• Lucia Vannini

Institute of Classical Studies

When we consider the opportunities opened up by digital approaches in humanities research, the field of classics can be regarded as one of those which has mostly benefited by the introduction of new methods. Within classics, papyrology (the study of Greek and Latin books and documents unearthed in archaeological excavations) has always been particularly concerned with the adoption of digital technologies: the constantly fragmentary state of its texts implies the use of several specific tools to help papyrologists read, restore and identify extremely damaged documents – tools which are best suited to the digital format.

The first comprehensive examination of digital papyrological resources has recently been published by Reggiani (Digital Papyrology, 2017), which greatly helped bridge an important gap in the literature on this topic. Nonetheless, further aspects remain to be investigated towards drawing a complete picture of digital papyrology from multiple angles.

In this paper, I will present the results of an analysis of digital papyrological projects from a standpoint which has not been considered thus far, that is, the place they occupy within the wider context of digital humanities. By following a subdivision in the three main categories of databases, imaging and editing, I will draw a comparison with analogue resources for other humanities disciplines. My analysis will thus show what distinctive features papyrological projects present in such aspects as history, customisation of general resources, diffusion of open source tools, utilisation of advanced imaging techniques, incorporation of digital methods in teaching, and dissemination. The aim is to offer an overall reflection on whether papyrology takes full advantage of digital humanities approaches, what aspects could be improved by observing relevant projects also beyond classics, and what innovations, in turn, the papyrological realm can provide to advance research in different domains.

• Toby Burrows

University of Oxford

Over the last twenty years there has been a proliferation of digital data relating to medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, in the form of catalogues, databases, digital editions and digital images. But there is little in the way of interoperable digital infrastructure to link these disparate sources together, and the evidence base for manuscript research is, for the most part, fragmented and scattered. As a result, large-scale research questions remain very difficult, if not impossible, to answer.

The “Mapping Manuscript Migrations” project, funded by the Trans-Atlantic Platform under its Digging into Data Challenge for 2017-2019, aims to address these problems. It is led by the University of Oxford, in partnership with the University of Pennnsylvania, Aalto University in Helsinki, and the Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes in Paris. The project is building a coherent framework to link manuscript data from various disparate sources, with the aim of enabling searchable and browsable semantic access to aggregated evidence about medieval and Renaissance manuscripts.

This framework is being used as the basis for a large-scale analysis of the history and movement of these manuscripts over the centuries. The broad research questions being addressed include: how many manuscripts have survived; where they are now; and which people and institutions have been involved in their history. More specific research focuses on particular collectors and countries.

The paper will report on the first twelve months of this project. The topics covered will include the new digital platform being developed, the sources of data which are being combined, the data modeling being carried out to link disparate data sources, the research questions which this assemblage of data is being used to address, and the ways in which this evidence can be presented and visualized.

• Jo Pugh

The National Archives, Kew

Historians are increasingly aware of how digital research tools cast shadow as well as light, influencing what can be discovered, and thus the history that is written. This paper will argue that this focus on digital research tools is obscuring the broader truth that all information management systems contain their own biases, and archives are not the historical “ground zero” sometimes suggested. Digital tools are simply the latest in a line of mediators influencing historians present day interactions with material from the past.

We will show how data from a range of little used sources, such as catalogue metadata at scale, datasets of document productions and journal citations can allow us first to understand the shape of the archival terrain which researchers are navigating and then to understand the effects of this landscape on historians' document use and scholarly practice.

In doing so we will seek to explore the layers of influence which registry clerks, archivists, cataloguers and volunteers have had on archival collections and how these might be made more visible in order to be evaluated (if never removed) by historians.