Manuscript transcriptions
You can select and compare text transcriptions from any of the 121 text witnesses by using the controls in the upper right-hand corner of this screen.
- The “add witness ... ” drop-down menu allows you to select and compare up to four manuscripts at any one time.
- Under “Settings” you can select your preferred ‘Global Viewing Mode’ applied to the “Browse” viewing mode:
- “Facsimile” displays transcriptions with a layout and visual style reflecting the original manuscript as closely as possible.
- “Edition” displays transcriptions in a more readable style (resembling that of a modern edition).
- “Synchronise by word” is a viewing mode in which every collated word becomes a link. Clicking on a word synchronises all open transcriptions to
that word. This mode works well only for chapters for which collation data is available.
- “DMF” is a mode in which each word becomes a link to the online Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (DMF). Clicking on a word opens a window listing the relevant lemmatised entry or entries on the DMF website.
- Under ‘Orientation’ you can choose between ‘Horizontal’ and ‘Vertical’ viewing.
- “Browse” and “Collate” are viewing modes.
“
Browse” is more suitable for exploring documents generally.
“
Collate” is for conducting word-by-word comparisons across manuscripts (collation of witnesses). This mode works well only for chapters
for which collation data is available.
- Once you have a transcription open, use 'Navigate' (top-right-hand corner, in RED) to navigate through the transcription
by either Folio, Manuscript Chapter, or SHF Chapter (click on one of the 3 radio buttons to the left to make your choice).
When the manuscript that is opened has been used in a modern edition, a fourth option to navigate becomes available, i.e.
using the page numbers of the modern edition.
- Clicking on ‘Preferences’ (top-right-hand corner, in RED) allows you to alter the Display mode for showing transcriptions (again, click on one of the
3 radio buttons to the left to make your choice).
- High-resolution images for some of the manuscript witnesses are viewable using the Virtual Vellum external viewer, for which you will need to have pre-installed Java Runtime Environment (JRE) Version 1.5 or above. The Java
Runtime download is free and can be obtained from Oracle.