Adair Chantbook Project

adair chant book recto page 1

Multispectral Analysis of Missouri

Current Project Team

Virginia Blanton
Department of English
College of Arts & Sciences

Marianne Gillion
Department of Musicology
KU Leuven

Stuart Hinds
Curator, LaBudde Special Collections
Miller Nichols Library

Erika Supria Honisch
Department of Music
Stony Brook University

Yugyung Lee
Department of Computer Science Electrical Engineering
School of Computing and Engineering

Zhu Li
Department of Computer Science Electrical Engineering
School of Computing and Engineering

Nathan Oyler
Department of Chemistry
College of Arts & Sciences

Jeff Rydberg-Cox
Classics Program
Department of English
College of Arts & Sciences
School of Computing and Engineering

Research Assistants

Rebecca Adams
Master's Student, Department of English
College of Arts & Sciences

Mary Jean Miller
Doctoral Student, English and Humanities Consortium
College of Arts & Sciences

Johnathan Curtman
Undergraduate researcher, Department of English
College of Arts & Sciences

Previous Team Members

Reza Derakhshani
Department of Computer Science Electrical Engineering
School of Computing and Engineering

Chainy Folsom
Doctoral Student, Departments of History & English

Jesse Lowe
Undergraduate Researcher and later Doctoral Student
Department of Computer Science Electrical Engineering
School of Computing and Engineering

Annie Liljegren
Undergraduate researcher and later Master's Student
Department of English
College of Arts & Sciences

Kathleen Sewright
Department of Humanities/Music
Fitchburg State University

Dates of Project

Phase 1: 2014-2016

Phase 2: 2020-present

Project Abstract

This current phase of this project had three goals: 1) to use a home-built, multispectral imaging system to perform detailed study of palimpsests in a medieval chant book owned by LaBudde Special Collections at the University of Missouri Kansas City Libraries; 2) to develop an alternative, deep learning model that will allow us to derive visible light multispectral images from normal RGB images; and 3) to apply both direct and indirect methodologies comparatively, testing their efficacy on the UMKC chant book and on two additional heritage documents held by other libraries in the Kansas City region. Should this alternative be viable, it will dramatically reduce the cost and lower the economic barriers for other scholars, archivists, and librarians who would like to use multispectral analysis for their materials. In effect, it would allow humanities centers, libraries, and archives the ability to conduct their own investigations with these techniques using readily available and affordable equipment.

The primary test case for this project is a handwritten codex known as the Adair Chant Book held by the University of Missouri-Kansas City libraries. This Spanish book contains chants inserted from the 15th to the 17th centuries CE. The monks of El Convento de San Pedro Regalado, a monastery located in northern Spain, owned the book in the early twentieth century, but its original and subsequent users are unknown. The numerous repairs, excisions, and additions made during the period of the book's active use make it an ideal test case for understanding how multispectral imaging can enhance book history. Entire chants, both notation and lyrics, have been scraped away and written over with new ones, creating a series of palimpsests. Many of the changes appear to be responses to liturgical requirements of the Council of Trent (1545-1563). The introduction of an unidentified choral mass associated with the family name Strozzi offers a key text by which we can link these changes in liturgical practice. Multispectral imaging promises to help uncover the mysteries behind the book's present form.

The LaBudde Special Collections at the Miller Nichols Library has a virtual exhibit about the chant book available at https://library.umkc.edu/exhibits/chantbook that is draws on research and a transctiption that was completed by Dr. Janet K. Kraybill for her Doctor of Muscial Arts Degree in the UMKC Conservatory in 1999-2000.

Student Projects

Annie Liljegren, Master's Thesis: "Fife-Playing Princesses, Female Heirs, and la figliuola elettiva: Compositional Content and Intent in Barbara Strozzi's Sacri musicali affetti"

Presentations

Annie Liljegren, "Digital Humanities, Digital Autopsy: The CODICES Lab and the Adair Chantbook," Curators' Luncheon (invitation by Faculty Senate), UMKC, September 2019. PowerPoint Presentation.

Virginia Blanton, Nathan Oyler, and Jeff Rydberg-Cox, "Manuscripts Networks, and Human Heritage in the Digital Age," Human in the Digital Age, University of Missouri-Kansas City, September 2018

Virginia Blanton and Nathan Oyler,"Making the Invisible Visible: Analyzing Medieval Texts with Modern Imaging Tools," Guest Lecture at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, April 2016

Virginia Blanton and Nathan Oyler, "Unlocking the Mysteries of a Medieval Chant Book with Multispectral Imaging," Rare Book School Mellon Symposium, funded by Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship of Scholars in Critical Bibliography at Rare Book School, University of Arkansas-Fayetteville, April 2016. PowerPoint Presentation.

Annie Liljegren, "Monastic Mysteries: Further Explorations of the Adair Chantbook," Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol, Jefferson City, MO, March 2016. PowerPoint Presentation.

Annie Liljegren, "Investigating the Adair Chantbook: Five Variations of the Credo," SUROP Undergraduate Research Symposium, UMKC, September 2015. Poster Presentation.

Annie Liljegren, "Developing Skills in Book History and Multispectral Imaging," Summer Undergraduate Research Opportunity (SUROP) Grant, UMKC, April 2015 ($3250 research award)

Project Funding:

Work on this project was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the University of Missouri Intercampus Interdisciplinary projects program.

"Unlocking the Mysteries of A Medieval Chant Book With Multispectral Imaging ", Total Award: $324,317. Funded by National Endowment for the Humanities Digital Humanities Advancement Grant Program. Grant Period: September 2020- August 2023.

"Multispectral Analysis of Missouri's Cultural Resources." Total Award: $95,000. Funded by the University of Missouri Intercampus Interdisciplinary Project. Grant Period: September 2014 - June 2016.