Roman de la Rose

Thierry Delcourt: in memoriam

2011-11-25T16:05:00.001-08:00

Photo © Philippe Savouret

Thierry Delcourt: in memoriam

With profound regret we learned of the death of Thierry Delcourt, Director of the Department of Manuscripts at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, on November 22. The cause was brain cancer; he was 52 years old.

The Digital Library of Medieval Manuscripts at Johns Hopkins could not have had a better friend and collaborator than Thierry Delcourt. It is no exaggeration to say that without his vision and generosity, our site would not have the wealth of manuscripts of the Roman de la Rose it now contains.

This is how it happened. In 2006, Winston Tabb, Dean of the Sheridan Libraries at Johns Hopkins, and I visited Thierry Delcourt, the newly appointed Director of Manuscripts, in his office on the Rue de Richelieu. We had come to Paris in hopes of obtaining imaging rights to ten or twelve key Rose manuscripts in the BnF. When I explained our project, and showed him the site, Thierry smiled and asked if we wouldn’t rather have the image rights for all the Rose manuscripts in France! Quickly calculating how much of a grant we would need to make this happen, we agreed that Hopkins would raise the necessary funds for the project, while the BnF would assume responsibility for the digital imaging of the 140+ publically-available Rose codices in France. And so began a wonderful collaboration born out of Thierry Delcourt’s visionary conception for the role of the BnF in the twenty-first century.

His vision grew naturally from his own training in and love for medieval French literature. Trained as a paleographer-archivist at the prestigious École des Chartes in Paris, he specialized in manuscripts of the prose Tristan cycle, beginning with his thesis: Le Roman de Tristan en prose. Édition critique et commentaire de l’épisode du Château des Pucelles (1983). He subsequently published other books on the Prose Tristan, on Arthurian literature, bestiaries, crusade chronicles, and the tradition in France of early popular book formats.

Early in his career, Thierry Delcourt distinguished himself as an imaginative and entrepreneurial administrator both in the public and private sector. Appointed Conservator of the Audio-Visual Department at the BnF in 1983, he was recruited into the private sphere as a consultant in systems technology from 1989 to 1992, the year the BnF lured him back to his former post. In 1995, he became director of the Municipal Library of Troyes, which, under his leadership, became one of the leading media centers in France…even, some feel, one of the most modern and innovative of its kind. In 2006, the BnF appointed him to the post he held until his death this week.

Fate did not allow us to prolong our partnership with Thierry himself beyond five-and-a-half short, but wonderfully collegial years. With uncanny prescience, however, he leaves as a legacy an extraordinary team in the Department of Manuscripts and its Information Technology section at the BnF with whom we will continue to collaborate bien amicablement thanks to our shared memory of Thierry Delcourt.

Stephen G. Nichols November 25, 2011
Johns Hopkins University

Digital Philology: Call for Submissions

2011-11-17T12:50:00.000-08:00

~ Digital Philology: A Journal of Medieval Cultures ~

Call for Submissions, 2013 Open Issue

Digital Philology is a new peer-reviewed journal devoted to the study of medieval vernacular texts and cultures. Founded by Stephen G. Nichols and Nadia R. Altschul, the journal aims to foster scholarship that crosses disciplines upsetting traditional fields of study, national boundaries and periodizations. Digital Philology also encourages both applied and theoretical research that engages with the digital humanities and shows why and how digital resources require new questions, new approaches, and yield radical results.

Beginning in 2012 Digital Philology will have two issues per year, published by the Johns Hopkins University Press. One of the issues will be open to all submissions, while the other one will be guest-edited and revolve around a thematic axis.

Contributions may take the form of a scholarly essay or focus on the study of a particular manuscript. Articles must be written in English, follow the 3rd edition (2008) of the MLA style manual, and be between 5,000 and 7,000 words in length, including footnotes and list of works cited. Quotations in the main text in languages other than English should appear along with their English translation.

Digital Philology is welcoming submissions for its 2013 open issue. Inquiries and submissions (as a Word document attachment) should be sent to dph@jhu.edu, addressed to the Managing Editor (Albert Lloret). Digital Philology will also publish manuscript studies and reviews of books and digital projects. Correspondence regarding manuscript studies may be addressed to Jeanette Patterson at jpatterson09@gmail.com. Correspondence regarding digital projects and publications for review may be addressed to Timothy Stinson at tlstinson@gmail.com.

Editors and Editorial Board

Albert Lloret, Managing Editor, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Jeanette Patterson, Manuscript Studies Editor, Johns Hopkins University
Timothy Stinson, Review Editor, North Carolina State University
Nadia R. Altschul, Executive Editor, Johns Hopkins University

Stephen G. Nichols and Nadia R. Altschul, Founding Editors, Johns Hopkins University

Editorial Board

Tracy Adams, Auckland University
Benjamin Albritton, Stanford University
Nadia R. Altschul, Johns Hopkins University
R. Howard Bloch, Yale University
Kevin Brownlee, University of Pennsylvania
Jacqueline Cerquiglini-Toulet, University of Paris, Sorbonne - Paris IV
Suzanne Conklin Akbari, University of Toronto
Lucie Dolezalova, Charles University, Prague
Alexandra Gillespie, University of Toronto
Jeffrey Hamburger, Harvard University
Daniel Heller-Roazen, Princeton University
Sharon Kinoshita, University of California, Santa Cruz
Joachim Küpper, Free University of Berlin
Deborah McGrady, University of Virginia
Christine McWebb, University of Waterloo
Stephen G. Nichols, Johns Hopkins University
Timothy Stinson, North Carolina State University
Lori Walters, Florida State University

Manuscript images temporarily unavailable

2011-10-06T07:07:00.000-07:00

Due to a problem with the storage system, manuscript images are unavailable for viewing right now and have only been partially available for the last day. The site is otherwise working.

We apologize for the downtime and hope to have images available again soon. Updates will be added to this post.

Update 1pm: Most ms images are available. Images from recently added ms should be available later today.

Update 4pm: The remaining images will be available in the next few hours.

New Rose manuscripts and other improvements

2011-09-15T08:16:00.000-07:00

We have just updated the Roman de la Rose Digital Library with some exciting new developments. We are proud to announce the addition of three new manuscripts from various German libraries. The new manuscripts include:

Ms. lat. qu. 65 from the Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg in Frankfurt. This 14th century manuscript includes 14 miniatures.
Cod. gall. 17 from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich. This mid-14th century Parisian manuscript is beautifully illustrated with 82 miniatures.
Cod. poet et Phil. 6 from the Württembergische Landesbibliothek in Stuttgart. This is a 15th century manuscript with 37 miniatures.

In addition to the three new manuscripts, we are making the following additions and changes to the site:

Updated manuscript description for Bodmer 79
Corrected the image tagging on the following: Walters 143 (105v), Arsenal 5209 (107r), and Chicago 1380 (102v). Each of these descriptions were changed from "Husband Foolishly Confides in Wife" to "Procreating Couple".
Image tagging on Morgan 148, 162r moved to 162v.
Corrected numbering of flyleaves on Fr. 25526.
Missing links added to French-language home page.

As always, we welcome your comments and suggestions about the library. We hope that these additions and changes will enhance your research.

Site update

2011-06-24T07:06:00.000-07:00

Additions:

Bibliography entry added for fr. 2438, fr. 1565, fr. 24391, fr. 1573, fr.1569, fr. 1561, and Dijon 526.
French translation of fr. 12595 added

Corrections:

fr. 12595 and Cox Macro manuscript descriptions had some small issues fixed.
fr. 12595 character Covoitise incorrectly identified as Cortoisie in image tagging of 2v.
French translation of Douce 195 description fixed.
Fixed dimensions in collection data spreadsheet for fr. 12595.
Added missing number of illustrations to a text in fr. 378.

Bug fixes:

The smaller and larger buttons now work in the image browser view.

Usage statistics, May 2011

2011-06-02T07:47:00.000-07:00

Following are usage statistics for the Roman de la Rose Digital Library for both the current month and cumulative statistics since September 2008.

