Fragmentarium

Case Study 1: In situ manuscript fragments in the incunabula of the Bodleian Library, Oxford

This case study should take a step towards providing detailed in-depth descriptions of all in situ medieval manuscript fragments found in incunable bindings in the Bodleian Library. The descriptive entries produced will complement the printed catalogue, A Catalogue of Books Printed in the Fifteenth Century now in the Bodleian Library, and cover all records for sections ‘A’ and ‘B’. At the same time, the descriptions will fully integrate with the Bodleian’s digital incunable catalogue (Bod-Inc) and forthcoming online manuscripts catalogue, as well as the Fragmentarium platform. The descriptive model will not only be flexible enough to be implemented across these three digital platforms, but will simultaneously allow each catalogue entry to exist as a thorough, independent description. Ruth Mullett (PhD…

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Case study 2: Rendre la bibliothèque de Florus de Lyon à son intégrité (Restore the library of Florus of Lyon to its original state)

Florus of Lyons is known both for his encyclopedic compilations of the Fathers, and for his critical, almost philological appreciation of manuscript traditions. By chance, more than a hundred codices which then belonged to the library of the Cathedral of Lyons, among which a few dozens were annotated or written by Florus himself, are still preserved in today's European libraries, representing a rare opportunity to observe the contents and life of a Carolingian library. Doing so consists not only in identifying surviving codices, but also in studying, not unlike an archaeological enquiry, the remaining fragments of what has been lost, and the way they have been dispersed. The fragments of otherwise lost codices, the dispersed parts of surviving ones, and…

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Case study 3: Describing book decorations in an online database – Illuminated fragments of manuscripts at the Austrian National Library

This case study carried out at the Austrian National Library intends to create a model for describing book decorations in an online catalogue and database. To develop this model, we chose the fragments of decorated manuscripts, which amount to roughly 10% of the total collection of fragments of the Austrian National Library. On the basis of these fragments, we plan to: Collect and unify all available data from published descriptions of illuminated fragments Survey and describe illuminated fragments in the collection of fragments Describe known illuminated fragments still in situ, mainly in incunabula. Differences in definitions and vocabulary for describing book decorations in various European languages will make it necessary to use a combined model of basic classification with thesauri…

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Case study 4: Cataloguing and Digitization of Manuscript Fragments of the Leipzig University Library

A large portion of the rich fragment collection at the Leipzig University Library remains to this day uncatalogued and hence unexplored. A noteworthy exception are the fragments found in situ in historic bindings of incunabula volumes – 2014 their content and codicological features were published by the Leipzig manuscript centre within the catalogue of incunabula. This data will now be integrated in the Fragmentarium database, serving in this manner as a model for retrospective conversion of analogue fragment descriptions into digital ones. The current case study focuses on the circa 850 disjoint fragments from the library collection, which are only partially examined. In the period 2008 to 2011 the manuscript centre of the Leipzig University Library prepared an inventory, listing…

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Case study 5: Psalms and Psalters in the Manuscript Fragments at the Abbey Library of St. Gall

The project consists in a codicological, palaeographical, critical and philological study of manuscript fragments of Latin psalms and psalters preserved in the Abbey Library of St. Gall. This case study is related to Isidore of Seville’s works and his hypothetical revision of the Latin Psalter. This case study focuses on the location, description and examination of the fragments of the Latin Psalter preserved in the Abbey Library of St. Gall. Northern Italy and the Lake Constance region are important areas for the early transmission of Isidore's works as well as for their Precarolingian and Carolingian reception. This is also the area of origin of some of the fragments of psalms preserved in St. Gall. The Latin versions of fragments of…

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Case study 6: Analyzing in situ Fragments in the Beinecke Library Incunables

This case study aims to inventory, identify, and describe the in situ medieval manuscript fragments found in the bindings of Beinecke Library incunables. Detailed descriptions of the binding fragments, which have never before been inventoried, will be compiled into a digital catalogue. Additionally, the fragment descriptions will be imported into the MARC record environment, where they will be attached to the entries for their incunable host volumes, making this material fully searchable to the public for the first time. Beinecke Technical Services will photograph the in situ fragments, and the images will be made available to researchers via the Beinecke Digital Images database as well as the Fragmentarium web application, along with fragment descriptions. This project is part of a larger initiative…

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Case study 7: Fragments with Musical Notation in the Herzog August Bibliothek

The Wolfenbüttel collection – two boxes full of music – offers a comprehensive collection of liturgical manuscripts spanning the period from the eleventh to the early seventeenth century. Although at first glance many of the manuscripts seem rather sober, they provide candid testimony to the development of ecclesiastical libraries, even if only in a few cases their place of origin can be identified. Moreover, these documents record the liturgical practice, and through it, the cultural heritage of Central Europe. Antje Hoffmann (Weimar) received her MA in musicology in 2015. In addition to her studies, she has worked at the Free State of Thuringia Music Archive Weimar, the library of the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar, and for several projects…

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Case study 8: The Medieval Fragments of the Abbey of Mondsee

This two-year case study funded by the Austrian Academy of Science (Go Digital 2.0) focuses on fragments from the Benedictine monastery of Mondsee (Upper Austria). Mondsee became an important local center for book production already shortly after its foundation in 748 with phases of increased activity in the 12th as well as the 15th century. When a book-binding workshop was installed in the 15th century many books from the monastery’s collection were cut up and re-used as binding material for its own library. After the dissolution of the monastery in 1791 the court library in Vienna received nearly all manuscripts from this important monastic library. Many printed books and the remnants of Mondsee’s archive remained in Linz, today the capital…

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Case study 9: Lewis Fragments at the Free Library

