180 Matching Annotations
  1. Feb 2024
    1. , one of the reasons that the New York Public Library had toclose its public catalog was that the public was destroying it. TheHetty Green cards disappeared. Someone calling himself Cosmoswas periodically making o with all the cards for Mein Kampf. Cardsfor two Dante manuscripts were stolen: not the manuscripts, thecards for the manuscripts.
  2. Jan 2024
    1. read [[Dan Allosso]] in Actual Books

      Sometimes a physical copy of a book gives one information not contained in digital scans. Allosso provides the example of Charles Knowlton's book The Fruits of Philosophy which touched on abortion and was published as a tiny hand-held book which would have made it easy to pass from person to person more discretely for its time period.

    1. Newton's notebook was done in a tête-bêche (French for "head-to-toe") style in which he flipped the notebook over and began using it from the back to the front as a means of starting a second notebook within to separate the contents.

  3. johnhalbrooks.substack.com johnhalbrooks.substack.com
    1. To illustrate this liminal space between the oral and the literate, here is an illustration from the Vespasian Psalter, a manuscript from the late eighth century, that depicts King David singing the Psalms: David is accompanying himself with a harp, and there are horn players and a couple of people apparently clapping along with the beat. But there are also two scribes behind him, who are writing down his song. Here we have a representation of a culture in a transitional stage between oral and literate transmission of poetry—the oral performance of a poem and the written transmission of the same poem are both present in the image.

  4. Dec 2023
  5. Nov 2023
  6. Oct 2023
  7. Sep 2023
    1. Parchment has two distinguishable sides:<br /> hair, which is usually darker and may show follicles (and even hair itself when poorly scraped) and<br /> flesh, which is usually lighter.

      Most planned manuscripts' bindings have the hair side of the parchment facing hair sides of opposing leaf and similarly the flesh facing flesh.

      Because of additions and potential mistakes in binding there are places in LJS 101 in which hair faces flesh and vice-versa. This "mistake" can provide an indication of binding procedures or mistakes in them.

    2. Periermenias Aristotelis

      Notes from event on 2023-09-07

      Used as part of the Carolingian educational program (rhetoric)

      As of 2023, it's the oldest codex manuscript in Philadelphia

      Formerly part of the (Thomas) Phillipps Collection (MSS Phillips appears on p1); see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Phillipps

      There is some green highlighting on portions of the text

      contains some marginalia and interlineal notations

      Periermenias is the Greek title

      Underdotting of some of the letters is used to indicate deletion of the text (used like striking out text today)

      There are two sets of Carolingian script in the book, likely by different hands/times.

      Shows prick marks in parchment for drawing lines to write evenly.

      Has a few diagrams: squares of opposites (philosophy); color was added in XI C or possibly later

      folio 45 switch to newer MS copy to continue text

      Poem in last few lines with another text following it

      parchment is smaller in one section at the end.

      Another poem and then a letter to an abbott with a few pages in between (likely misbound) - quire of 12

      Book starts with grammar, then Boethius translation of Aristotle, and then a letter. This could be an example of the trivium put together purposely for pedagogy sake, though we're missing all of their intended purpose (it wasn't written down).

    3. https://libcal.library.upenn.edu/event/11148297

      9th-century copy of Boethius's Latin translation of Aristotle's De interpretatione, referred to in the manuscript as Periermenias, with the shorter of two commentaries that Boethius wrote on that work. Replacement leaves added in the 11th century to the beginning (f. 1-4) and end (f. 45-64) of the manuscript, in addition to providing the beginning and end of the Boethius (which is probably lacking 2 gatherings between extant gatherings 6 and 7), include the Periermeniae attributed to Apuleius in the medieval period, a poem by Decimus Magnus Ausonius on the seven days of Creation, a sample letter of a monk to an abbot with interlinear and marginal glosses, and other miscellaneous verses, definitions, and excerpts. Dot Porter, University of Pennsylvania, has determined that two groups of leaves are misbound; leaves 5-12 (the original order appears to have been 5, 9, 10, 6, 7, 11, 12, 8) and leaves 53-64 (the original order of the leaves appears to have been 61, 62, 53-60, 63, 64).

  8. May 2023
    1. I knew that if I spoke to Dorian I would become absolutely devoted to him, and that I ought not to speak to him.

      From LAWLER 177: Was "I would never leave him till either he or I were dead" in the original manuscript. Omitted completely from the 1891 text.

    1. It was not till they had examined the rings that they recognized who it was.

      From LAWLER 281: The original ending read "When they entered, they found on the wall the portrait of a young man of extraordinary personal beauty, their master as they had last seen him. Lying on the floor was a dead body, withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage with a knife in his heart." Wilde changed the ending to what it is now in the Lippincott's typescript.

    2. Old Mrs. Leaf was crying,

      From LAWLER 281: Wilde changed to this from "One of he maids was crying."

    3. glistened

      From LAWLER 280: Wilde originally had "He took it up and darted it into the canvas."

    4. had!

