The Cultures of Knowledge Newsletter
no. 1 (30 April 2016)
Back in April last year, as Cultures of Knowledge entered a new phase of funding, Early Modern Letters Online [EMLO] had just revealed its new public interface which showcased a total of 87,420 letter records contained within twenty-four individual catalogues. Today, one year later, we are truly delighted to report that great strides have been made in the development of our union catalogue. The past few months have seen several key tools and enhancements rolled out for use within our contributing community and we would like very much to celebrate and share news of these with you here, in what is the inaugural mailing in a planned series of occasional circulars which will be distributed via the Cultures of Knowledge project’s mailing list (click here to subscribe).
As EMLO continues to grow, we’d like this newsletter to provide our contributors and users with a consolidated summary of the catalogues that have been published, a brief overview of new features and working methods in EMLO relevant to metadata collation or display, and a ‘sneak’ preview of what lies ahead with respect to correspondences due to be released, scheduled areas of work, and other relevant forthcoming events.
First and foremost, this inaugural newsletter sets out to list the large number of correspondence catalogues that have been published in EMLO since April 2015. Although announcements regarding each catalogue’s publication have been made via social media (in particular the Cultures of Knowledge blog and on Twitter [https://twitter.com/cofktweets]), we’re acutely aware that this is not always the best or easiest way for everyone working with early modern correspondences to keep abreast of EMLO’s publications.
Currently, EMLO has a total of forty-nine individual catalogues amounting to 106,417 individual letter records and thus far in the course of this current phase of Cultures of Knowledge, twenty-five new catalogues have been released into the union catalogue, as well as a series of significant updates made to many of those published in earlier phases. For specific details of these new catalogues, and to catch up with any you may have missed, please see the full listing at the end of this newsletter.
EMLO-Webform up and running
The EMLO-Webform for epistolary metadata collation, which has been tested and rolled out to contributors over the course of the past year, offers scholars and early modern correspondence projects access to a unique and individual user space, with single sign-on username and password, where basic epistolary metadata may be entered. It draws on the existing people, place, and repository records available in the union catalogue and provides forms to enter metadata for people and place names new to EMLO. Each individual workspace enables contributors to review as they work and to sort letters they have entered by different metadata fields (for example, by incipit, or by date, or by repository). A text review page is provided from which a hard-copy printout may be generated, alongside the option to review and export both CSV and Excel files. Once a contributor has reviewed his or her dataset, it may be moved, if desired, to a ‘pre-upload page’ for further review and, from there may progress to EMLO-Edit, the non-public interface of the union catalogue, and stored until publication is requested.
The EMLO Webform is in widespread use already and large numbers of correspondence catalogues are in the early stages of being collated by scholars and projects working from manuscripts and EMLO Digital Fellows working in libraries from out-of-copyright print editions. A number of refinements remain to be made which will be introduced gradually over the course of this coming year. For those who are interested but have not had the opportunity as yet to try out the Webform, please be in touch. Our Digital Editor, Miranda Lewis, is happy to arrange introductory sessions either in person or via Skype, and we hope very much you will find it an efficient and useful tool.
Virtual Exhibition [new]
In November 2015, in partnership with the Richard Baxter Correspondence Project, and Dr Williams’s Library, London, EMLO piloted a virtual exhibition to curate and release the Baxter Quatercentenary Exhibition. This display formed part of the celebration held to mark the 400th anniversary of the birth of Richard Baxter (1615–1691) and showcased a selection of Baxter’s correspondence and correspondents. The eight letters in this exhibition will be worked on and added to over the course of the next four years as the forthcoming edition, The Correspondence of Richard Baxter, is made ready for publication with Oxford University Press.
This exhibition space was constructed in Omeka by Cultures of Knowledge’s Digital Project Manager, Arno Bosse, with assistance from EMLO’s developer, Matthew Wilcoxson. The site’s appearance is derived from Monica Messaggi Kaya’s original design for Early Modern Letters Online in January 2015. EMLO will develop this virtual exhibition space further as time and contributor needs require, and a number of exhibitions are scheduled for the summer and autumn of 2016.
EMLO’s correspondence catalogue introductory pages
All individual catalogues in EMLO have an introductory and accreditation page where information may be set out concerning the historical individual and his/her network, the correspondence in question, and its source, content, and provenance. The contributors — be they individual scholars, scholarly projects, repositories, or born-digital collections — are credited in full, along with all relevant partners, and their logos as required. It is possible also to use this page to provide news and updates regarding a contributing project or to inform of additions to the catalogue.
EMLO’s ‘Explore Collections’ display [new]
There are now several ways in which users may search for catalogues. Currently it is possible to browse catalogues alphabetically by name, by theme of the correspondence, or by contributor. Further options to search and filter chronologically, geographically, or by the manuscript’s holding repository or library holding the manuscript are in development also. Please visit EMLO to explore these listings.