Usage statistics for the period May 1-31, 2011:
1,738 visits from 71 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy
1,213 absolute unique visitors
41% of these visitors have returned to the site
76 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
64 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
95 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
64 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
38 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
26 of these visitors have used the site more than 200 times
151 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
144 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

Since the launch of the site on September 2008 through May 31, 2011, the Rose team has noted the following usage statistics:
53,696 visits from 153 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, France, United Kingdom, Spain, Canada
35,936 absolute unique visitors
34% of these visitors have returned to the site
1,614 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
1,469 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
1,272 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
1,096 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
1,090 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
1,401 of these visitors have used the site more than 200 times
3,933 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
2,816 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

Usage statistics, April 2011

2011-05-09T12:16:00.000-07:00

Following are usage statistics for the Roman de la Rose Digital Library for both the current month and cumulative statistics since September 2008.

Usage statistics for the period April 1-30, 2011:
1,882 visits from 66 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, France, United Kingdom, Russia, Spain
1,194 absolute unique visitors
45% of these visitors have returned to the site
64 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
99 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
111 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
31 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
163 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
41 of these visitors have used the site more than 200 times
143 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
131 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

Since the launch of the site on September 2008 through April 30, 2011, the Rose team has noted the following usage statistics:
51,958 visits from 149 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, France, United Kingdom, Spain, Canada
34,887 absolute unique visitors
33% of these visitors have returned to the site
1,538 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
1,405 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
1,177 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
1,032 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
1,052 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
1,375 of these visitors have used the site more than 200 times
3,782 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
2,672 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

Usage statistics, March 2011

2011-04-14T11:33:00.000-07:00

Following are usage statistics for the Roman de la Rose Digital Library for both the current month and cumulative statistics since September 2008.

Usage statistics for the period March 1-31, 2011:
2,304 visits from 66 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, France, United Kingdom, Belgium, Spain
1,533 absolute unique visitors
42% of these visitors have returned to the site
87 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
95 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
114 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
170of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
77 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
15 of these visitors have used the site more than 200 times
185 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
167 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

Since the launch of the site on September 2008 through March 31, 2011, the Rose team has noted the following usage statistics:
50,076 visits from 149 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, France, United Kingdom, Spain, Canada
33,842 absolute unique visitors
33% of these visitors have returned to the site
1,474 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
1,306 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
1,066 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
1,001 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
889 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
1,334 of these visitors have used the site more than 200 times
3,639 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
2,541 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

Digital Philology: A Journal of Medieval Cultures

2011-04-11T06:20:00.000-07:00

Digital Philology: A Journal of Medieval Cultures

Call for Submissions

Digital Philology is a new peer-reviewed journal devoted to the study of medieval vernacular texts and cultures. Founded by Stephen G. Nichols and Nadia R. Altschul, the journal aims to foster scholarship that crosses disciplines upsetting traditional fields of study, national boundaries, and periodizations. Digital Philology also encourages both applied and theoretical research that engages with the digital humanities and shows why and how digital resources require new questions, new approaches, and yield radical results.

Digital Philology will have two issues per year, published by the Johns Hopkins University Press. One of the issues will be open to all submissions, while the other one will be guest-edited and revolve around a thematic axis.

Contributions may take the form of a scholarly essay or focus on the study of a particular manuscript. Articles must be written in English, follow the 3rd edition (2008) of the MLA style manual, and be between 5,000 and 9,000 words in length, including footnotes and list of works cited. Quotations in the main text in languages other than English should appear along with their English translation.

Digital Philology welcomes submissions for the 2012 and 2013 open issues. Inquiries and submissions (as a Word document attachment) should be sent to dph@jhu.edu, addressed to the Editor (Albert Lloret) and Managing Editor (Jeanette Patterson). Digital Philology will also publish reviews of books and digital projects. Correspondence regarding digital projects and publications for review may be addressed to Timothy Stinson at tlstinson@gmail.com.

Editorial Board

Tracy Adams (Auckland University)
Benjamin Albritton (Stanford University)
Nadia R. Altschul (Johns Hopkins University)
R. Howard Bloch (Yale University)
Kevin Brownlee (University of Pennsylvania)
Jacqueline Cerquiglini-Toulet (Université Paris Sorbonne - Paris IV)
Suzanne Conklin Akbari (University of Toronto)
Lucie Dolezalova (Charles University, Prague)
Alexandra Gillespie (University of Toronto)
Jeffrey Hamburger (Harvard University)
Daniel Heller-Roazen (Princeton University)
Sharon Kinoshita (University of California, Santa Cruz)
Joachim Küpper (Freie University of Berlin)
Deborah McGrady (University of Virginia)
Christine McWebb (University of Waterloo)
Stephen G. Nichols (Johns Hopkins University)
Timothy Stinson (North Carolina State University)
Lori Walters (Florida State University)

Small metadata correction

2011-04-07T09:48:00.000-07:00

The Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon, PA 23, 24, and 25 shelfmarks have been corrected. Please let us know if you find any other errors.

Site update

2011-04-05T07:18:00.000-07:00

There have been a number of changes behind the scenes, but users familiar with the site should notice only small tweaks and refinements. The book browser has a draggable separator. Displays of tabular data have a new look.

If anything seems out of place or does not work, try clearing your browser cache and refreshing the site. Let the team know at contactus@romandelarose.org if the problem continues. Other feedback is welcome at the above email address or as comments on this post.

Metadata updates:

Correction to UC1380 102v image description.
Updates to instrument names in image descriptions of Arras 897 and Douce 332
Correctly attribute ms to Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon

New format for Rose usage statistics

2011-03-30T14:27:00.001-07:00

At the request of some researchers, we will now be publishing both single-month as well as cumulative usage statistics for the Roman de la Rose Digital Library. Here are the numbers for February 2011.

Usage statistics for the period February 1-28, 2011:
1,563 visits from 58 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, France, Spain, United Kingdom, Italy
1,033 absolute unique visitors
42% of these visitors have returned to the site
56 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
41 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
77 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
80 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
81 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
27 of these visitors have used the site more than 200 times
120 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
144 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

Since the launch of the site on September 2008 through February 28, 2011, the Rose team has noted the following usage statistics:
47,772 visits from 149 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, France, United Kingdom, Spain, Canada
32,474 absolute unique visitors
32% of these visitors have returned to the site
1,387 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
1,211 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
952 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
831 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
812 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
1,319 of these visitors have used the site more than 200 times
3,454 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
2,374 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

Usage statistics (through February 28, 2011)

2011-03-15T08:22:00.000-07:00

Since the launch of the site on September 2008 through February 28, 2011, the Rose team has noted the following usage statistics:
47,772 visits from 149 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, France, United Kingdom, Spain, Canada
32,474 absolute unique visitors
32% of these visitors have returned to the site
1,387 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
1,211 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
952 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
831 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
812 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
1,319 of these visitors have used the site more than 200 times
3,454 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
2,374 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

Usage statistics (through January 31, 2011)

2011-03-15T08:08:00.000-07:00

Since the launch of the site on September 2008 through January 31, 2011, the Rose team has noted the following usage statistics:
46,209 visits from 149 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, France, United Kingdom, Spain, Canada
31,571 absolute unique visitors
32% of these visitors have returned to the site
1,331 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
1,170 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
875 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
751 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
731 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
1,292 of these visitors have used the site more than 200 times
3,334 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
2,230 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

Usage statistics (through December 31, 2010)

2011-01-03T06:17:00.000-08:00

Since the launch of the site on September 2008 through December 31, 2010, the Rose team has noted the following usage statistics:
44,791 visits from 149 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, France, United Kingdom, Canada, Spain
30,788 absolute unique visitors
32% of these visitors have returned to the site
1,287 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
1,119 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
799 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
675 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
715 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
1,183 of these visitors have used the site more than 200 times
3,206 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
2,108 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

Usage statistics (through November 30, 2010)

2010-12-08T11:40:00.000-08:00

Since the launch of the site on September 2008 through November 30, 2010, the Rose team has noted the following usage statistics:
43,587 visits from 148 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, France, United Kingdom, Canada, Spain
30,140 absolute unique visitors
31% of these visitors have returned to the site
1,240 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
1,062 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
747 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
655 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
715 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
1,036 of these visitors have used the site more than 200 times
3,121 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
2,039 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

Usage statistics (through October 31, 2010)