      From LAWLER 277: Following this exclamation, Wilde originally had the following: "I have always been too much of a critic. I have been afraid of things wounding me, and have looked on." He canceled it in the typescript.

    5. of

      From LAWLER 277: Wilde originally had "of moments of anguish and regret" here.

    6. chimney-piece.

      From LAWLER 272: Following this sentence, Wilde originally had the following: "The pain in his forehead was less than it had been but he was shivering..."

    7. hollow

      From LAWLER 271: This paragraph originally ended with the following: "He tried to speak, but his tongue seemed to be paralyzed."

    8. that

      From LAWLER 270: Wilde cancelled the following from his manuscript for the typescript: "Had this happened three years ago, I might have consented to be your accomplice."

    9. The binding was of citron-green leather with a design of gilt trellis-work and dotted pomegranates. It had been given to him by Adrian Singleton.

      From LAWLER 266: Wilde wrote this in after completing the manuscript.

    10. Gautier's "Émaux et Camées,"

      From LAWLER 266: Wilde's original choice was a volume of "sonnets by Verlaine."

    1. face

      Wilde cancelled the following lines in the manuscript: "Now, I will show you my soul. You shall see the thing you fancy only God can see."

    2. The Renaissance knew of strange manners of poisoning,—poisoning by a helmet and a lighted torch, by an embroidered glove and a jewelled fan, by a gilded pomander and by an amber chain. Dorian Gray had been poisoned by a book. There were moments when he looked on evil simply as a mode through which he could realize his conception of the beautiful.

      From LAWLER 255: The original ending of this chapter read: "Lord Henry had given him one, and Basil Hallward had painted the other."

    3. with Fratricide

      From LAWLER 255: Was originally "with Incest and Fratricide."

    4. until he was driven away.

      From LAWLER 251: This last phrase is Stoddart's. The original read, "till they almost drove him out in horror and had to be appeared with monstrous bribes."

    5. Blue Gate Fields,

      From LAWLER 251: Wilde originally wrote "the Docks."

    6. He discovered wonderful stories, also, about jewels.

      From LAWLER 247: Wilde added four paragraphs here in three long manuscript pages, beginning at "He discovered wonderful stories..." and ending at "luxury of the dead was wonderful." The following lines of the insert never appeared in print. Since there were no instructions from Stoddart or other editorial marks, the omission may have been a typesetting error or a deliberate omission to avoid an ambiguity of reference or syntax: "It was a pearl that Julius Caesar had given to Servilia when he loved her. Their child had been Brutus. [New paragraph] The young priest of the Sun, who while yet a boy had been slain for his sins, used to walk in jewelled shoes on dust of gold and silver."

    7. part

      From LAWLER 242: Cancelled in the manuscript: "twelfth and thirteenth chapters." No parallels seem to exist in these and other allusions between the contents of the yellow book and either A Rebours or Monsieur Venus except for similarities in tone, general subject matter, and angle of treatment.

    1. There was something tragic in a friendship so colored by romance.

      From LAWLER 234: Wilde originally had the following before it was changed by Stoddart in the typescript: "There was something infinitely tragic in a romance that was at once so passionate and so sterile."

    2. whom I have been really fond.

      From LAWLER 234: The manuscript originally had "whom I had loved."

    3. Did you really see it?"

      From LAWLER 233: Originally read "Perhaps you did not see it. But you suspected it. You were conscious of something you did not like."

    4. But that was all.

      From LAWLER 233: Wilde cancelled "He felt no romance for him" in the typescript.

    5. usually

      From LAWLER 232: Stoddart changed Wilde's "should ever give" to this reading.

    6. Her little hands stretched blindly out, and appeared to be seeking for him.

      From LAWLER 215: This sentence was added in the typescript.

    7. "If you want him to marry this girl, tell him that, Basil. He is sure to do it then.

      From LAWLER 206: This was written in the manuscript's margin, and the following sentence was added in the typescript.

    8. "Except in America.

      From LAWLER 206: Wilde added this in the typescript.

    9. Poor Sibyl! what a romance it had all been! She had often mimicked death on the stage, and at last Death himself had touched her, and brought her with him. How had she played that dreadful scene? Had she cursed him, as she died? No; she had died for love of him, and love would always be a sacrament to him now. She had atoned for everything, by the sacrifice she had made of her life. He would not think any more of what she had made him go through, that horrible night at the theatre. When he thought of her, it would be as a wonderful tragic figure to show Love had been a great reality. A wonderful tragic figure? Tears came to his eyes as he remembered her child-like look and winsome fanciful ways and shy tremulous grace. He wiped them away hastily, and looked again at the picture.

      From LAWLER 226: This paragraph was added in the typescript.

    10. fault

      From LAWLER 221: After this sentence, Wilde originally had the following: "And besides, no one knows that you were at the theatre last night."

    11. to explain to him the new life he was going to lead,

      From LAWLER 220: Originally read "to sever their friendship at once."

    12. He covered page after page with wild words of sorrow, and wilder words of pain.

      From LAWLER 220: Wilde added this in the typescript.