‘Correct-date-athon’: Date and calendar workshop
In March, members of the EMLO Digital Fellow, Cultures of Knowledge, and Oxford-based COST communities were invited to take part in a morning workshop centred around correction of Roman calendar dates that had been captured incorrectly during the automatic ingest of metadata from the Bodleian card catalogue letter records in 2010. Twelve participants met in the History Faculty for a briefing — which included an explanation of the problem and why the data had been mis-captured in the first place — and an introduction to the issues raised by the use of different calendars in the early modern period, before training was given and work got underway. In the course of just one morning, armed with copies of Cheney and an assortment of teas and cakes, the necessary corrections were made to the dates of 1,750 letters. The corrections will be uploaded into EMLO within the next couple of weeks.
Visiting Scholars and Interns
Although we were particularly sad to bid farewell to our deeply valued visiting scholar Marc Kolakowski who returned to his native Switzerland last August, EMLO has been fortunate to play host in these first months of 2016 to a number of European visitors. Dr Antonio Geremicca, from the EpistolART project, Liège, and Dr Jan Alessandrini have both worked with us as interns, the former with EMLO, the latter with the COST Action ‘Reassembling the Republic of Letters’. Cultures of Knowledge is closely involved in the COST Action and increasingly EMLO staff work intensively with the Action’s visitors to the Project. Since October 2015, these visitors have included Lara Bergers; Dr Mikkel Jensen; Emma Mojet; Dr Plamena Popova; Dr Alexandre Tessier; Dr Jetze Touber; Jouni Touminen.
Early Modern ‘Wanted List’
A list containing the names of people for whom little information is known is being collated. It will be posted in a new area of EMLO, and scholars able and willing to provide information regarding any of the individuals will be invited to email EMLO. In this manner information may be forwarded to the scholar or project posting the name and the source will be acknowledged and thanked in full upon publication. Should you have any ‘hard nuts’ to crack and would like to post a name, please email brief details to Miranda Lewis [miranda.lewis@history.ox.ac.uk].
New correspondence catalogues published 1 April 2015–30 April 2016.
Please note that we attempt to publish correspondences from a wide range of European countries, spanning the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, and to include as fair a gender balance as possible. We have a mixture of individual and group correspondences, as well as a growing number of collections (e.g. Gamba’s collection and the Tixall letters).
Johann Valentin Andreae
3,696 of c.4,500 letters contributed by Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel and Stefania Salvadori. The remaining letters will be published in 2016.
Publication date: 6 July 2015.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=johann-valentin-andreae
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=5498
Richard Baxter
8 letters (a pilot from a total of c.1,300 letters being prepared for a new edition, to be published by OUP), contributed by The Richard Baxter Correspondence Project (general editors: Johanna Harris and Alison Searle). The bulk of the letters will be added in the course of the Richard Baxter Correspondence Project’s work.
Publication date: 11 November 2015, to tie in with a) Richard Baxter Quatercentenary Symposium at Dr Williams’s Library, and the online Baxter Quatercentenary Exhibition.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=richard-baxter
Blog; http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=6153
Online EMLO exhibition: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/exhibition/baxter/
Johann Heinrich Bisterfeld
121 letters, contributed by Noémi Viskolcz.
Publication date: 14 March 2016.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=johann-heinrich-bisterfeld
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=6839
Antoinette Bourignon
940 letters, contributed by Mirjam de Baar.
Publication date: 30 November 2015.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=antoinette-bourignon
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=6316
Tycho Brahe
505 letters, contributed by Adam Mosley.
Publication date: 27 April 2015 and 22 February 2016.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=tycho-brahe
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?m=201505
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=6714
Sarah Chapone
30 letters from the Bodleian card catalogue, metadata enriched by second year student James Harrison.
Publication datae: 29 February 2016.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=sarah-chapone
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=6767
Czech students at Protestant universities (Hrubý edition)
290 letters, contributed by Cultures of Knowledge and the Digital Library of the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, Brno.
Publication date: 25 November 2015.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=czech-students-hruby
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=6221
Dutch Church in London (Hessels edition)
266 letters, contributed by Cultures of Knowledge (metadata taken from the J. H. Hessels edition).
Publication date: 25 April 2016, and ongoing.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=dutch-church-in-london
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=6984
Pierre de Fermat
121 letters, contributed by Cultures of Knowledge (metadata taken from the Tannery and Henry edition).
Publication date: 19 October 2015.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=pierre-de-fermat
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=6053
Bartolomeo Gamba collection
261 letters, contributed by Vittoria Feola, in association with the Austrian National Library, the Medical University of Vienna, the Biblioteca Museo Civico di Bassano del Grappa, and the University of Padua.
