Digital Methods in Manuscript Studies

Manuscript Studies constitute one of the main
research areas in the Humanities at the University of
Hamburg. This has been underlined recently when
the large multidisciplinary Centre for the Study
of Manuscript Cultures (Sonderforschungsbereich
950, http://www.manuscript-cultures.uni-ha
mburg.de/ ) won a substantial grant from the
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft in May 2011. The
centre can draw on experience aggregated by several
other projects in Hamburg such as ‘Forschergruppe
Manuskriptkulturen in Asien und Afrika’, ‘Teuchos.
Zentrum für Handschriften- und Textforschung’ and
‘Nepalese-German Manuscript Cataloguing Project
(NGMCP)’. Manuscripts as the central and most
important media for the dissemination of writing
have influenced and even shaped cultures worldwide
for millennia, and only the relatively recent advent of
the printed book has challenged their predominance.
In the past few years, Manuscript Studies have
profited greatly from the use of digital methods and
technologies, ranging e.g. from the creation of better
and more accessible images to electronic editions and
from a broad range of special databases supporting
this research to analytical tools. Whereas such areas
as digital cataloguing and editing have received more
extensive coverage, methods more specific to the
study of manuscripts in particular deserve broader
attention.
This workshop focuses on Manuscript Studies as
a distinctive field, i.e. the study of manuscripts
as a characteristic feature and expression of those
cultures that are built on their use. It will
examine recent developments in digital methods
that can be applied across various manuscript
cultures worldwide, and aim to make awareness
and discussion of these accessible to a broader
group of scholars. It focuses exclusively on new
developments in its subject fields that rely on the
digital medium or on recent advances in technology
as applied to the study of manuscripts, with a
penchant towards aspects beyond the scope of the
individuals fields concerned with just one particular
manuscript culture.
The workshop will consist of brief introductory
presentations on current developments in these
areas by international experts, short hands-on and
demonstration units on multispectral imaging and
computer-assisted script and feature analysis as well
as discussions on expected future developments,
application perspectives, challenges and possible
fields of cooperation.
Joint speakers/demonstrators:
Jost Gippert (University of Frankfurt)
Lior Wolf (Tel-Aviv University)
Lorenzo Perilli (University of Rome, Tor Vergata)
Domenico Fiormonte (Università di Roma Tre)
Agnieszka Helman-Wazny (University of
Hamburg) / Jeff Wallman (Tibetan Buddhist
Resource Center, New York) / Orna Almogi
(University of Hamburg, Centre for the Study of
Manuscript Cultures)
Boryana Pouvkova / Claire MacDonald (University
of Hamburg, Centre for the Study of Manuscript
Cultures)
Daniel Deckers (University of Hamburg)
Arved Solth / Bernd Neumann (University of
Hamburg, Centre for the Study of Manuscript
Cultures)
Ira Rabin, Oliver Hahn, Emanuel Kindzorra (Centre
for the Study of Manuscript Cultures, Federal
Institute for Materials Research and Testing)