    13. Three o'clock struck, and four, and half-past four, but he did not stir. He was trying to gather up the scarlet threads of life, and to weave them into a pattern; to find his way through the sanguine labyrinth of passion through which he was wandering. He did not know what to do, or what to think.

      From LAWLER 220: Wilde added these sentences in the typescript.

    14. Or was there some other, more terrible reason? He shuddered, and felt afraid, and, going back to the couch, lay there, gazing at the picture in sickened horror.

      From LAWLER 220: Wilde had added these sentences in the typescript.

    15. scientific interest

      From LAWLER 219: Originally, the manuscript read, "He was strangely calm at this moment."

    16. Victor

      From LAWLER 218: In the manuscript, the valet was named Jacques. The conversation was in French, as it was whenever Dorian and Jacques spoke. Wilde changed this to English in stages: first, Dorian's speech in MS, then the name of the valet and his dialogue.

    17. surprise

      From LAWLER 216: In the manuscript, the following lines were cancelled at this point: "then he smiled to himself and went on into his bedroom. 'It is merely an effect of light,' he murmured. 'I did not know that the dawn was so unbecoming.'"

    18. apes

      From LAWLER 215: Wilde had originally had these lines in the typescript, but crossed them out before publication: "A man with curious eyes had suddenly peered into his face and then dodged him with stealthily footsteps, passing and repassing him many times." It is likely that Sibyl's avenging brother, James, added in 1891, may have originated here.

    19. The joy of Beatrice was my joy, and the sorrows of Cordelia were mine also.

      From LAWLER 214: Was originally "If I died as Desdemona, I came back as Juliet."

    20. darkened

      From LAWLER 210: Wilde originally had "filled with tears."

    21. And it is an irrevocable vow that I want to take.

      From LAWLER 209: After this sentence, Wilde originally had the following: "Why she would loathe me if she thought I merely meant to use her till I grew weary of her and then threw her away." Wilde crossed this out in his manuscript.

  9. Apr 2023
    1. yours

      From LAWLER 200: Was originally "your mistress," but Stoddart changed it. Wilde altered Stoddart's emendation in 1891, making it "I suppose she will belong to you some day."

      ZABROUSKI: I found this specific change interesting, for it seems like such a minor alteration yet makes a big impact in the grand scheme of things. Lawler claimed that the 1891 alteration is "stronger" than what is here. Given the time this was published, that claim rings true; because Victorian women were typically viewed as property or arm candy rather than an actual partner, saying the phrase "belong to" would have been fitting for a heterosexual Victorian man.

    2. "Harry, Sibyl Vane is sacred!"

      From LAWLER 200: Stoddart altered this statement, for it was originally "How dare you suggest such a thing, Harry? It is horrible. Sibyl Vane is sacred!"

    3. correctly

      From LAWLER 179: J.M. Stoddart, Lippincott's editor changed the original reading "live with their wives," removing an expression inadmissible to the American public. Wilde let these and similar changes stand even though they are clearly inferior to the original.

    4. I am putting it into practice, as I do everything you say."

      From LAWLER 197: This sentence was added in the typescript.

    5. Nowadays people know the price of everything, and the value of nothing."

      From LAWLER 196: This well-known epigram was added to the typescript.

    6. "Am I really like that?""Yes; you are just like that.""How wonderful, Basil!"

      From LAWLER 194: Wilde added this to the typescript.

    7. "And you know you have been a little silly, Mr. Gray, and that you don't really mind being called a boy.""I should have minded very much this morning, Lord Henry.""Ah! this morning!

      From LAWLER 193: Wilde added these sentences to the typescript.

    8. "If it is not, what have I to do with it?"

      From LAWLER 192: Was originally "Comme vous voulez, mon cher." (English Translation: "As you wish, my dear.")

    9. Hermes

      From LAWLER 191: Originally "Sylvanus."

      From COLLINS DICTIONARY: Sylvanus is the Roman god of the woodlands, fields and flocks. Its Greek counterpart is Pan, god of the wild.

    10. "How sad it is!" murmured Dorian Gray, with his eyes still fixed upon his own portrait. "How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrid, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June. . . . . If it was only the other way! If it was I who were to be always young, and the picture that were to grow old! For this—for this—I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give!"

      From LAWLER 191: Wilde altered this passage each time he revised his text. After "dreadful," he cancelled the following: "Life will send its lines across my face. Passion will create it and thought twist it from its form." For the typescript of this edition, Wilde added the last sentence of this paragraph. In 1891, Wilde added another sentence at the paragraph's end: "I would give my soul for that."

    11. forever

      LAWLER: Following this sentence, Wilde originally had the following: "Like priests, they terrify one at the prospect of certain eternity, attempt to terrify one, I should say."

    12. well

      From LAWLER 190: Following this sentence, Wilde originally had the following passage: Most modern portrait painting comes under the head of elegant fiction or if it aims at realism, gives one something between a caricature and a photograph. But this was different. It had all the mystery of life, and all the mystery of beauty. Within the world, as men know it, there is a finer world that only artists know of--artists or those to whom the temperament of the artist has been given. Creation within creation--that is what Basil Hallward named it, that is what he had attained to."