Publication date: 31 August –19 October 2015, and ongoing.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=bartolomeo-gamba
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=5810
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=5891
Madame de Graffigny
2,524 letters, contributed by the Voltaire Foundation.
Publication date: 15 June 2015.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=de-graffigny
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=5353
Thomas Gray
651 letters, contributed by the Thomas Gray Archive.
Publication date: 2 July 2015.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=thomas-gray&preview=true
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=5449
Johannes Kepler
274 letters (of a total of c.1,154), contributed by Francesco Barreca (Museo Galileo), based on metadata collated by Adam Mosley, which was taken in turn from Johannes Kepler. Gesammelte Werke.
Spreadsheet upload of vols XIII and XIV. (Metadata from Johannes Kepler. Gesammelte Werke, vols XV, XVI, and XVII will be added in the course of 2016.)
Publication date: 18 January 2016, and ongoing.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=johannes-kepler
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=6561
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=6714
Giovanni Antonio Magini
100 letters, contributed by Adam Mosley.
Publication date: 22 February 2016.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=giovanni-antonio-magini
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=6714
Henry Oldenburg
1,692 letters (of a total of c.3,100), contributed by Cultures of Knowledge using metadata taken from the Halls’ edition. The remaining volumes will be published during 2016.
Publication date: 14 December 2015, and ongoing.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=henry-oldenburg
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=6386
Abraham Ortelius
541 letters (currently), contributed by Joost Depuydt.
Publication date: 17 February 2016 and 24 March 2016.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=abraham-ortelius
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=6675
Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc
1,843 letters (from a total of c.8,000++?), contributed by Peter N. Miller (metadata from the Tamizey de Larroque edition), and Cultures of Knowledge (metadata from the de Waard Mersenne edition.
Publication date: 7 September 2016, and 14 September 2016.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=nicolas-claude-fabri-de-peiresc
Robert Plot
108 letters, contributed by Cultures of Knowledge (metadata from Gunther volumes).
Publication date: 31 January 2016.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=robert-plot
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=6599
Amandus Polanus of Polansdorf
324 letters, contributed by Iva Lelkova.
Publication date: 25 November 2015.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=amandus-polanus
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=6221
Johannes Isacius Pontanus
321 letters, contributed by Cultures of Knowledge.
Publication date: 3 November 2015.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=johannes-isacius-pontanus
Peter Paul Rubens
939 letters, contributed by Cultures of Knowledge.
Publication date: 4 April 2016.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=peter-paul-rubens
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=6946
Philip Sidney
380 letters, contributed by Roger Kuin and Oxford Scholarly Editions Online.
Publication date: 3 August 2015.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=philip-sidney
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=5660
Amalia von Solms
1,146 letters, contributed by Ineke Huysman, HugyensING.
Publication date: 22 December 2015.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=amalia-von-solms
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=6473
The Tixall letters
95 letters, contributed by Cultures of Knowledge and Victoria van Hyning.
Publication date: 14 September 2015.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=tixall-letters
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=5854
Isaac Vossius
1,702 letters, contributed by Robin Buning, the Scaliger Institute, and Cultures of Knowledge.
Publication date: 8 February 2016.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=isaac-vossius
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=6650
Additions to previously published catalogues, 27 April 2015–30 April 2016.
Samuel Hartlib
10 letters, contributed by Cultures of Knowledge, Robin Buning, Mark Greengrass, Howard Hotson, and The Hartlib Papers (Humanities Research Institute, University of Sheffield).
Publication date: 21 September 2015.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=samuel-hartlib
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=5891
Edward Lhwyd
Replacement of all transcripts and translations across the catalogue of 2,128 letters which was published in 2010–12.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=edward-lhwyd
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=5891
Marin Mersenne
11 letters, contributed by Sir Noel Malcolm, added to the catalogue of metadata which was published March 2015.
Publication date: 27 September 2015.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=marin-mersenne
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=5891
Caspar Schott
105 letters, contributed by Thomas E. Conlon and Joachim Vollrath, added to the catalogue which was published in 2013.
Publication date: 6 February–29 February 2016.
Transcriptions and translations added, April 2016.
Publication date: 31 January 2016.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=caspar-schott
Blog: http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=5891
John Selden
Transcriptions added (whole PDF) to each letter record in the catalogue that was published in 2012.
Spreadsheet upload.
Publication date: 20 July 2015.
Combined transcription PDF replaced with individual letter PDFs.
Publication date: 6 February 2016.
Catalogue page: http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/?catalogue=john-selden
Miranda Lewis
EMLO Digital Editor