Keynote lecture for the conference ‘From glass case to cyber-space: Chaucerian manuscripts across time/ Syrffio’r silff: hynt a helynt llawysgrifau Chaucer’ at the National Library of Wales / Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru, 14-16 April 2014

1. 1

2. 2
Petition by Adam Pinkhurst rel. to his lands in Surrey and Sussex, c. 1400: The
National Archives, SC8/134/6633

3. 3

4. 4

5. 5

6. 6

8. 8
William Schipper, 'Dry-Point Compilation Notes in the
Benedictional of St Æthelwold', British Library Journal, 20 (1994),
17-34

9. The dry point note ‘In’ illustrated by Schipper is not readily visible in this ‘vanilla’ digitisation
of f. 27v of the Benedictional of St Æthelwold. Ideally we need a series of images exploring
different aspects of this folio.

10. A.S.G. Edwards, ‘Back to the Real’, Times
Literary Supplement, 7 June 2013
• Digital surrogates more expensive version of
microfilm
• Make it difficult to assess material characteristics
• Discourage engagement with originals and
provide excuse for libraries to restrict access
• Expensive activity which diverts resources from
more pressing priorities such as training in
palaeography and conservation of originals

11. A.S.G. Edwards, ‘Back to the Real’, Times
Literary Supplement, 7 June 2013
“Is it worth it? Do the ends justify the
unquantifiable cost of the means? Digitization
appears to be proceeding unchecked and
unfocused, deflecting students into a virtual
world and leaving them unequipped to deal
responsibly with real rare materials. I suspect
that the combination of poorly prepared students
and reductions in library staffing levels will make
real manuscripts ever more difficult to access
directly”.

12. Edwards:
The Codex Sinaiticus is an interesting test case for apologists of digitization. Last year I was told
that the Codex Sinaiticus site got about 10,000 hits a month. That might seem a strong
justification for digitization. But it seems doubtful whether even a small fraction of that number
have the appropriate training – codicological, linguistic and textual – to approach the work in an
informed way. If my audience analysis is even broadly correct, the British Library is investing
heavily not in scholarship, but in a new branch of the entertainment industry.

13. Lost leaves from Codex Sinaiticus found in St
Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt in 1976

14. Text of Mark 1:1 in the British Library portion of the Codex Sinaiticus under standard
light, showing corrections including insertion of the phrase ‘Son of God’.

15. The same section of Mark 1:1 under raking light, with transcription and translation

17. Imaging of the Beowulf manuscript using fibre optic backlighting to reveal letters and
words concealed by nineteenth-century conservation work:

18. Two sets of transcripts made for
the Danish antiquary Thorkelin,
now in the Royal Library
Copenhagen, compared with the
original manuscript

19. 19

21. 21

22. 22

23. 23
Micro CT scan of the internal structure of a papyrus roll
burnt at Herculaneum. The imaging was undertaken as
part of a project directed by Professor Brent Seales,
University of Kentucky

24. Kathryn Rudy, ' Dirty books : Quantifying
patterns of use in medieval manuscripts using a
densitometer ' Journal of Historians of
Netherlandish Art , vol 2 (2010) , no. 1-2 , pp. 1-
26

25. Using the Diamond Light Source to Recover Palimpsest Text