    13. And Beauty is a form of Genius,—is higher, indeed, than Genius, as it needs no explanation. It is one of the great facts of the world, like sunlight, or spring-time, or the reflection in dark waters of that silver shell we call the moon.

      From LAWLER 188: These lines were originally spoken by Basil in the previous chapter. Wilde relocated them here and transferred them to Henry.

    14. terribly.

      From LAWLER 188: Wilde cancelled the following line from his original manuscript: "If you set yourself to know life, you will look evil; if you are afraid of life, you will look common."

      ZABROUSKI: The homoerotic undertone of this sentence wouldn't have gone unnoticed if it was included in this edition. Though Lord Henry seems to be talking about the changes in appearance through aging, if those lines were included in this edition, Lord Henry could've been implicitly addressing society's view on homosexual relations rather than society's view on physical appearance. The phrase "afraid of life" may suggest being afraid of acting on one's true desires, and the phrase looking "common" may suggest an unwanted submission to a heterosexual relationship.

    15. to whom he had rather taken a fancy. He was so unlike Hallward. They made a delightful contrast. And he had such a beautiful voice.

      From LALWER 185: Added from the original manuscript.

    16. house

      From LAWLER 183: The original conclusion of the chapter, cancelled in the manuscript, read: "'I don't suppose I shall care for him, and I am quite sure he won't care for me,' replied Lord Henry, smiling..."

    17. "Harry, don't talk like that

      From LAWLER 182: The following lines were cut from the original manuscript: "I am not afraid of things, but I am afraid of words. I cannot understand how it is that no prophecy has ever been fulfilled. None has I know. And yet it seems to me that to say a thing is to bring it to pass. Whatever has found expression becomes true, and what has not found expression can never happen. As for genius lasting longer than beauty, it is only the transitory that stirs me. What is permanent is monstrous and produces no effect. Our senses become dulled by what is always with us."

      ZABROUSKI: ADD SOMETHING HERE

    18. day

      From LAWLER 181: The following lines were cancelled form the manuscript: "Who seems to take a real delight in giving me pain. I seem quite adjusted to it. I can imagine myself doing it. But not to him, not to him. Once or twice we have been away together. Then I have had him all to myself. I am horribly jealous of him, of course. I never let him talk to me of the people he knows. I like to isolate him from the rest of life and to think that he absolutely belongs to me. He does not, I know. But it gives me pleasure to think he does."

    19. "Because I have put into it all the extraordinary romance of which, of course, I have never dared to speak to him. He knows nothing about it. He will never know anything about it. But the world might guess it; and I will not bare my soul to their shallow, prying eyes. My heart shall never be put under their microscope. There is too much of myself in the thing, Harry,—too much of myself!"

      From LAWLER 181: Wilde altered this paragraph in every revision.

      ZABROUSKI: In the 1891 version, Wilde wrote, “Because, without intending it, I have put into it some expression of all this curious artistic idolatry, of which, of course, I have never cared to speak to him. He knows nothing about it. He shall never know anything about it. But the world might guess it, and I will not bare my soul to their shallow prying eyes. My heart shall never be put under their microscope. There is too much of myself in the thing, Harry—too much of myself!” In the original manuscript, Wilde had (after "But the world might guess it") "where there is merely love, they would see something evil. Where there is spiritual passion, they would suggest something vile." If Wilde kept those two sentences in, it could be assumed that critics would have used it as fuel for their argument on what constitutes a moral vs immoral book.

    20. garden

      From LAWLER 181: Wilde canceled the following at this point from the manuscript: "A curious smile crossed his face. He seemed like a man in a dream."

    21. I must see Dorian Gray."

      LAWLER 180: Henry's response in the manuscript is too heavily blotted to read fully, but he protests Basil's being in Dorian's power: "to make yourself the slave of your slave. It is worse than wicked, it is silly. I hate Dorian Gray!" In one stroke, Wilde rid himself of some silly dialogue and removed a clue, perhaps, to the nature of the relationship between Dorian and Basil as a form of homoerotic bondage so fashionable among the English that the French referred to it as le vice anglais.

    22. me

      ZABROUSKI: Wilde added "Some subtle influence passed from him to me, and for the first time in my life I saw in the plain woodland the wonder I had always looked for and always missed" to the end of this paragraph in 1891.

      LAWLER 180: From the original manuscript, Wilde deleted "and as he leaned across to look at it, his lips touched my hand. The world becomes young to me when I hold his hand..." In 1891, Wilde added another sentence here (which I transcribed above) emphasizing Dorian's influence over Basil's art.

    23. lad

      From LAWLER 180: "Lad" substituted for "boy" here and in several other places from the original manuscript. Additionally, Wilde removed "Through twenty summers have shown him roses less scarlet than his lips" from the manuscript.

    24. feeling

      From LAWLER 176: Wilde changed the original "passion" to "feeling."

    25. looking him straight in the face,

      From LAWLER 176: Wilde canceled the phrase "taking hold of his hand" from the original manuscript.