2010-12-08T11:35:00.000-08:00

Since the launch of the site on September 2008 through October 31, 2010, the Rose team has noted the following usage statistics:
42,373 visits from 147 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, France, United Kingdom, Canada, Spain
29,374 absolute unique visitors
31% of these visitors have returned to the site
1,202 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
1,015 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
703 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
655 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
715 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
1,002 of these visitors have used the site more than 200 times
2,998 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
1,970 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

Usage statistics (through September 30, 2010)

2010-12-08T11:26:00.000-08:00

Since the launch of the site on September 2008 through September 30, 2010, the Rose team has noted the following usage statistics:
40,856 visits from 147 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, France, United Kingdom, Canada, Spain
28,393 absolute unique visitors
31% of these visitors have returned to the site
1,171 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
962 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
671 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
648 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
715 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
891 of these visitors have used the site more than 200 times
2,870 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
1,856 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

Usage statistics (through August 31, 2010)

2010-09-10T12:49:00.000-07:00

Since the launch of the site on September 2008 through August 31, 2010, the Rose team has noted the following usage statistics:
39,570 visits from 147 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, France, United Kingdom, Canada, Spain
27,682 absolute unique visitors
30% of these visitors have returned to the site
1,121 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
903 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
660 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
635 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
714 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
655 of these visitors have used the site more than 200 times
2,781 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
1,780 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

Image tagging added

2010-08-25T05:47:00.000-07:00

Image tagging has been added for fr. 9345, Arsenal 5210, Arsenal 5209, AlbiRochegude 103, Amiens 437, Arras 897, Dijon526, Assemblée Nationale 1230, Chalon-sur-Saone33, Chalons-en-Champagne270, fr. 1569, and Arras 845.

Usage statistics (through July 31, 2010)

2010-08-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

Since the launch of the site on September 2008 through July 31, 2010, the Rose team has noted the following usage statistics:

38,536 visits from 147 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, France, United Kingdom, Canada, Spain
27,169 absolute unique visitors
30% of these visitors have returned to the site
1,067 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
875 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
634 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
625 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
676 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
432 of these visitors have used the site more than 200 times
2,703 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
1,716 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

FIx for Safari 5 bug

2010-07-27T08:47:00.000-07:00

The Rose site has been updated to fix an issue with Safari 5. If you have been unable to access the site with Safari 5 please clear your cache and try again. See http://googlewebtoolkit.blogspot.com/2010/06/gwt-204-is-now-available.html for technical info on the issue.

Usage statistics (through June 30, 2010)

2010-07-07T12:11:00.000-07:00

Since the launch of the site on September 2008 through June 30, 2010, the Rose team has noted the following usage statistics:

37,635 visits from 147 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, France, United Kingdom, Canada, Spain
26,695 absolute unique visitors
29% of these visitors have returned to the site
1,018 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
830 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
598 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
614 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
580 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
380 of these visitors have used the site more than 200 times
2,622 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
1,645 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

Five more manuscripts available

2010-06-04T06:07:00.000-07:00

New content

From the BnF: fr. 1563, fr. 1574, fr. 22551, NAF 5094, NAF 20001
Reduced tagging for fr. 1560. (This allows an algorithm to guess the narrative sections.)

Note that you may need to clear your browser cache and reload the site to see the new content.

Issues fixed

Marne 3 repository corrected
Added new version of 91v and missing 104r of Ferrell courtesy of Beth Morrison at Getty.

Fullscreen image viewing

2010-03-31T05:07:00.000-07:00

Both the page turner and the image browser can now be made fullscreen. To do so click on the arrow pointing diagonally in the bottom toolbar. Also when the page turner or image browser are popped up in another window, they will resize when the window is resized.

Enabling these potentially large image displays may have some performance implications. Please comment below or send email if you experience any problems using these new features.

Bug fixes:

Invalid argument complaint from Internet explorer when popping up image viewer.
Regression caused image browser not to go to current image when popped up.
Regression caused image browser goto box not to work or update on selection.
Thumbnail text in the image browser can now be seen more easily.

Stephen Nichols "Le projet « Roman de la Rose » et l’état présent de la bibliothèque numérique de manuscrits médiévaux à Johns Hopkins"

2010-03-26T10:04:00.000-07:00

NICHOLS, Stephen
Département de langues et littératures romanes
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD 21218-2687, USA
stephen.nichols@jhu.edu

Depuis bientôt treize ans, étudiants et chercheurs du monde entier – des antipodes en Australie et en la Nouvelle Zélande, jusqu’aux pays nordiques, en passant par la Chine, le Japon, le Canada – ont la possibilité de découvrir ce monde enchanté qu’est le livre scripturaire du moyen âge. Des gens qui n’ont jamais vu un codex médiéval ainsi que des philologues chevronnés peuvent étudier des beaux manuscrits du Roman de la Rose – l’une des plus importantes œuvres françaises de l’époque médiévale – grâce à un projet numérique entrepris à l’Université de Johns Hopkins (Baltimore, Maryland) en partenariat avec la Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Le projet « Roman de la Rose » est né à Paris dans un café au quartier latin comme il convient à un projet académique qui vise, depuis son début, une collaboration Franco-américaine. Par un après-midi printanier en 1995, au Balzar, rue des Ecoles, Bernard CERQUIGLINI, alors professeur de linguistique à Paris 7, et moi, alors Directeur intérimaire des bibliothèques de l’Université de Johns Hopkins, cherchions un moyen de mettre en œuvre nos idées sur l’importance d’étudier la littérature d’ancien français dans ses versions multiples. C’est à dire, étudier l’ancienne littérature de la France à base ses manuscrits mêmes. A une époque où l’on ne disposait pas de moyen pour consulter plus d’un manuscrit à la fois – soit en allant voir un codex directement, soit en consultant un microfilme, soit en regardant un facsimile (dans les rares cas où ils existaient) – notre ambition nous paraissaient impossible à réaliser.

Et soudain, nous avons pensé à ce nouvel outil qui commençait alors à être de plus en plus en vue et discuté (sans que personne en savait exactement de quoi il s’agissait) : l’internet. Naïvement, nous nous sommes dits qu’il ferait bien l’affaire. N’est-ce pas que l’on n’aurait qu’à numériser x nombre de manuscrits d’une œuvre pour mettre en marche notre programme ? Et le programme ? de parmi les œuvres littéraires médiévales qui foisonnent, comment en choisir ? Là, nous n’avons pas hésité à choisir le Roman de la Rose comme clé de voûte de notre plan.

Les raisons de notre préférence en sont multiples mais on peut les résumer en disant que le Roman de la Rose est l’œuvre en langue vernaculaire le plus importante de l’époque, tant en France qu’à l’étranger à en juger par le nombre de traductions en anglais (par Chaucer lui-même !), en italien (peut-être par Dante !), en allemand, en espagnol, en ancien norvégien…sans parler des imitations innombrables inspirées par la Rose. En plus, c’est la première œuvre en langue vernaculaire à être conçue pour appeler l’enluminure. De ce fait, c’est l’œuvre en moyen français avec le plus grand nombre de manuscrits enluminés qui nous restent. Par conséquent, et grâce aux environ 250 manuscrits qui nous sont parvenus – dont une grande partie enluminée – la Rose est bien située pour illustrer la transmission scripturaire des œuvres littéraires françaises au moyen âge.

Hélas, il serait difficile d’imaginer deux illuminés plus innocents que nous étions à l’aube de cette aventure ! Nous avons vite découvert la complexité, voire l’impossibilité de ce que nous envisagions du point de vue des mœurs et usages de l’époque. D’une part, les bibliothèques ne disposaient pas de moyens informatiques à la hauteur de la tâche, et d’autre part on fut loin de considérer la numérisation comme un moyen puissant de préservation il y a quinze ans. Les quelques conservateurs de manuscrits auxquels nous avons exposés notre plan – croyant en toute sincérité qu’ils en seront ravis, d’ailleurs – nous prenaient pour des fous. Risquer leurs précieux manuscrits aux aléas de la numérisation – dont ils n’avaient qu’une idée à peine moins vague que la nôtre – leur paraissait de la pure folie. Et puis, il y avait la question épineuse des droits d’objet sinon d’auteur. Notre plan semblait voué à l’échec certain.

