b'DigiPal'http://www.digipal.eu/blog/2014-07-04T06:52:35+00:00TrueBook Launch for English Vernacular Minuscule2014-05-05T13:12:55+00:002014-07-04T06:52:35+00:00Peter A. Stokeshttp://www.digipal.eu/blog/author/pstokes/http://www.digipal.eu/blog/book-launch-for-english-vernacular-minuscule/<p>I'm pleased to announce that there will be a launch for <em>English Vernacular Minuscule from Æthelred to Cnut, circa 990 – circa 1035</em>, at King's College London on Tuesday 20 May 2014, from 5–7pm. The launch will be in the Harry M Weinrebe Suite in the East Wing of Somerset House (see the map below). The launch is open to any who wish to attend, but please register using Eventbrite: <<a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/e/book-launch-for-english-vernacular-minuscule-from-thelred-to-cnut-circa-990-circa-1035-by-peter-tickets-11444846845">http://www.eventbrite.com/e/book-launch-for-english-vernacular-minuscule-from-thelred-to-cnut-circa-990-circa-1035-by-peter-tickets-11444846845</a>></p>
<p><strong>What</strong>: Launch of <a href="http://www.boydellandbrewer.com/store/viewItem.asp?idProduct=14422"><em>English Vernacular Minuscule</em></a> (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2014)<br/><strong>When</strong>: Tuesday 20 May 2014, 5–7pm <br/><strong>Where</strong>: King's College London, Somerset House East Wing<br/><strong>Registration</strong>: On <a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/e/book-launch-for-english-vernacular-minuscule-from-thelred-to-cnut-circa-990-circa-1035-by-peter-tickets-11444846845">Eventbrite</a></p>
<p>I hope to see as many of you as possible there.</p>
<p><a href="http://localhost:8080/media/uploads/images/blog_posts/2014/English%20Vernacular%20Minuscule.pdf"><img alt="Boydell Flyer for 'English Vernacular Minuscule'" height="439" src="http://localhost:8080/media/uploads/images/blog_posts/2014/.thumbnails/English%20Vernacular%20Minuscule.jpg/English%20Vernacular%20Minuscule-310x439.jpg" title="Click to download for printing (PDF)" width="310"/><img alt="Map of Somerset House, East Wing" height="481" src="http://localhost:8080/media/uploads/images/blog_posts/.thumbnails/Somerset%20House%20East%20Wing%20Map.jpg/Somerset%20House%20East%20Wing%20Map-520x481.jpg" title="SHEW Map" width="520"/></a></p>25% Off 'English Vernacular Minuscule' until 1 July 20142014-04-16T11:35:58+00:002014-07-03T23:23:07+00:00Peter A. Stokeshttp://www.digipal.eu/blog/author/pstokes/http://www.digipal.eu/blog/25-percent-off-english-vernacular-minuscule/<p>Boydell are offering a 25% discount for <em>English Vernacular Minuscule</em> until 1 June 2014. If you want to take advantage of this offer then you can either <a href="http://www.boydellandbrewer.com/store/viewItem.asp?idProduct=14422">order it from their website</a>, using offer code <strong>14082</strong>, or you can download the flyer below, complete the form and post it to them (click on the image to get the full PDF).</p>
<p>I see that some people are reading it already and am very interested to hear what they think. I expect it will be controversial, at least in part, and I would be very interested to receive any feedback, either to me directly or in the Comments below.</p>
<p><a href="http://localhost:8080/media/uploads/images/blog_posts/2014/English%20Vernacular%20Minuscule.pdf"><img alt="Boydell Flyer for 'English Vernacular Minuscule'" height="439" src="http://localhost:8080/media/uploads/images/blog_posts/2014/.thumbnails/English%20Vernacular%20Minuscule.jpg/English%20Vernacular%20Minuscule-310x439.jpg" title="Click to download for printing (PDF)" width="310"/> </a></p>New Publication: English Vernacular Minuscule from Æthelred to Cnut, circa 990 – circa 10352014-03-05T12:22:53+00:002014-07-03T20:08:02+00:00Peter A. Stokeshttp://www.digipal.eu/blog/author/pstokes/http://www.digipal.eu/blog/new-publication-english-vernacular-minuscule/<p>I am very pleased to announce the publication of <em>English Vernacular Minuscule from Æthelred to Cnut, circa 990 – circa 1035</em> (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2014). The book is available from <a href="http://www.boydellandbrewer.com/store/viewItem.asp?idProduct=14422">Boydell and Brewer</a>, and (as the title suggests) it presents a study of the vernacular script of the early eleventh century. Full details are as follows:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A new, distinct script, English Vernacular minuscule, emerged in the 990s, used for writing in Old English. It appeared at a time of great political and social upheaval, with Danish incursions and conquest, continuing monastic reform, and an explosion of writing and copying in the vernacular, including the homilies of Ælfric and Wulfstan, two different recensions of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, two of the four major surviving manuscripts of Old English poetry (the "Beowulf" and "Junius" books), and many original royal and ecclesiastical diplomas, writs and wills. However, although these important manuscripts and documents have been studied extensively, this has tended to be in isolation or small groups, never before as a complete corpus, a gap which this volume aims to rectify. It opens with the historical context, followed by a thorough reexamination of the evidence for dating and localising examples of the script. It then offers a full analysis of the complete corpus of surviving writing in English Vernacular minuscule, datable approximately from its inception in the 990s to the death of Cnut in 1035. While solidly grounded in palaeographical methodology, the book introduces more innovative approaches: by examining all of the approximately 500 surviving examples of the script as a whole rather than focussing on selected highlights, it presents a synthesis of the handwriting in order to identify local practices, new scribal connections, and chronological and stylistic developments in this important but surprisingly little-studied script.</p>
<table border="0">