    26. faltering steps of kings.

      From LAWLER 175: Original manuscript had "to dog the steps of kings."

    27. "No: I won't send it anywhere."

      From LAWLER 174: Original manuscript had "and yet, you are quite right about it. It is my best work."

    28. other

      ZABROUSKI: Added in from the original manuscript.

    29. slanting

      ZABROUSKI: Removed "silent" before "slanting beams" from the original manuscript.

    30. Gray

      ZABROUSKI: Replaced "him" from original manuscript.

    31. he is

      ZABROUSKI: Replaced "we are" from the original manuscript.

    32. would

      ZABROUSKI: Replaced "did" from the original manuscript.

    1. slanting

      ZABROUSKI: Removed "silent" before "slanting beams" from the original manuscript.

    2. Gray

      ZABROUSKI: Replaced "him" from original manuscript.

    3. would

      ZABROUSKI: Replaced "did" from the original manuscript.

    4. he is

      ZABROUSKI: Replaced "we are" from the original manuscript.

    5. correctly."

      From LAWLER 179: J.M. Stoddart, Lippincott's editor changed the original reading "live with their wives," removing an expression inadmissible to the American public. Wilde let these and similar changes stand even though they are clearly inferior to the original.

  10. Feb 2023
    1. Are there symbols for 'supported by' or 'contradicted by' etc. to show not quite formal logical relations in a short hand?

      reply to u/stjeromeslibido at https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/10qw4l5/are_there_symbols_for_supported_by_or/

      In addition to the other excellent suggestions, I don't think you'll find anything specific that that was used historically for these, but there are certainly lots of old annotation symbols you might be able to co-opt for your personal use.

      Evina Steinova has a great free cheat sheet list of annotation symbols: The Most Common Annotation Symbols in Early Medieval Western Manuscripts (a cheat sheet).

      More of this rabbit hole:

      (Nota bene: most of my brief research here only extends to Western traditions, primarily in Latin and Greek. Obviously other languages and eras will have potential ideas as well.)

      Tironian shorthand may have something you could repurpose as well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tironian_notes

      Some may find the auxiliary signs of the Universal Decimal Classification useful for some of these sorts of notations for conjoining ideas.


      Given the past history of these sorts of symbols and their uses, perhaps it might be useful for us all to aggregate a list of common ones we all use as a means of re-standardizing some of them in modern contexts? Which ones does everyone use?

      Here are some I commonly use:

      Often for quotations, citations, and provenance of ideas, I'll use Maria Popova and Tina Roth Eisenberg's Curator's Code:

      • ᔥ for "via" to denote a direct quotation/source— something found elsewhere and written with little or no modification or elaboration (reformulation notes)
      • ↬ for "hat tip" to stand for indirect discovery — something for which you got the idea at a source, but modified or elaborated on significantly (inspiration by a source, but which needn't be cited)

      Occasionally I'll use a few nanoformats, from the microblogging space, particularly

      • L: to indicate location

      For mathematical proofs, in addition to their usual meanings, I'll use two symbols to separate biconditionals (necessary/sufficient conditions)

      • (⇒) as a heading for the "if" portion of the proof
      • (⇐) for the "only if" portion

      Some historians may write 19c to indicate 19th Century, often I'll abbreviate using Roman numerals instead, so "XIX".

      Occasionally, I'll also throw drolleries or other symbols into my margins to indicate idiosyncratic things that may only mean something specifically to me. This follows in the medieval traditions of the ars memoria, some of which are suggested in Cornwell, Hilarie, and James Cornwell. Saints, Signs, and Symbols: The Symbolic Language of Christian Art 3rd Edition. Church Publishing, Inc., 2009. The modern day equivalent of this might be the use of emoji with slang meanings or 1337 (leet) speak.

  11. Jan 2023
    1. Transcriptions taken from Goitein’s publications were corrected according to handwrittennotes on his private offprints. The nature of Goitein’s “typed texts” is as follows. Goitein tran-scribed Geniza documents by hand from the originals or from photostats. These handwrittentranscriptions were later typed by an assistant and usually corrected by Goitein. When Goiteindied in 1985, the transcriptions were photocopied in Princeton before the originals were sentto the National Library of Israel, where they can be consulted today. During the followingdecades, the contents of most of these photocopies were entered into a computer, and period-ically the files had to be converted to newer digital formats. The outcome of these repeatedprocesses of copying and conversion is that transcription errors and format glitches are to beexpected. As the Princeton Geniza Project website states: “Goitein considered his typed texts‘drafts’ and always restudied the manuscripts and made revisions to his transcriptions beforepublishing them.” See also Goitein, “Involvement in Geniza Research,” 143. It is important tokeep in mind that only the transcriptions that were typed were uploaded to the project website.Therefore, e.g., Goitein’s transcriptions of documents in Arabic scripts are usually not foundthere. The National Library of Israel and the Princeton Geniza Lab also hold many of Goitein’sdraft English translations of Geniza documents, many of which were intended for his plannedanthology of Geniza texts in translation, Mediterranean People.