Dieu protège les sots et les ivrognes, dit-on. Nous refusions de renoncer à notre rêve. La bibliothèque de Johns Hopkins ayant réalisé quelques projets numériques au début des années quatre-vingt-dix, se disaient preneuse lorsque nous lui avons présenté notre projet. Sayeed Choudhury, Directeur du Data Curation Center, nous a accordé son concours, et celui de ses collègues : Tim Dilauro (architecte digital du Site), Mark Patton (spécialiste d’informatique et de meta-data), David Reynolds (également spécialiste en meta-data) et d’autres collaborateurs également précieux. Sayeed Choudhury nous a dit que si nous réussissions à trouver quelques manuscrits, son équipe serait prête à créer un « Site Rose » sur l’internet. Pour en finir avec l’histoire des origines de ce projet, nous avions trouvés cinq manuscrits de la Rose offerts par La Morgan Library à New York, par la Bodeleian Library à Oxford, et par the Walters Art Gallery à Baltimore. Avec ces manuscrits nous sommes parvenus, grâce à nos collaborateurs à la Eisenhower Library à Hopkins, à créer un Site Web où les étudiants et les chercheurs ont pu voir – souvent pour la première fois au cas des étudiants – un manuscrit médiéval. Ce qui plus est, en comparant les uns avec les autres, ils ont pu constater pour eux-mêmes les différences souvent considérables de mise-en-page, de style artistique des enluminures, de variation historique du langage du texte, ainsi que des coupures ou des interpolations pratiquées dans le texte par les copistes.

Mais ces premiers pas à créer un Site Web convenable ne furent qu’un début qui nous paraît, aujourd’hui, comme du bricolage peu satisfaisant. La vraie origine de notre projet tel qu’il paraît actuellement, commence au mois d’avril 2005 lorsque Winston Tabb, le Directeur actuel des Bibliothèques de Johns Hopkins, et moi sommes accueillis à la BnF par Thierry Delcourt et ses collègues. Ce jour-là est né un partenariat extraordinaire en soi et qui s’est vite avéré une expérience extraordinairement collégiale et positive. En retour d’une copie des images de chacun des manuscrits de la Rose disponibles dans les bibliothèques municipales et nationales en France, nous avons, de notre côté, entrepris de trouver les crédits nécessaires pour la numérisation de près de 150 manuscrits. Le projet envisageaient de photographier feuille par feuille les manuscrits en question dans un premier temps et puis le traitement technique des prises pour les rendre utilisable. Grâce à la générosité de la fondation Mellon, nous avons obtenus les fonds nécessaires pour réaliser ce projet collaboratif.

De prime abord, le projet a de quoi plaire aux partisans de la préservation du patrimoine national les plus féroces. Avec deux copies de chaque manuscrit français de la Rose conservées l’une aux archives numériques de la BnF, l’autre dans la Bibliothèque numérique des manuscrits médiévaux à Johns Hopkins, on assure deux buts principaux de la préservation des manuscrits : la protection et la consultation. Ce sont là deux buts contradictoires lorsqu’il s’agit de l’artéfact lui-même. Mais les exigences de la protection ne se heurtent pas contre l’impératif de la consultation par des chercheurs lorsqu’il s’agit d’une représentation numérique en haute résolution. Sosie de l’artéfact matériel, un manuscrit sous forme numérique protège l’original des dégâts éventuels de la circulation tout en assurant qu’un public plus nombreux l’expérimente. C’est vraiment l’aube d’une ère nouvelle pour les études scripturaires qui se point.

Mais pour que les avantages de l’exposition numérique des manuscrits se réalisent, il faut un Site vraiment performant, un Site Web avec des outils qui facilitent l’étude des documents. Notre Site, www.romandelarose.org, se divise en deux parties dont l’une consiste en apportant au programme toutes les fonctions qui assurent la manipulation performant des pages imagées : fonction zoom, rotation, tourneur de pages, navigation à l’intérieur du manuscrit, et ainsi de suite. Ce sont d’autant d’aides « invisibles » dans la mesure où on les découvre à fur et à mesure qu’on consulte l’objet.

L’une des fonctions qui rend l’emploi du Site particulièrement utile, c’est la possibilité de juxtaposer dans des fenêtres voisines quatre états de représentation d’une page scripturaire : 1. une page particulière; 2. la transcription du texte de celle-ci; 3. le texte tel que représenté par l’édition critique de Lecoy ; et 4. une traduction en français moderne ou en anglais du texte en question. Ces fenêtres sont construites de telle façon qu’elles suivent automatiquement la page de manuscrit lorsqu’elle est tournée. Evidemment, ces fonctions—quoique bien expliquées dans la description du site—se découvrent principalement à fur et à mesure où un lecteur approfondit sa connaissance du site.

Le second aspect de l’architecture du site s’organise de façon analytique selon les besoins des pédagogues et des chercheurs. Ainsi est-il que l’on trouve des rubriques désignant soit des explications portant sur la matière elle-même soit des informations sur l’identification et la description des manuscrits. D’autres rubriques facilitent la consultation en permettant à un lecteur soit de ne consulter que les images ou les rubriques, soit d’aller directement à un manuscrit particulier. Une autre section précise les archives qui sont détenteur de chaque manuscrit. C’est ici que l’on informe le lecteur sans ambages des conditions d’usage des images. En particulier le lecteur est averti de la stricte nécessité d’écrire directement à l’archive possédant le manuscrit en question afin de demander la permission du détenteur de la reproduire.

Une question que le Site Rose cherche à poser c’est la nature des modifications intentionnées ou aléatoires pratiquaient dans la représentation d’une seule et même œuvre littéraire transmise par voie scripturaire. Lorsqu’une longue œuvre est copiée à la main et enluminée dans des centaines d’exemplaires produits dans des endroits divers et cela pendant plus de deux cents ans turbulents, on s’attend à constater des différences – quelques fois très sensibles – d’un manuscrit à un autre. Si on pensait, en plus, à la dispersion géographique des copistes, on comprendrait facilement le fonds de renseignements sur l’évolution de la langue, sur l’art visuel, sur les mœurs et usages sociaux, et sur l’évolution du goût littéraire qui ont dû influer les copistes pendant la longue période de transmission scripturaire du Roman de la Rose.

Grâce à des outils qui permettent les « maîtres du Site Web » de compter le nombre de consultations d’un site par le public, nous sommes munis de statistique quant à l’usage du Site Rose. On sait par exemple que depuis septembre 2008 (le début du nouveau Site Web), 32,125 personnes ont visité le Site. Des 32,125 visiteurs, 23,482 sont des individus différents. 27% sont revenus sur le Site. De parmi les « récidivistes », 830 se sont servis du Site de 9 à 14 fois ; 684 s’en sont servis de 15 à 25 fois ; 405 s’en sont servis de 26 à 50 fois ; 357 des visiteurs s’en sont servis de 51 à 100 fois ; tandis que 243 des visiteurs s’avèrent des « inconditionnels » du Site l’ayant consulté entre 100 et 200 fois. Enfin, 2,100 des visiteurs sont restés sur le Site jusqu’à 30 minutes, tandis que 1,260 l’ont consulté pendant plus d’une demi-heure.

Pour donner un peu de chaire aux os de la statistique, on sait que de plus en plus de professeurs s’en servent soit pour enseigner la Rose elle-même en cours, soit pour enseigner l’ « ancien français », soit pour en faire des leçons de paléographie et pour apprendre aux étudiants de reconnaître des « mains » scripturaires. De ce fait, de plus en plus des collègues médiévaux enseignent le français médiéval en utilisant le Site Rose.

Nous avons de plus-en-plus de témoignages de l’influence de notre Site sur l’enseignement au niveau universitaire en Amérique du nord. Dans des cours de « New Media Studies », le Site Rose en donne un exemple et du vieux et des nouveaux médias. Enfin, deux universités américaines ont acquis, chacune, un manuscrit du Roman de la Rose récemment. Toutes deux avouent avoir agi par suite de l’intérêt croissant de l’étude de la littérature française médiévale dans son état d’origine scripturaire. Et toutes deux citent l’existence du Site Rose comme un important catalyseur de leur démarche.