The Free Library Case Study focuses on manuscript cuttings and fragments from the John Frederick Lewis Collection at the Free Library of Philadelphia. The Free Library’s collection of approximately 2,300 fragments, principally of European origin and dating from the eleventh to the sixteenth centuries, is one of the largest of its kind and remains relatively understudied. Emily Shartrand is a Ph.D. candidate in Art History at the University of Delaware

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Case study 10: Burnt Anglo-Saxon fragments at the British Library: Reassessing the evidence with multispectral imagery (MSI)

The burnt fragments of the Cotton manuscripts are among the most evocative artefacts of medieval culture, both for the tragedy of their destruction and the mystery of their contents. Many of the surviving leaves remain critical to scholarship, often containing unique texts or their earliest known copies. Work on other fragments at the British Library has shown that multispectral photography makes it possible to extract more information from what survives. The burnt leaves are continuing to deteriorate, and it is critical that digital techniques be applied to document and to preserve their present state. This project will publish photographs of fragments from key remnants of Anglo-Saxon Cotton manuscripts in the Cotton collection on Fragmentarium. Andrew Dunning (ORCID: 0000-0003-0464-5036) is Curator…

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Case study 11: Fragments in Greek Libraries

This case study focuses on noteworthy fragments produced during the Byzantine period and written in ancient or Byzantine Greek. In particular, it documents and catalogues fragments from patriarchal, monastic, ecclesiastical, public and municipal libraries all over Greece and the Hellenic World. The first phase concentrates on the manuscript collections of the Diocese of Samos, the monastery of Chozoviotissa on Amorgos, the monastery of Iviron on Mount Athos, and the Archdiocese of Cyprus. A second phase will expand the research to other libraries, including those of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Patriarchate of Alexandria, the monastery of Ioannou Theologou Patmos, and the Library of the Hellenic Parliament and Ethnological Museum in Athens. The 14-month case study plans to analyze more than…

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Case study 12: Boston-Area Fragments

This case study focuses on the manuscript cuttings and fragments found in the Houghton Library and other Boston-area collections. Building on the intense collaboration among experts involved in the exhibition Beyond Words: Illuminated Manuscripts in Boston Collections (http://beyondwords2016.org/), the study aims to illuminate the dense interactions between manuscripts culture, trends in North American collecting, and the shifting role of manuscripts in creating cultural capital in American institutions. Elena Iourtaeva (MA, Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, 2014) has extensive experience in both Information Technology and Manuscript Studies. As a medievalist, she has a particular interest in palaeography and codicology; she is eager to combine this interest with her experience as a professional photographer to develop how best to tell the story…

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About

Fragmentarium is an international digital research lab for medieval manuscript fragments that enables libraries, collectors, researchers and students to publish medieval manuscript fragments, allowing them to catalogue, describe, transcribe, assemble and re-use them online.

It aims:

to increase awareness of medieval fragments
to make them more accessible and thus open new avenues of investigation and further medieval fragment research in general
to improve networking and cooperation between fragment collections, manuscript and fragment scholars, digital humanities specialists and specialists for text and image recognition
to promote digital fragmentology and research on manuscript fragments in the digital age
to virtually reconstruct manuscripts from their dismembered parts
to create an international inventory of medieval manuscript fragments

Fragments of medieval manuscripts offer an as-yet largely unexplored field of study. Except for isolated initiatives and individual, often spectacular discoveries, traditional manuscript research has so far only marginally undertaken work with fragments. The Internet offers extraordinary potential for overcoming some of the chief difficulties of traditional fragment research. Building on the technology developed by e-codices - Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland, Fragmentarium offers an application for scholarly work with fragments. Collaborating with 16 partner institutions throughout Europe and the USA, the project aims, over the next years, to lay the foundations for research on medieval manuscript fragments by providing open standards and guidelines.

Partner libraries:

Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican City
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, together with the BIBLISSIMA team for excellence
Bodleian Library, together with St. Edmund Hall, University of Oxford
Center for History and Palaeography – National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation, Athens
Harvard University Library, Cambridge MA, together with the Medieval Academy of America
Herzog-August-Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel
Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna
Stanford University Libraries
Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen
The British Library, London
The Schøyen Collection, Oslo and London
Università degli Studi di Cassino e del Lazio meridionale
Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig
University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Philadelphia
Yale University, New Haven

Fragmentarium

Digital Research Laboratory for Medieval Manuscript Fragments

Fragmentarium enables libraries, collectors, researchers and students to publish images of medieval manuscript fragments, allowing them to catalogue, describe, transcribe, assemble and re-use them.

Case Study 1: In situ manuscript fragments in the incunabula of the Bodleian Library, Oxford

Case study 2: Rendre la bibliothèque de Florus de Lyon à son intégrité (Restore the library of Florus of Lyon to its original state)

Case study 3: Describing book decorations in an online database – Illuminated fragments of manuscripts at the Austrian National Library

Case study 4: Cataloguing and Digitization of Manuscript Fragments of the Leipzig University Library

Case study 5: Psalms and Psalters in the Manuscript Fragments at the Abbey Library of St. Gall

Case study 6: Analyzing in situ Fragments in the Beinecke Library Incunables

Case study 7: Fragments with Musical Notation in the Herzog August Bibliothek

Case study 8: The Medieval Fragments of the Abbey of Mondsee

Case study 9: Lewis Fragments at the Free Library

Case study 10: Burnt Anglo-Saxon fragments at the British Library: Reassessing the evidence with multispectral imagery (MSI)

Case study 11: Fragments in Greek Libraries

Case study 12: Boston-Area Fragments

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Visual Approaches to Cultural Heritage, ETH Zurich

Innover pour redécouvrir le patrimoine écrit, Paris

Fragmentarium Director At Oxford Symposium

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