      Much like earlier scribal errors, there are textual errors inserted into digitization projects which may have gone from documentary originals, into handwritten (translated) copies, which then were copied manually via typewriter, and then copied again into some digital form, and then changed again into other digital forms as digital formats changed.

      As a result it is often fruitful to be able to compare the various versions to see the sorts of errors which each level of copying can introduce. One might suppose that textual errors were only common when done by scribes using manual techniques, but it is just as likely for errors to be inserted between digital copies as well.

    2. Fried-berg Judeo-Arabic Project, accessible at http://fjms.genizah.org. This projectmaintains a digital corpus of Judeo-Arabic texts that can be searched and an-alyzed.

      The Friedberg Judeo-Arabic Project contains a large corpus of Judeo-Arabic text which can be manually searched to help improve translations of texts, but it might also be profitably mined using information theoretic and corpus linguistic methods to provide larger group textual translations and suggestions at a grander scale.

    3. Benjamin Richler’s Guide to Hebrew Manuscript Collections is the basicreference work for navigating the different libraries and collections of He-brew manuscript collections

      Benjamin Richler, A Guide to Hebrew Manuscript Collections (Jerusalem, 1994), 2nd rev. ed. (Jerusalem, 2014). For an entry on the Geniza, see ibid., 79–81. See also entries for specific libraries and collections.

  12. Dec 2022
    1. Paper was imported to Europe before the fourteenth century, often fromDamascus, hence it was known as “charta damascena.” It was expensive,but, as production developed in Europe, the price fell and it graduallyreplaced parchment.
    2. If we narrow the process oftransmission down to a single, hypothetical strand, it is feasible thatPtolemy originally wrote The Almagest on a papyrus scroll insecond-century Alexandria. That scroll would have had to berecopied at least twice for it to survive until the sixth century, at whichpoint it might well have been copied onto parchment and bound intoa book. This, too, would need to be recopied every few hundredyears to ensure that it survived (again assuming that it escaped theusual pests, damage and disasters) and was available to scholars in1500. It is therefore likely that The Almagest had to be recopied atthe very least five times during the period 150–1500.
    3. Atbest, papyrus only lasts for a couple of hundred years before the textneeds to be recopied onto a new scroll.
  13. Aug 2022
  14. May 2022
    1. A few weeks back I joined the Schoenberg Institute's ongoing series "Coffee with a Codex" which featured two manuscripts the Penn Libraries have relating to Rhetorica ad Herennium. One is MS Codex 1630, a 15th century copy of the text itself, and MS Codex 1629 which is a 14th century commentary on Rhetorica.

      As a few here are interested in some of the older memory texts and having access to older copies from the Renaissance is rare, I thought I'd share some of the resources from that session including photos, descriptions, and the videos themselves which have recently been posted online. For those who are interested in these spaces, I hope this is as much of a treat as I thought it was.

      A blog post with some details, links, and great photos: https://schoenberginstitute.org/2022/03/09/ms-codex-1630-ms-codex-1629-rhetoric/

      A short video introduction to the MS Codex 1630: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XpFbbHgNQ4

      And here's the full 30 minute video of the walk through session of both manuscripts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT6Qdgz93Ec&list=PL8e3GREu0zuC-jTFRF27a88SzTQ6fSISy&index=8

      Full digital copies of both books and bibliographic details for them can be found below: Ms. Codex 1630: https://franklin.library.upenn.edu/catalog/FRANKLIN_9958935643503681

      Ms. Codex 1629: https://franklin.library.upenn.edu/catalog/FRANKLIN_9958752123503681

  15. Apr 2022
    1. Medieval manuscripts did not include title pages, and bibliographers identify them by incipit or opening words: no special markers were needed to recognize a book that one had commissioned and waited for while it was copied.185 By contrast, a printed book needed to ap-peal to buyers who had no advance knowledge of the book, so the title page served as an advertisement, announcing title and author, printer and/or book-seller (where the book could be purchased), generally a date of publication, and also additional boasts about useful features—“very copious indexes” or a “cor-rected and much augmented” text. T
    2. A later version of this concordance survives in eighty manu-scripts made between 1280 and 1330—these are large, handsome volumes with rubrication to facilitate use, a few of which show signs of having been used as exemplars to be copied by university students according to the pecia system (in which students would rent from a stationer successive sections of the exemplar for copying, so that each student would end up with his own new copy of the ex-emplar).120

      The pecia system was one in which university students would rent portions of manuscripts from stationers and then manually copy them to ultimately end up with their own full copies of the books they were reading or studying.

      Some copies of extant manuscripts have indicators that they were used or produced by this pecia system.

    3. On leaf numbering in the Middle Ages, see Saenger (1996), 258, 275–76, and Stoneman (1999), 6. Saenger notes nonetheless that printing created the context in which leaf numbering flourished in both print and manuscript.

      Leaf numbering was seen in the Middle Ages, but printing in the Renaissance greatly increased the number of books with page numbers.