Enfin, le Site Rose constitue le premier pas à la construction d’une bibliothèque numérique des manuscrits médiévaux à la Eisenhower Library de Johns Hopkins. Avec le temps le Site ajoutera d’autres collections des œuvres médiévales en langue vernaculaire à commencer par des manuscrits de Christine de Pizan. Il ne s’agit pas d’ajouter des manuscrits au hasard et sans organisation. Une fois que l’on identifie un auteur ou un genre à intégrer au Site, une équipe de spécialistes littéraires, de linguistes, d’historiens de l’art prendra en charge l’organisation d’un Site dédié aux manuscrits de l’auteur ou du genre en question. Eventuellement, la Bibliothèque numérique de manuscrits médiévaux comportera toute une série de Sites X, organisés comme le Site Rose qui sert de modèle. Et la nature de ce modèle, je répète, ce sont les chercheurs spécialistes travaillant en étroite collaboration avec des bibliothécaires spécialistes en informatique et en les sciences des livres.

La clé de voûte des projets numériques dorénavant c’est la collaboration entre universitaires et bibliothécaires.

Stephen G. Nichols
Johns Hopkins University

Usage statistics (through December 31 2009)

2010-03-09T11:12:00.000-08:00

Since the launch of the site on September 2008 through December 31 2009, the Rose team has noted the following usage statistics:

28,629 visits from 141 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, France, United Kingdom, Canada, Spain
21,140 absolute unique visitors
26% of these visitors have returned to the site
745 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
609 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
320 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
271 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
208 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
1,776 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
997 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

Usage statistics (through November 30 2009)

2010-03-09T11:08:00.000-08:00

Since the launch of the site on September 2008 through November 30 2009, the Rose team has noted the following usage statistics:

27,173 visits from 140 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, France, United Kingdom, Canada, Spain
20,168 absolute unique visitors
26% of these visitors have returned to the site
695 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
557 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
303 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
256 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
208 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
1,661 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
898 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

Usage statistics (through October 31 2009)

2010-03-09T11:05:00.000-08:00

Since the launch of the site on September 2008 through October 31 2009, the Rose team has noted the following usage statistics:

25,406 visits from 137 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, France, United Kingdom, Canada, Spain
19,057 absolute unique visitors
25% of these visitors have returned to the site
614 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
491 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
276 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
237 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
147 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
1,496 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
753 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

Usage statistics (through September 30 2009)

2010-03-09T10:59:00.000-08:00

Since the launch of the site on September 2008 through September 30 2009, the Rose team has noted the following usage statistics:

23,866 visits from 135 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, France, United Kingdom, Canada, Spain
18,055 absolute unique visitors
24% of these visitors have returned to the site
579 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
468 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
263 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
206 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
112 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
1,356 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
635 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

Rose site update

2010-03-03T11:34:00.000-08:00

Features added:

Improved keyboard navigation of book browser.

Content added:

Physical description of the Ferrell Rose by Timothy L. Stinson.
Ferrell pastedowns and folio 91v are now available in the page turner.

Site update

2010-01-29T06:19:00.000-08:00

Problems fixed:

Fixed a longstanding webkit (Google Chrome and Safari) layout problem.
Fixed regression with "missing image" image not displaying in page turner.
Fixed a number of bugs related to query parsing and expansion. Most notably boolean +- queries were not being parsed correctly and a regression with character name expansion was causing spurious matches.

Features added:

When viewing the illustration title table, click on a title to search for it.

Usage statistics (through August 31 2009)

2010-01-10T17:51:00.000-08:00

Since the launch of the site on September 2008 through August 2009, the Rose team has noted the following usage statistics:

22,466 visits from 131 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, France, United Kingdom, Canada, Spain
14,402 absolute unique visitors
24% of these visitors have returned to the site
534 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
421 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
253 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
168 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
112 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
1,257 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
562 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

This monthly reports marks gathering usage statistics for one year on the Roman de la Rose Digital Library. The Rose team has noted that there has been a steady increase in the statistics for every month during our first year. We thank you for interest in the Roman de la Rose Digital Library. Please continue to send us your feedback!

Usage statistics (through July 31 2009)

2010-01-10T17:46:00.000-08:00

Since the launch of the site on September 2008 through July 31 2009, the Rose team has noted the following usage statistics:

21,406 visits from 127 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, France, United Kingdom, Canada, Spain
16,385 absolute unique visitors
23% of these visitors have returned to the site
488 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
370 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
219 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
158 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
87 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
1,169 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
497 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

Usage statistics (through June 30 2009)

2010-01-10T17:39:00.000-08:00

Since the launch of the site on September 2008 through June 2009, the Rose team has noted the following usage statistics:

20,197 visits from 127 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, France, United Kingdom, Canada, Spain
15,614 absolute unique visitors
23% of these visitors have returned to the site
450 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
338 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
203 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
131 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
27 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
1064 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
424 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

Last site update of the year!

2009-12-30T06:55:00.000-08:00

There are not many user visible changes, but the rose site has changed a great deal under the hood. The FSI image viewer has been updated to the latest release and our image server is now the new FSI server. The combination of the new image viewer and image server should be faster and more stable. Numerous other changes should make the rest of the site snappier too.

The one content addition is the Chevrier Rose. You may also notice that edge flipping and page dragging have been enabled in the page turner. Try dragging the corner of a page or simply click on the corner to see.

Bug fixes include:

Always create a new viewer popup when requested.
Race condition removed in the page tracking code.
Foliation of printed books fixed in description and viewer.

Collection grows to 130 manuscripts

2009-11-11T06:56:00.000-08:00

UC 1380 image tagging fixed.
More image tagging.
Small fixes to collection data spreadsheet generation and display.
More manuscripts from the BnF availble.

17 more manuscripts available!

2009-10-26T06:03:00.001-07:00

Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal: ms. 6818, ms. 2989, ms. 2872, ms. 5209, ms. 3336, and ms. 6045
BnF: fr. 814, fr. 1568, fr. 798, fr. 1576, fr. 12592, fr. 19153, fr. 12596, fr. 19157, fr. 24390, fr. 19157, fr. 24388, fr. 25523, fr. 25526, fr. 2194, fr. 24392

More detailed image tagging and more manuscripts tagged
Better handling of paginated manuscripts.
Improved character name searching
Image tagging display update
Index terms used in tagging listed in illustration keyword glossary.
Full description of Selden Supra 57 from Tim Stinson
Background color change in content window.
All manuscript descriptions now include information about different texts.

2009-09-14T12:11:00.000-07:00

The Getty has produced a short video on making manuscripts, and they have another on the structure of a medieval manuscript:

Both videos might prove helpful for someone examining the images of manuscripts found on our site.

Site update

2009-08-21T06:44:00.000-07:00

Changed image tagging format to normalize character names and illustration titles. This greatly improved the illustration title and character name tables.
Reworked the data collection table to better utilize space.
Updated to latest gwt and gwt-visualization.
More image tagging.
Support for bibliographies in RefWorks XML format. See Douce 195, Douce 332, and Selden Supra 57.
Automatic linking of bibliography references to Google books when available.
Fixed search bug caused by huge query expansions (searching for responsiveness, or Sisyphus in Safari) by limiting expansions.
Fixed search bug caused by " not being escaped
The contact email address working again after resolving email relay issue
Fixed naming of images in endmatter of Hunter 409.

Screencasts

2009-08-20T10:36:00.000-07:00

We have put up 3 videos demonstrating how to search manuscript folios, illustrations, and text.

These screencasts were made by our student assistant, Taylor Breslin.

Finding a folio

Finding an illustration or illustration keyword

Finding a line or section of verse

Available editions

2009-08-18T11:48:00.000-07:00

Parts of several editions of the poem are freely available in Google books. There is vol. 1 of Méon's 1819 edition; vol. 1 of Michel's 1864 edition; vol. 3 of the edition of Langlois from 1921 as well as his Origines et sources du Roman de la Rose; vol. 3 of Dufresnoy and Damerey's 1799 edition; and vol. 5 of the 1880 edition of Croissandeau. There is also a transcription of Hunter 409 in Max Kaluza's 1891 publication. And finally, Francis William Bourdillon's book on The early editions of the Roman de la Rose is available in full.

Site update

2009-06-05T11:18:00.000-07:00

Revisions have been made to the French version of the site, book descriptions and image tagging have now been added, and some minor bugs fixed. Check back for further updates in the near future.

