• Medieval Manuscripts: Media Archaeology and the Digital Incunable

    Author(s):
    Martin Foys (see profile)
    Date:
    2015
    Subject(s):
    Anglo-Saxons--Study and teaching, Manuscripts, Mass media--Study and teaching, Archaeology, Manuscripts, Medieval
    Item Type:
    Book chapter
    Tag(s):
    Medieval media studies, Anglo-Saxon studies, Manuscript studies, Media archaeology, Medieval manuscripts
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6SZ8Z
    Abstract:
    This chapter assesses the evolution of the digitized manuscript from fragmented data to increasingly accessible and interoperable forms. The long view of media history and the tenets of the emerging field of media archaeology frame this exploration, considering how digital representations of manuscripts function as a kind of incunable – an extended media moment caught between old and nascent methods and practices. Archaeologically, the medieval manuscript functioned as a convergence of media forms existing in partnership with larger ecologies of material expression. Today, increasingly agile digital architectures create the potential not only for excavation of historical forms, but for significant new ecologies of media. As a touchstone for such ideas, this chapter considers the critical and technological treatment of a single Anglo-Saxon manuscript (London, British Library, Cotton Tiberius MS B.v) from the eleventh century until the present day, and over the course of three media ages: manuscript, print, and digital. The complicated and protean nature of this manuscript's form, content, and interpretation over these ages, along with the fractured way it now exists digitally, serves as a starting point for considering how future digital applications might enable more capacious architectures for studying medieval manuscripts in both time and media.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Book chapter     Show details
    Publisher:
    Cambridge University Press
    Pub. Date:
    2015
    Book Title:
    The Medieval Manuscript Book: Cultural Approaches
    Author/Editor:
    Michael Johnston and Michael Van Dussen
    Chapter:
    7
    Page Range:
    119 - 139
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    6 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved

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