Digital Palaeography

This article seeks to explore new digital ways of distinguishing between scribal hands in medieval manuscripts. An analysis of traditional palaeographical approaches to hand identification will be followed by a discussion in which attention will be paid both to the use of computer software to enhance existing methods of scribal identification, and to the benefits of "Quill", an innovative automatic writer identification tool. A case study involving a manuscript of the collected works of Christine de Pizan (London, British Library, Harley 4431) will serve to demonstrate that traditional palaeographical methods of analysing scribal hands can greatly benefit from the use of specialised computer software

Innovations in Analyzing Manuscript Images and Using them in Digital Scholarly Publications

Evellum began developing software for the digital analysis and presentation of medieval manuscripts nearly fifteen year ago, when there were very few design and delivery options available to programmers. In the early years, it was not apparent how it would be best to deliver such products nor exactly how they would function and be used, and the question of longevity plagued us. Today there is the TEI to help standardize the mark-up of text and to offer a greater guarantee of longevity than was previously possible, and internet browsers are capable of facilitating the delivery of programmes that integrate text, image and video. Two products designed by Evellum are described here, with comments on the pedagogical issues that have helped determine their shape

Codes and Hypertext: the Intertextuality of International and Comparative Law

The field of information studies reveals gaps in the literature of international and comparative law as part of interdisciplinary and textual studies. To illustrate the kind of theoretical and text-based work that could be done, this essay provides an example of such a study. Religious law texts, civil law codes, treaties and constitutional texts may provide a means to reveal the nature of hypertext as the new format for commentary. Margins used to be used for commentary, and now this can be done with hypertext and links in footnotes. Scholarly communication in general is now intertextual, and texts derive value and meaning from being related to other texts. This paper draws upon examples chosen after observing relationships between text presentation and hypertext as well as detailing similar observations by scholars to date. However, this essay attempts to go beyond a descriptive level to argue that this intertextuality, and the hypertext nature of the web, bring together texts and traditions in a manner conducive to the study of legal systems and their points of convergence