Usage statistics (through May 2009)

2009-05-31T12:41:00.000-07:00

Since the launch of the site on September 2008 through May 2009, the Rose team has noted the following usage statistics:

18,557 visits from 123 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, France, United Kingdom, Canada, Spain
14,402 absolute unique visitors
22% of these visitors have returned to the site
423 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
312 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
163 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
93 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
9 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
945 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
346 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

We have noted that France is now number two in the list of top countries represented. This movement may relate to our efforts to translate the site into French.

Usage statistics (through April 2009)

2009-05-31T12:29:00.000-07:00

Since the launch of the site on September 2008 through April 2009, the Rose team has noted the following usage statistics:

16,331 visits from 119 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, France, United Kingdom, Canada, Spain
12,852 absolute unique visitors
21% of these visitors have returned to the site
357 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
254 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
105 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
63 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
763 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
182 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

We have recently augmented the Google Analytics so that we can now track usage of individual manuscripts and folios. As we gather these data, we will report them to the blog.

32 more manuscripts available!

2009-05-08T08:09:00.000-07:00

Changes

Better sorting of strings ending in numbers when browsing books.
Formatting fix of French help translation
Minor French translation updates
Made 32 manuscripts from the Bibliothèque nationale avilable

We are working now to flesh out the manuscript descriptions of the newly uploaded manuscripts and tag the illustrations.

Narrative Mapping and Narrative Sections

2009-04-22T07:29:00.000-07:00

As explained under “Narrative Mapping” in the site, citation practice for the Roman de la Rose and most medieval texts has traditionally referenced the currently accepted critical editions. Yet this scholarly protocol inhibits the cross-manuscript comparative study that the Roman de la Rose Digital Library promotes. Since the number of lines for the work varies from one manuscript to another, depending on interpolations or excisions, the narrative mapping of the Roman de la Rose divides the text into reading segments instead of lines. In the Roman de la Rose, G and J represent the authors Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun while Arabic numerals and roman letters indicate segments and shorter sub-segments within them. For example, a section such as “g3” includes two segments, “g3a” (Amans discovers the Garden of Deduiz) ranging from verses 129 to 138 in Felix Lecoy’s edition, and segment “g3b” (Ekphrastic description of the portraits of the courtly vices) ranging from 139 to 460. The second segment is further subdivided in individual descriptions: “g3b.1” (Haïne 139-151), “g3b.2” (Felonie 152-155), “g3b.3” (Vilanie 156-168), “g3b.4” (Covoitise 169-194), “g3b.5” (Avarice 195-234), “g3b.6” (Envie 235-290), “g3b.7” (Tritesce 291-338), “g3b.8” (Vielleice 339-404), “g3b.9” (Ypocrisie 405-438), “g3b.10” (Povreté 439-460).

These divisions and the range of verses means that comparable passages across different manuscript can be readily locatable while number of lines given for each section facilitate tracking variations in section length from one exemplar to another. The narrative mapping protocol (and the explanation on which I base this blog) was devised by Prof. Stephen G. Nichols borrowing from that used for classical texts, where one cites not a page number or a given edition or translation but a segment of the text. Jeun de Meun’s section was done by Prof. Tracy Adams and a full revision by Jeanette Patterson. Prof. Sylvia Huot added information on some of the main known interpolations. These interpolations have been given different numbering, such as “g20a.5*1” (Anonymous continuation in which Jealousy falls asleep, and the Lover gets to spend a night of bliss with the Rose) or “j2d*1” (‘Litany of Love’ in which Reason describes spiritual love, refers to the Passion of Christ, and outlines a mystical ascent through contemplation, ultimately advising the Lover to select the Virgin Mary as love object).

Once the Roman de la Rose was divided into the narrative segments explained above we started to match particular manuscripts to these general narrative segments. Some exemplars were matched manually, segment by segment, and in those an actual transcription of the manuscript’s first line is included. For this case see Bodmer 79, where a section like G5e (Cortoisie invites Amans to dance) starts with the actual transcription “La karole quiert si plaisant”, followed by the verse number in Lecoy’s edition (L775).

In most cases, however, the matching of a specific exemplar with the narrative segments was generated automatically through an algorithm and so it will only approximate the actual start of each reading segment. Most of the remaining narrative mapping will be generated automatically. In these automatically generated cases, the first line of text is provided but instead of matching the actual manuscript it matches the transcription of Selden Supra 57. The line will thus start with (SS57) and the narrative segment will include a question mark. For an example see Arsenal 3338, where section “g6a?” (Amors introduced & described) is transcribed as “(SS57) A lui se tint de l'autre part.”

The transcription from SS57 allows users to check themselves for the actual placement of the starting line. Although generated automatically the algorithm gives a fairly good approximation and should be accurate within one to two columns to the actual start of each reading segment.

To access narrative segments in the manuscripts that have been mapped so far select Narrative sections in the Home page and click on the desired section id. The available narrative segments can also be accessed through the Page Turner view with the drop-down menu.

If you gather more accurate information on narrative segments please feel free to let us know at contactus@romandelarose.org.

Usage statistics (through March 2009)

2009-04-18T12:07:00.000-07:00

Since the launch of the site on September 2008 through March 2009, the Rose team has noted the following usage statistics:

• 14,112 visits from 112 different countries or territories
• The top five countries represented (in order): United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Spain
• 11,205 absolute unique visitors
• 21% of these visitors have returned to the site
• 314 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
• 192 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
• 605 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
• 82 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

We experienced a spike in visits in late March after someone (not a member of the Rose team) registered the Rose Digital Library on StumbleUpon. Starting in April, we have refined the analytics to gather more fine grained statistics such as visits to individual folios or pages on the site. We will report on these new statistics as we gather them.

Major site update

2009-04-09T12:14:00.000-07:00

Below is a list of the changes. Later posts will give more detailed explanations of the new features.

Help document:

Content updates
Layout fixes

Collection spreadsheet: New feature!

Mined manuscript descriptions to create spreadsheet
Tabular view with Google visualizations
Downloadable in CSV format for use with local spreadsheet applications

Illustration titles: New feature!

Tabular view of titles, average position, and frequency.
Data generated from image tagging

Extant manuscripts:

Moved to tabular Google visualization
Link to view in Google docs

Narrative sections: New feature!

Poem divided into sections. Each section has an id, a description, and a Lecoy range.
Tabular view of ids, titles, and Lecoy range
Click on section id to search for folios containing that section

Narrative mapping: New feature!

A manuscript is mapped by finding the start and end of each section in that manuscript.
The mapping may be done manually, which takes a long time, or automatically.
The automatic mapping takes as input a description of the book structure and guesses the column of the section start/end.
Only a few manuscripts are mapped so far.
The sections can be searched by title and id.
Section in the current page can be displayed to the right of the page turner.
Manual mapping includes a transcription of the first line of each section.

Character names: New feature!

List of characters in the poem

Miscellaneous:

Lecoy number always displayed with leading L
Display date when site last updated
Navigation on left reworked
Rubrics that are transcribed when describing the book structure for automatic narrative mapping are searchable
Normalization of illustration titles in image tagging
Hit enter in text box to do advanced search
Additional and updated French translations
Guessing names of printed book folios works better.
Finer grained tracking of site usage with Google analytics.
Mention contactus email when internal error occurs
Summary book descriptions added
More manuscripts cropped for page turner
Google visualization api used for tabular views of site. Click on column title to sort (unless sort is disabled for that table)

Known issues:

Webkit (Safari, Chrome) layout problem with header being offset.
Tabular Google visualization sometimes has columns misaligned. Click on column title to fix.

Usage statistics (through February 2009)

2009-03-01T17:20:00.000-08:00

Since the launch of the site on September 1, 2008 through February 28, 2009, the Rose team has noted the following usage statistics:

• 9,216 visits from 100 different countries or territories
• The top five countries represented (in order): United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Canada
• 6,902 absolute unique visitors
• 25% of these visitors have returned to the site
• 267 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
• 160 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
• 458 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
• 72 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

The Walters Art Museum and the Sheridan Libraries at Johns Hopkins University recently hosted a reception in honor of the Roman de la Rose exhibition at the Walters. We will soon post photos from this reception on the blog.