  16. Mar 2022
  17. Jan 2022
    1. But Google also uses optical character recognition to produce a second version, for its search engine to use, and this double process has some quirks. In a scriptorium lit by the sun, a scribe could mistakenly transcribe a “u” as an “n,” or vice versa. Curiously, the computer makes the same mistake. If you enter qualitas—an important term in medieval philosophy—into Google Book Search, you’ll find almost two thousand appearances. But if you enter “qnalitas” you’ll be rewarded with more than five hundred references that you wouldn’t necessarily have found.

      I wonder how much Captcha technology may have helped to remedy this in the intervening years?

  18. Dec 2021
  19. Nov 2021
    1. LJS 418, f. 3r, the remnants of a sewing repair with thread remaining

      In parchment manuscripts one will often see small pin prick holes in the parchment which indicates that a hole in the animal skin was repaired during processing. Usually after curing and before use the thread from the repair is removed leaving only the small holes.

      Rarely, but occasionally, the thread will still remain in the final manuscript. An example of this is LJS 418, f 3r where one can see the thread left in the page.

    2. The smudged line indicating where the quire would have been originally folded is clear in the center of the folio.

      Smudged or worn lines on manuscripts may be indicative of a manuscript having been unbound and potentially folded and possibly carried during regular use.

      LJS 418 f. 6v shows an example of this pattern though the manuscript was later bound.

    1. ́his historical interest is fueled not onlyby the rapid growth of the history of readingW of which the study of notetaking is an offshootW

      Where exactly do we situate note taking? Certainly within the space of rhetoric, but also as Ann M. Blair suggests within the history of reading.

      What else? manuscript studies, psychology, others?

  20. Oct 2021
    1. Churches we’re spreading the word in many different ways. The manuscript was most used in a Bible that was Latin.And there was also confession that people had to do said sine against the church. Come to think of it the clergy of men was probably taking notes and creating his own manuscript.

    2. There were multiple and important jobs that could come out of crating A manuscript. you have scribes, Artist to create the drawings in the manuscript to keep the reader interested.

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjZAdPX6ek0

      Osculatory targets or plaques were created on pages to give priests

      Most modern people don't touch or kiss their books this way and we're often taught not to touch or write in our texts. Digital screen culture is giving us a new tactile touching with our digital texts that we haven't had since the time of the manuscript.

    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-SpLPFaRd0

      Skins soaked in lime to loosen the hair from the skin in a rudimentary washing machine.

      Scraping the meat side while stretched on a frame

      Drying for a day or two, then cut them out.

  21. Aug 2021
    1. Since the reader was able to shape hand and finger as he or she saw fit, we can sometimes recognise a particular reader within a single manuscript, or even within the books of a library. The charming hands function as a kind of fingerprint of a particular reader, allowing us to assess what he or she found important about a book or a collection of books.

      I've heard the word "hand" as in the phrase "an operator's hand" used in telegraphy to indicate how an experienced telegraph operator could identify the person at the other end with whom they were communicating by the pace and timbre of the code. I've particularly heard reference to it by code breakers during wartime. It's much the same sort of information as identifying someone by their voice on the phone or in a distinctive walk as seen at a distance. I've also thought of using this idea in typing as a means of secondary confirmation for identifying someone while they input a password on a keyboard.

      I wonder if that reference predates this sort of similar "hand" use for identifying someone, if this may have come first, or if they're independent of each other?

  22. Jul 2021
  23. uniweb.uottawa.ca uniweb.uottawa.ca
    1. Victoria E. Burke, Commonplacing, Making Miscellanies, and Interpreting Literature, The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern Women’s Writing in English, 1540-1680, Oxford University Press Oxford, 2022Editors: Danielle Clarke, Sarah C.E. Ross, and Elizabeth Scott-BaumannBook historyEarly modern literatureManuscript studiesSeventeenth-century women's writing

      This looks like a fun read to track down.

  24. Mar 2021
  25. Feb 2021
    1. undermine the integrity of the Version of Record, which is the foundation of the scientific record, and its associated codified mechanisms for corrections, retractions and data disclosure. 

      This misrepresents the situation. Authors accepted manuscripts (AAM) have been shared on institutional and subject repositories for around two decades, with greater prevalence in the last decade. Despite this the version of record (VoR) is still valued and preserves the integrity of the scholarly record. The integrity of the VoR continues to be maintained by the publisher and where well-run repository management are made aware, corrections can be reflected in a repository. The solution to this problem is the publisher taking their responsibility to preserving the integrity of the scholarly record seriously and notifying repositories, not asserting that authors should not exercise their right to apply a prior license to their AAM.

  26. Oct 2020
    1. a roughly 240-page medieval codex written in an indecipherable language, brimming with bizarre drawings of esoteric plants, naked women, and astrological symbols. Known as the Voynich manuscript, it defies classification, much less comprehension.

      Something I hadn't thought of before, but which could be highly likely given the contents: What if the manuscript is a personal memory palace? Without supporting materials, it's entirely likely that what's left on the page is a substrate to which the author attached the actual content and not having the other half, the entire enterprise is now worthless?

    2. All we know for certain, through forensic testing, is that the manuscript likely dates to the 15th century, when books were handmade and rare.

