[Scriptoris] Fw: [Bryn-gwlad] Harry Ransom Center database for the medieval and early modern manuscripts collection

[Elaine]

What a wonderful site you forwarded. Your thoughtfulness is genuinely  
appreciated.
HL Lete
....................................
On May 23, 2010, at 8:48 AM, Ld. Alfred wrote:

> Forwarded.  Enjoy!!
> ~Alfred~
>
>
>
> To: Barony of Bryn Gwlad <bryn-gwlad at lists.ansteorra.org>
> Sent: Fri, May 21, 2010 11:00:58 AM
> Subject: [Bryn-gwlad] Harry Ransom Center database for the medieval  
> and early modern manuscripts collection
>
>
>
> FYI
>
>
> May 19, 2010
>
> AUSTIN, Texas - The Harry Ransom Center, a humanities
> research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin, has
> introduced an online database for its medieval and early modern  
> manuscripts
> collection. The database includes more than 7,000 digital images  
> and can be
> accessed via the Ransom Center's Web site, http:// 
> research.hrc.utexas.edu/pubmnem/.
>
> The "Belleville Book of Hours" (mid-15th
> century) once belonged to Marie de Belleville, daughter
> of Charles VI of France and is the finest illuminated manuscript in  
> the
> collection. Books of Hours were used for private devotional purposes.
>
> The medieval and early modern manuscripts collection
> contains 215 items dating from the 11th to the 17th centuries. It  
> comprises
> items from various collections, including those of George Atherton  
> Aitken, W.
> H.
> Crain, Carlton Lake, Edward A. Parsons, Sir Thomas
> Phillipps, Walter Emile Van Wijk, Evelyn Waugh, John Henry Wrenn  
> and others.
>
> The Ransom Center is digitizing all of the collection
> items, which will be added to the database as they are completed.  
> At present,
> digital images are available for 27 of the items for a total of  
> 7,288 pages.
>
> The database contains item-level descriptions for all 215
> items, and the collection is searchable by keyword and any  
> combination of the
> following
> categories: name, country of origin, century, language,
> format (such as charters or diaries), subject and physical features  
> (such as
> musical notation or wax seals).
>
> The medieval and early modern manuscripts collection is a
> rich resource for many areas of research. Scholars may use the  
> collection to
> trace typographical developments in printing, compare different  
> versions of the
> same text or examine a manuscript's composition, decoration and  
> binding to
> study the history of the book. The collection may also be valuable  
> for those
> studying the history of liturgy and music.
>
> "The new database for the Ransom Center's medieval
> and early modern manuscripts collection is a wonderful resource for  
> students
> and teachers here at the university and for scholars everywhere," said
> Marjorie Curry Woods, professor of English and comparative  
> literature at The
> University of Texas at Austin. "The detailed descriptions will help
> researchers working on individual manuscripts, provide a model for  
> students learning
> palaeography and codicology, and allow scholars elsewhere to  
> explore possible
> connections between the Ransom Center's manuscripts and those in other
> collections.
>
> "The complete digitized versions of manuscripts are
> invaluable.
> Manuscripts that are now too fragile to be handled are
> still available for research and teaching, and those that have small,
> difficult-to-read glosses and marginalia now can be deciphered with  
> relative
> ease. In addition, digitized manuscripts can be projected for class
> presentations and can be consulted by scholars working  
> collaboratively but in
> different locations. Access to the Ransom Center's valuable early  
> holdings is
> increased exponentially while at the same time reducing wear and  
> tear on the
> manuscripts themselves."
>
> The collection is particularly strong in humanistic
> manuscripts, vernacular literature and religious documents. Other  
> represented
> subjects include alchemy, architecture, astronomy, botany,  
> cartography,
> classical literature, diplomacy, drama, genealogy, government,  
> heraldry,
> history, kings and rulers, law, mathematics, medicine, monasticism and
> religious orders, music, philosophy, poetry, science and war.
>
> The earliest item in the collection is the Tegernsee
> Miscellany manuscript, an 11th-century Austrian codex of various  
> texts compiled
> by Abbot Ellinger of Tegernsee. Other highlights include 11 Books  
> of Hours,
> most notably the "Belleville Hours," and a 15th-century German ferial
> psalter and hymnal, significant because of its possible stylistic  
> relationship
> to the Gutenberg Bible and early printed psalters.
>
> The collection contains classical texts, including copies
> of works by Cicero, Horace, Ovid and Plato, and medieval literary  
> works by
> Geoffrey Chaucer, Dante and Petrarch.
>
> The historical documents in the collection represent
> numerous European monarchs, such as Henry VIII of England, Louis  
> XIII of France
> and Philip III of Spain. Notable historical figures represented in the
> collection include Oliver Cromwell, Martin Luther, John Milton, Sir  
> Isaac
> Newton, Abraham Ortelius and Sir Walter Raleigh. Document types  
> include
> charters, commonplace books, contracts, correspondence, decrees,  
> deeds,
> diaries, government records, indentures, letters patent, minutes,  
> notarial
> documents, notes, papal bulls, petitions, pontificals, receipts,  
> reports,
> speeches and writs.
>
> The manuscripts represent numerous countries and
> historical regions, including Austria, Bohemia, Bolivia, Byzantium,  
> England,
> Flanders, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands,  
> Portugal, Scotland,
> Spain and the United States. The represented languages include  
> Dutch, English,
> Flemish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Latin, Middle  
> English, Old
> English and Spanish.
>
> Other holdings at the Ransom Center that contain early
> manuscripts include the George Atherton Aitken, Eastern  
> manuscripts, clay
> tablets and cones, Kraus maps, Lanza-Acosta Bolivian, Arthur  
> Livingston,
> papyri, Pforzheimer, Ranuzzi, Shelley family and the Austin  
> Presbyterian
> Theological Seminary collections.
>
> High-resolution press images from the collection are
> available.
>
> For more information, contact: Alicia Dietrich, Harry
> Huntt Ransom Humanities Research Center, 512 232 3667;  Jennifer  
> Tisdale, Harry Huntt Ransom
> Humanities Research Center, 512-471-8949.
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