Site update

• 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

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)

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

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

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

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)

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.