      This may provide some additional proof that it's a memory aid in the potential form of a notebook or commonplace book. What were the likelihoods of these being more common that other books/texts? What other codes were used at the time? Was the major system or a variant in use at the time?

  27. Sep 2020
  28. Jul 2020
  29. Jun 2020
  30. Sep 2019
  31. Jul 2019
    1. Note that mentions tagged by “Incorrect” and“InsufficientMetaData” are deemed not legitimate and it is desirable that RDW andRRID-by-RDW not identify them.

      but there's no way any analysis restricted to the article text will ID this, because you have to resolve the RRID to figure that out, right?

    2. Papers containing SCR RRID

      Why would papers have a higher percentage of SCR RRIDs? Where are the other RRIDs found?

    3. Summary and Conclusions

      the conclusion is in the paragraphs above titled comparison. Perhaps this para should be titled "future directions" or something?

    4. The Use of RRIDs vs Data Citation

      This section seems like it should be in the introduction.

    5. corpi

      correct plural is corpora

    6. where authors did not report an RRID forthe resource that they used, constituting 37% of all RRID mentions identified by SciBot

      Ok so Scibot is identifying digital resources from a list & flagging when there's no RRID but there probably should be?

    7. RDW recognized mentions of digital resource names, RRIDs or URLs from a total of701110 articles

      There are 190000 RRIDs in 13000 articles. RDW found RRIDs (doesn't say how many) in 701110/(2341133+738910+72493+151784=3304320) articles. So there are resources mentioned in about 21% of articles, based on extraction, but presuming all of the 13000 RRID containing articles were included in the 3 million, the RRID prevalence is closer to 6%, but RRIDs mentioning digital resources are 26748 or .8%. So 4/5 of articles don't mention digital resources at all?

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  32. Oct 2018
  33. Aug 2018
    1. This text analysis that it contains words written in hebrew and deciphering of the first sentence of the text using hebrew translation seems to align with what this author is saying about the text being passed down through the family.

      She made recommendations to the priest, man of the house and me and people.

      [Source] (https://hyp.is/GB7sZKjvEeidoGeGo8L6jA/www.independent.co.uk/news/science/mysterious-manuscript-decoded-computer-scientists-ai-a8180951.html)

    1. Comments, questions, suggestions? Your feedback is welcome.

      Sukhwant Singh's analysis here seems to fit with a lot of other's partial analysis/observations such as multiple characters representing the same character, certain characters only appearing at the end of words etc. It seems quite compelling. The dates however, are a century too early although that does not necessarily dispel his theory that it is written in Landa Khojki.

    2. Many "words" differ by only one character and are found in each other's vicinity

      This might suggest the same thing as Tiltman's analysis in that a single character may take several forms.

    3. Tiltman treats f as a variant form of k and p as a variant form of t

      When learning that there were over 100 characters used in the manuscript my first thought was that perhaps variations of a character were used to represent the same character.

    4. Speaking generally, each character behaves as if it has its own place in an 'order of precedence' within words; some symbols such as o and y seem to be able to occupy two functionally different places.

      This is very interesting. It seems to suggest that each word may be scrambled based on the characters used.

    1. Here is a copy of the full manuscript.

    2. The text seems to be split into four parts (based on the drawings); botanicals, astrological charts, women bathing, and what appears to be recipes. For this reason it's theorized that the Voynich Manuscript is an encoded medical book.

    3. Both the mineral pigments used in the paint as well as the large and consistent quality of the parchment indicates the text would have cost quite a bit of money to produce.

    4. The Voynich Manuscript has not been deciphered despite people dedicating their entire lives to the challenge. Even modern deciphering computerized methods have not picked up a pattern.

    5. Interestingly, the drawings of some of the plants seem to show cellular level detail. The first microscope didn't exist until centuries later.

    6. The Voynich Manuscript was carbon dated to 1404-1430. The dovetail wall in one of the drawings given the time period indicates the author probably lived in Italy as that's the only known place during that time period with that style of architecture.

  34. Aug 2017
  35. idhmcmain.tamu.edu idhmcmain.tamu.edu
    1. much spoken of while it was handed about with a certain air of secrecy

      Barbauld points to a work by Horace Walpole that was popular when circulated as a manuscript but "neglected" after it was published. It isn't pornographic, but it is about maternal incest.

  36. Mar 2017
    1. copying a manuscript of this kind proceeded at the rate of about one (two-sided) folio per day; pecia rentals typically lasted one week and involved about four folios.
  37. May 2016
    1. 0

      Questa parte del manoscritto non contiene il testo di FGrHist 104, ma la vita di Apolonnio di Filostrato. Liuzzo 2015

    2. [] αἰτησάμενος

      The text is broken at the beginning. See Liuzzo 2015 for an explanation of this.

  38. Sep 2015
    1. This page, presented as a series of questions, is intended to help prevent that abstraction. It is also intended to remind the reader that although these items are currently being viewed digitally they exist in the physical world as very real objects and that both the decisions made and the means by which they are interpreted should reflect that.