In this issue: 1. The last update of e-codices / 2. What it means to photograph a digital manuscript in its entirety / 3. Cusanus manuscript of the cantonal library Thurgau / 4. Completion of the sub-project "e-codices 2017-2020" / 5. Completion of the partner project "Iliadoscope” The e-codices newsletter provides information about the latest updates, highlights, and activities of our project. We are delighted to count you among our readers!
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e-codices Newsletter

Issue no 52 - 15 December 2020

In this issue:

  1. The last update of e-codices
  2. What it means to photograph a digital manuscript in its entirety
  3. Cusanus manuscript of the cantonal library Thurgau
  4. Completion of the sub-project "e-codices 2017-2020"
  5. Completion of the partner project "Iliadoscope"

The e-codices newsletter provides information about the latest updates, highlights, and activities of our project. We are delighted to count you among our readers!

The e-codices team

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1. The last update of e-codices

Over the past ten years, e-codices has grown by about 200 manuscripts annually. This means that almost every working day, on average, a new manuscript was prepared, digitized, often scientifically described, encoded, and all content carefully edited. In addition, a bespoke Content Management System (CMS) was used to enter and translate all the basic metadata and then link it to various functions and authority files. With the latest update, 59 additional manuscripts from 16 different collections have been added, among them a large number of manuscripts from cantonal libraries:

  • five codices from the Bibliothèque cantonale jurassienne on the history of the monastery of Moutier-Grandval
  • a Samaritan Bible of the Cantonal and University Library of Fribourg
  • two manuscripts from the Bibliothèque cantonale et universitaire Lausanne, one of them a so-called "manuscrit de besace"
  • five Cistercian manuscripts from the Cantonal Library of the Canton of Aargau
  • 12 manuscripts from the Cantonal Library of the Canton of Thurgau, including a humanistic manuscript dedicated to Pope Paul II. with the "Cribratio Alkorani" by Nicolaus Cusanus
  • a book of hours by the Master of the Gold Scrolls from the Cantonal library St. Gallen, Vadian Collection
  • two further Carthusian manuscripts from the University Library of Basel
  • seven Hebrew manuscripts from the Zentralbibliothek Zürich for the subproject "Hebrew Manuscript Library of Switzerland" by Dr. Justine Isserles
Browse all manuscripts from the last update

2. What it means to photograph a digital manuscript in its entirety

Just how important and challenging it is to fully photograph a manuscript with all its characteristics and in all aspects is shown, for example, by the Lausanne manuscript containing Petrarch's "De vita solitaria", whose binding originally consisted of a series of 14th century paper fragments joined together in numerous layers. The fragments were later removed and restored (see the restoration report by Florence Darbre from 2018). Digitization attempted to reproduce the current state as accurately as possible, for which no fewer than 198 images were needed!

3. Cusanus manuscript of the cantonal library Thurgau

This manuscript contains two works by Nicolaus Cusanus, in which he deals with Islam (Cribratio Alkorani) and the Hussites (Contra Bohemos or Opusculum contra errorem Bohemorum of 1433). The manuscript was created for Pope Paul II. (1464-1471), the successor of Pius II (Enea Silvio Piccolomini), to whom Cusanus dedicated the first work.

Discover the manuscript

4. Completion of the sub-project "e-codices 2017-2020"

The end of the year marks the conclusion of the generous support of the swissuniversities P-5 program "Scientific Information" for the "e-codices 2017-2020", under which no fewer than 839 manuscripts were published in four years. This subproject was the successor project to "e-codices 2013-2016", which published 740 manuscripts in the same amount of time.

More information about the sub-project

5. Completion of the partner project "Iliadoscope"

The Geneva Illiad (Genavensis graecus 44) is a Byzantine manuscript that was written in Constantinople in the 13th century. It is known for its numerous glosses and the interlinear paraphrase of the first 12 books. This means that after each verse a paraphrase of the same verse was inserted, which should improve the understanding of the text. The project "Le devenir numérique d'un texte fondateur: L'Iliade et le Genavensis Græcus 44" (SNF-172733) under the direction of Prof. David Bouvier (Université de Lausanne) has produced a digital transcription with numerous interactive elements of the first three books with an editio princeps of the Byzantine paraphrase.

Discover the project

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