<tbody>
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<td>
<p>13 Digit ISBN: 9781843843696<br/>Pages: 309<br/>Size: 23.4 x 15.6<br/>Binding: Hardback<br/>Imprint: D.S.Brewer<br/>Series: <a href="http://www.boydellandbrewer.com/store/listCategoriesAndProducts.asp?idCategory=181">Pubns Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies</a> <br/>Subject: <a href="http://www.boydellandbrewer.com/store/listCategoriesAndProducts.asp?idCategory=18">Medieval Literature</a><br/>BIC Class: DSBB<br/>Price: £60<br/><a href="http://www.boydellandbrewer.com/store/viewItem.asp?idProduct=14422">Purchase from Boydell and Brewer</a></p>
<p> </p>
<h3>Contents</h3>
</td>
<td>
<p><img alt="Cover of the book 'English Vernacular Minuscule from Æthelred to Cnut'" height="300" src="http://www.boydellandbrewer.com/store/catalog/bigs/9781843843696.jpg" title="Book Cover" width="198"/></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
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</tbody>
</table>
<ol>
<li>Introduction</li>
<li>Background</li>
<li>Attributions of Origin</li>
<li>Scribal Change in Bookhands and Charters: The 'Tall and Narrow' Hands</li>
<li>Scribal Continuity in Bookhands and Charters: The 'Square Influenced' Hands</li>
<li>Glosses and Scribbles</li>
<li>Conclusion: Change and Continuity in Early English Vernacular Minuscule</li>
<li>Appendix: List of Scribal Hands</li>
<li>Glossary</li>
</ol>
<h3> </h3>
<h3> </h3>
</blockquote>'Document Classification Based on What is There and What Should Be There': DigiPal at DH20132013-07-16T09:07:40+00:002014-07-04T00:37:35+00:00Peter A. Stokeshttp://www.digipal.eu/blog/author/pstokes/http://www.digipal.eu/blog/document-classification-based-on-what-is-there-and-what-should-be-there-digipal-at-dh2013/<p>The DigiPal project will be represented indirectly at DH2013 through related work primarily by Noga Levy and Lior Wolf from the Tel Aviv University, Israel. Noga will be presenting a paper on work done using a predecessor of the DigiPal dataset to predict what features of handwriting might have been missed during the process of annotating and describing the scribal hands. The full, detailed abstract of the paper is available online at <<a href="http://dh2013.unl.edu/abstracts/ab-303.html">http://dh2013.unl.edu/abstracts/ab-303.html</a>> and is published as N. Levy, L. Wolf and P.A. Stokes, 'Document Classification Based on What is There and What Should Be There', in <em>Digital Humanities 2013: Conference Abstracts</em> (Lincoln, NE, 2013), pp. 279–82.</p>
<p>I will not be in Lincoln myself, unfortunately, but there is a lot of interesting work being presented there, and Noga's talk will certainly be among them. </p>
<p><strong>What</strong>: Noga Levy, presenting 'Document Classification Based on What is There and What Should Be There'.</p>
<p><strong>Where</strong>: Digital Humanities 2013, Lincoln, Nebraska.</p>
<p><strong>When</strong>: Session LP28 (Room CBA143), 13:30–15:00 on Friday 19 July 2013.</p>
<p>See the <a href="http://dh2013.unl.edu/">conference website</a> for further details.</p>New Publication: 'Computation and Palaeography: Potentials and Limits'2013-03-05T10:16:53+00:002014-07-03T19:32:08+00:00Peter A. Stokeshttp://www.digipal.eu/blog/author/pstokes/http://www.digipal.eu/blog/new-publication-computation-and-palaeography-potentials-and-limits/<p>A new publication by computer scientists and palaeographers is now out. Resulting from the <a href="http://localhost:8080/blog/news/digipal-at-dagstuhl/" title="DigiPal at Dagstuhl">Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop on 'Computation and Palaeography - Potentials and Limits'</a> which took place last September, I found this to be an unusually productive meeting of the two disciplines, in which I think both sides genuinely listened to and learned from each other. In fact, several publications are forthcoming from this: a short summary in <em>Informatik Spektrum</em>, the 'manifesto' (which is really more of a statement of current and future research directions), and this newly-published report which contains abstracts of the papers delivered at the workshop and summaries of the working groups' conclusions.</p>
<p>Quoting the abstract,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This report documents the program and outcomes of Dagstuhl Seminar 12382 'Perspectives Workshop: Computation and Palaeography: Potentials and Limits'. The workshop focused on the interaction of palaeography, the study of ancient and medieval documents, with computerized tools, particularly those developed for analysis of digital images and text mining. The goal of this marriage of disciplines is to provide efficient solutions to time and labor consuming palaeographic tasks. It furthermore attempts to provide scholars with quantitative evidence to palaeographical arguments, consequently facilitating a better understanding of our cultural heritage through the unique perspective of ancient and medieval documents. The workshop provided a vital opportunity for palaeographers to interact and discuss the potential of digital methods with computer scientists specializing in machine vision and statistical data analysis. This was essential not only in suggesting new directions and ideas for improving palaeographic research, but also in identifying questions which scholars working individually, in their respective fields, would not have asked without directly communicating with colleagues from outside their research community.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The citation, including a link to the full text which is freely available online, is as follows:</p>
<p>T. Hassner, M. Rehbein, P.A. Stokes and L. Wolf (eds), 'Computation and Palaeography: Potentials and Limits (Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop 12382)', <em>Dagstuhl Reports</em> 2:9 (2012): 184–199. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.4230/DagRep.2.9.184">doi:10.4230/DagRep.2.9.184</a></p>