Update

2009-02-10T13:41:00.000-08:00

Images of a 15th century Roman de La Rose in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (The Philip S. Collins Collection, 1945-65-3) have just been added to the site. The manuscript's 75 miniatures are thought to have been painted by two artists in the workshop of the Maître Francois, illuminator of a French translation of Augustine's de Civitate Dei now in Paris (BnF, ms. fr. 18-19). This Rose has elaborate floral and foliate marginal borders and its bâtarde text incorporates the cleric Gui de Mori's additions and revisions to the poem. There are also many marginal inscriptions added by a reader in the 16th century.

News

2009-01-20T11:21:00.001-08:00

11 manuscripts from the Bibliothèque nationale have just been added to the digital library. A Rose in the University of Manchester's John Rylands University Library and one at the University of Pennsylvania are now up as well. We are in the process of cropping images and adding scholarly content. There are new codicological descriptions of two manuscripts, Penn 906 and Walters 143, and more to come. We are also improving the French language site by offering new translations of pages, and would appreciate feedback on these or on any aspect of the project.

This gives us a total of 26 manuscripts and 2 early printed books digitized so far. Check back as we continue to add manuscripts through 2009!

Extant manuscripts

2009-01-16T12:21:00.000-08:00

Currently, no one can say with certainty exactly how many Rose manuscripts exist or where they are located, and thus we are working to create such a list. A number of factors make this a difficult task: manuscripts change names and hands over time; manuscripts are lost, destroyed, or stolen; manuscripts sometimes appear briefly on the market and are sold to anonymous owners; fragments exist in libraries around the world, and some of these have never been mentioned in publications; sometimes it is hard to know what to count as a Rose manuscript (there are, e.g., early translations into other languages, manuscripts containing only excerpts from the Rose, and copies of a prose version of the Rose).

With the help of users of the digital library our list of manuscripts is being corrected and expanded. We would particularly like to thank Heidrun Ost for sending us changes. If you know of a Rose manuscript or fragment not given here, e-mail Prof. Timothy Stinson at tlstinson@gmail.com, and it will be added to the list.

Usage statistics (January 2009)

2009-01-09T18:21:00.000-08:00

For the first four months of the Roman de la Rose Digital Library (through December 31, 2008), we have noted the following usage statistics:

5,373 visits from 89 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Canada
4,108 absolute unique visitors
24% of these visitors have returned to the site
124 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
52 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
268 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
36 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

We have received the images for 11 new manuscripts from the Bibliothèque nationale de France system which will be added soon to the Digital Library.

Site update

2008-12-19T12:37:00.000-08:00

Display table with basic information above codicological description.
New "Extant manuscripts" page uses an embedded google spreadsheet to display a corpus of Rose manuscripts being produced by Prof. Timothy Stinson.
BnF fr. 12595 has a codicological description.

Site update

2008-12-10T07:51:00.000-08:00

The site now includes a Rose manuscript from the 14th century known as Bodmer 79. These digital images of Bodmer 79 were taken from color slides. Also, along with other small updates, users are now able to read the illustration title and a brief description of each illustration to the right of images in the page turner. These searchable descriptions name the characters depicted, costumes and objects in the scene, and elements of landscape and architecture. To view them choose “illustration description” in the drop down menu above the image. This menu also gives you the option of seeing the images alone (“show”), images with a transcription when there is one (“transcription”), and images with a transcription giving line numbers from Félix Lecoy's edition of the Rose (“transcription [Lecoy]”).

Usage statistics (December 2008)

2008-12-03T13:38:00.001-08:00

Following the first three months of the Roman de la Rose Digital Library, we have noted the following usage statistics through November 30, 2008:

4,299 visits from 83 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Canada
3,313 absolute unique visitors
23% of these visitors have returned to the site
95 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
45 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
215 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
26 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

We have launched a survey of individuals who requested passwords for the previous Roman de la Rose website. The results of this survey will help us determine the best strategy for establishing the Roman de la Rose membership community that will help sustain the Digital Library.

If you wish to complete the survey, we have placed a link to the survey on the main page of the Roman de la Rose Digital Library.

Reuniting UC 1380 with UC 392

2008-11-24T12:08:00.000-08:00

In 1907, the French translation of a 13th-century Latin text, Le Jeu des échecs moralisé (The Moralized Game of Chess), which accompanied a 14th-century Parisian copy of the Roman de la Rose, was separated from the poem and bound into a second volume. The Roman de la Rose text (including Le Testament and Codicille of the author Jean de Meun), was also given a new binding of red leather at this time. The volume of Le Jeu des échecs moralisé, with 39 folios and 13 miniatures, was purchased by the University of Chicago in 1931 and is now University of Chicago Library MS 392. In 2007, the University of Chicago Library was able to reunite the two works with their purchase of the Roman de la Rose volume, which has 171 folios and 42 miniatures and is now University of Chicago Library MS 1380 (or UC 1380). Both texts appear to have been written by the same hand, and the miniatures of Le Jeu des échecs moralisé and the Roman de la Rose seem to be the work of a single illuminator. (This artist has been called the Master of Saint Voult and linked to illuminators working for Charles V.) Images of the copy of Le Jeu des échecs moralisé can be viewed at the University of Chicago Library’s Rose & Chess
site, while the Roman de la Rose is part of this Digital Library. With these digital surrogates, we can see how a 14th-century artist illuminated two different secular texts, and compare the illustrations of courtly love in UC 1380 to those of an ideal society in UC 392.

Roman de la Rose Donations

2008-11-10T12:35:00.000-08:00

We have launched a Roman de la Rose donations page available at http://romandelarose.org/#donation. As this page indicates, the generous support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has allowed us to build the Roman de la Rose Digital Library, but we will need your contributions to help sustain and further develop this resource. We realize that economic conditions are difficult, so your donations will be especially appreciated.

Popup bug with IE fixed

2008-11-04T11:15:00.000-08:00

Popping up the flash image viewing application was not working with Internet Explorer. The bug has been fixed.

The problem involved different ways in which browsers treat arguments to the Javascript method window.open().

Usage statistics (November 2008)

2008-10-31T19:13:00.000-07:00

Following the first two months of the Roman de la Rose Digital Library, we have noted the following usage statistics:

2,056 visits from 72 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany
1,500 absolute unique visitors
28% of these visitors have returned to the site
68 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
38 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
103 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
20 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

We have heard directly from two scholars who are using the Roman de la Rose Digital Library for teaching or research purposes. We are launching a survey in November as part of our effort to develop the Roman de la Rose membership society. We hope that you will join our growing community.

Page turner bug

2008-10-27T12:28:00.001-07:00

We recently found a bug with the page turner. If a user selects a folio by using the text box and then goes to the next page using the slider button or corner/edge dragging, the book will flip forward one page and then immediately back one page.

The source of the problem appears to be the flash application, but its not entirely clear. For the time being we have removed the slider and disabled corner/edge dragging. Pages can still be turned by clicking on the larger buttons pointing right and left.

Alternatively we could keep the slider and dragging behaviour by having the text box reload the entire page turner when a folio is entered. Let us know if you would prefer this option.

Usage statistics (October 2008)

2008-10-03T19:51:00.001-07:00

It's been about one month since we launched the new Roman de la Rose Digital Library. We are planning to publicize the Digital Library through various mailing lists in a few days. Even without widespread publicity, we have noted the following usage statistics in the first month (we have filtered out our own use of the site):

906 visits from 49 different countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, Spain, United Kingdom, France, Germany
640 absolute unique visitors
30% of these visitors have returned to the site
32 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
22 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
50 of these visits lasted between 10-30 minutes
16 of these visits lasted over 30 minutes

We look forward to more visits over time.

The viewing tools

2008-10-03T08:28:00.000-07:00

With the high resolution images on the site, and using such viewing tools as the “zoom in” button, the “drag image” button, and the “popup window” button, the user interested in illustrations of the Roman de la Rose is now able to examine and compare these in greater detail than ever before. This is perhaps especially helpful in identifying artists and their different methods of work in the various manuscripts. For instance, the artist Jeanne de Montbaston, who lived and worked in Paris in the second quarter of the fourteenth century, is thought responsible for all 42 illuminations of Walters 143. This includes the border and frontispiece with four scenes on folio 1r and the 41 framed panel illustrations that follow.

