/
A major resource, based on - and updating - Donald Stump's Sir Philip
Sidney: an annotated bibliography of texts and criticism (1554-1984)
(1994). The site offers citations and extensive abstracts, though rather
awkwardly filed under a few major headings and with a perplexing and
inflexible search facility. Quite a contrast to the wonderfully detailed
indices to the printed volume. Headings must be searched one at a time -
it seems not to be possible to search directly for all articles by a
particular scholar, for example. If this improves (with a more
conventional interface allowing searches by author or title keyword), the
full potential of the content will be unleashed.
OXFORD BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY
The Oxford Bibliographical Society now has its own website, with
information about the Society, its officers, its publications and its
annual series of lectures: http://www.oxbibsoc.org.uk
BEN JONSON JOURNAL
Now has its own website, with the rather apt URL of
http://www.benjonsonjournal.com
MALONE SOCIETY HOMEPAGE
http://www.sbu.ac.uk/malone/
This site includes details of membership and the history of the society,
but best of all is its comprehensive backlist of publications: a
substantial and interesting collection and the online list is a useful
reference resource.
INDEX OF POETRY IN PRINTED MISCELLANIES, 1640-1682
www.adamsmyth.clara.net
Dr Adam Smyth at Reading University has created this browseable list of
poems (authors, first lines, last lines, sources, and details on printers
and the miscellanies themselves) in first editions of printed miscellanies
published between 1640 and 1682. There is a searchable version of the
index, which is currently under construction but can be reached from the
site.
GOLDEN AGE SPANISH STUDENTS
http://sonnets.spanish.sbc.edu/
Alix Ingber of Sweet Briar College is responsible for this elegant and
developing resource, which currently boasts 107 Golden Age (sixteenth
century) Spanish sonnets with English translations. There are links to
related resources (mostly Spanish), bibliographies, and sensible ways of
searching.
BOOKS OF COMMON PRAYER
http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/
Last and not least! A remarkable collection of texts and images from all
the editions of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, with the potential to
compare closely related editions. Wow and thrice wow. A nice note to end
on... We'll be back soon!
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For further information on CERES, please write to Gavin Alexander or Raphael Lyne.
This page is maintained by Andrew Zurcher, and was last updated on
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