We are better able to understand Jeanne’s use of thin brown lines to represent facial features and drapery by zooming in on the illumination on folio 69v of Walters 143, for example, and to see that the face of the character of Faux Semblant (False Seeming), who is tonsured and dressed in the black and white robes of a Dominican, was rubbed away and then redrawn by a hand different from Jeanne’s. If we use the “drag image” button to move a little to the right, we find the letters “b” and “a” have been written beside the scene. These are possibly directions for Jeanne made by the scribe. What the letters might have indicated to her remains unknown. Perhaps someone has an idea they would like to suggest or can find other directions to Jeanne in Walters 143 using the different viewing tools.

Known technical issues

2008-09-17T06:47:00.000-07:00

Below is a list of the technical issues we know about. Some of them may be fixed as time goes on. More bug reports are welcome!

Missing search result thumbnails

When search results are displayed, the Erez image server is asked to generate a thumbnail for each result. But for various reasons some images are missing. The browser displays a broken link for the missing image. Because information about the images making up a book is only loaded when the book is selected, the website cannot know which search results correspond to missing images.

This will be fixed when we add a "missing image" image.

Fragile bookmarks

FSI notepad bookmarks are stored in cookies in the client browser and depend on the order of images in a book being fixed. But addressing foliation errors requires that we change the order. The change will make bookmarks inaccurate. This is a limitation of FSI.

Page turner / Image browser bookmark separation

FSI notepad bookmarks for the page turner and image browser are separated. Bookmarks made in one cannot show up in another. This is a limitation of FSI.

Webkit layout bug

Webkit, used by Safari and Google Chrome among others, has a problem with our CSS. It causes the header to be slightly offset. I've been unable to figure out what is going on. Help is welcome!

Minor page turner inconsistency

As pages are flipped in the page turner, two image names are shown. When one image is picked, only the name of that image is shown. If the user then goes back to the two page display, only the last selected image name is displayed until the page is flipped. This is caused by odd choices in the design of FSI callbacks.

A New Form of Data Mining

2008-09-14T16:15:00.000-07:00

This past week, Johns Hopkins University hosted an international colloquium "Philology, History, Theory: Rethinking the New Medievalism" in honor of Stephen G. Nichols. The French Embassy, The Fritz Thyssen Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation also provided support for the colloquium. Over the course of three days, I had the stimulating opportunity to interact with several scholars, some of whom are experts on the Roman de la Rose. During a rare opportunity to view a few of the treasures from the Walters Art Museum's manuscript collection, I overhead Will Noel and Howard Bloch discussing digital manuscripts. They mentioned that digital images allow us to examine details that are not otherwise discernible. Bloch mentioned that there are details in facial expressions that "must have been painted with a brush of a single hair". Noel noted that these artistic expressions must have been personal in nature, rather than intended for viewers of the manuscript. Bloch cited artwork on the top of cathedrals as another example.

I find it thoroughly exciting that now we might view these personal artistics expressions that have been hidden for so long. Through the Roman de la Rose Digital Library, we have an unprecedented opportunity to figuratively climb to the top of the cathedral.

Codicological descriptions

2008-09-10T13:58:00.000-07:00

Among the many new features of the Roman de la Rose Digital Library is the inclusion of detailed codicological descriptions for each of the digitized manuscripts available on the site. These descriptions provide a way to quickly assess the relevance of manuscripts for further study.

The codicological descriptions in the digital library follow the Analytical Description of Manuscripts (ADM) convention developed by Albert Derolez and adapted for us by Timothy Stinson. This convention divides the description into ten sections with information about the location, physical description, decoration, history, etc. There is both an English and French version of each description.

Codicological descriptions are accessed via the "Select a book by" list in the left-hand navigation bar. Clicking on "Date", for example, will open a menu with several choices each from the 14th-, 15th- and 16th-centuries. At that point you can click on one of the individual manuscripts listed and see its description. When an individual description is shown in the main browser window, you will see "codicological description" highlighted in the left navigation bar. You may then click on either "Page turner" or "Browse images" to access page images of that manuscript.

There are currently "full" codicological descriptions for some manuscripts, "brief" descriptions for a few, and no descriptions for fewer. We will eventually have full descriptions for each manuscript.

Foliation errors in Senshu 3 and BnF, fr. 12595

2008-09-08T11:32:00.000-07:00

Two foliation errors have been found in the current display.

Sylvia Huot observed that Senshu University, MS 3, is numbered incorrectly from folio 76r to about folio 146r. The current site displays folio 75r twice (once following 74v and once again following 75v). After this repeated image all verso folios are correct but recto folios are off by one. Sylvia Huot has generously offered to solve this problem during her coming visit to Senshu University.

While finalizing the codicological description of BnF, fr. 12595, Timothy Stinson observed that folio 30 is missing in the original exemplar. The current folio 30r in the Rose Digital Library is actually folio 31r in the codex. All foliation afterwards is therefore off by one.

These problems will be solved as soon as possible.

Roman de la Rose launch celebration

2008-09-02T18:31:00.000-07:00

To celebrate the launch of the new Roman de la Rose Digital Library, the production team held a small party in the offices of the Library Digital Programs in the Milton S. Eisenhower Library on the Johns Hopkins University campus in Baltimore. After brief remarks from project leaders Stephen Nichols and Sayeed Choudhury, everyone enjoyed cake and champagne.

The new digital library includes more content and many new features not available on the previous Roman de la Rose site. Subscribe to this blog for more information on expanded content and new services.

Welcome - Bienvenue

2008-09-01T12:31:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the official Roman de la Rose Digital Library blog. The development of the Roman de la Rose poem begins with Guillaume de Lorris around 1230 and continues with Jean de Meun approximately forty years later. During the next few centuries, the poem was written, re-written, annotated, illustrated, and interpretated by a distributed community of individuals. While web-based technologies may be heralding a new movement of collaboration and sharing, we sometimes forget that there are prominent examples of such interaction from history. The Roman de la Rose was pre-Web 2.0.

In a fundamental way, everything old is new again. Our guiding force and leading scholar, Stephen G. Nichols, has observed how the development of this Digital Library emulated the creation of physical manuscripts in the medieval scriptorium. He has also noted that while the production process may seem familiar, the similarities end at that point. The Roman de la Rose Digital Library offers an unprecedented opportunity to interact with these rich treasures. The Digital Library offers additional content, a new design, and enhanced functionality. More importantly, it represents a major shift from viewing digitized manuscripts as surrogates toward a data-centric view. The Library offers interaction that is possible only in the digital realm. We have not attempted to build a structure, but rather scaffolding that offers enough of an environment to navigate without constraining or inhibiting potential use. Jean de Meun, Guillaume de Lorris, and anyone else who contributed to the poem may have never realized the long-term impact of their efforts. We hope that we are embarking on a similar journey with the launch of the Roman de la Rose Digital Library.

While we note the exciting possibilities, we are also reminded of the importance of tradition. At one of our planning meetings, Howard Bloch rightly mentioned his concerns that scholarship and investigation of these manuscripts may become completely lexcial. Based on this type of feedback, we developed the page turning functionality and other features that allow one to emulate--and augment--the reading room experience. This combination of content and tools that both excite human senses and provide a foundation for machine processing represent the hallmarks of the Digital Library. We invite you to join the community and become part of the story that will unfold.

We owe a great debt of gratitude to the individual and organizations that have contributed to this resource. Several scholars and advisers have offered guidance that has been critical toward the development of the Digital Library. During the first phase of the project, the Ameritech Library Services, the Getty Grant Program, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation provided funding. Only with the generosity and expertise of curators at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, and the Bodleian Library in Oxford, as well as the valuable input of the scholarly community, was the first phase site made possible.

Most recently, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation provided the funding to develop the Roman de la Rose Digital Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France offered access to all 126 publicly held Roman de la Rose manuscripts in France. Finally, the digital library team at the Sheridan Libraries at Johns Hopkins University deserves tremendous credit for bringing this vision into reality. Their technological creation is a poetic act. All of these individuals' and organizations' contributions have made this Digital Library possible.

Your contributions will sustain and develop it over time.