codices is a collaborative working group of faculty, students and librarians who are focused on the analysis of manuscripts, texts, and early printed books with optical, chemical, and computational techniques. We draw collaborators from many disciplines including English, Classics, Computer Science, Chemistry, Art History, History, Musicology, etc. We conduct our research in working groups that coalesce around specific research questions and analytical techniques. We are in incubator for faculty research, a training ground for graduate students, and a venue for undergraduate research.
Department of English
College of Arts and Sciences
blantonv@umkc.edu
Department of Chemistry
School of Biological and Chemical Sciences
oylern@umkc.edu
Classics Program &
Department of English
College of Arts and Sciences
Affiliated Faculty: School of Computing
and Engineering
rydbergcoxj@umkc.edu
Our investigations to date have focused in the following areas:
Visible Imaging: We capture visible-light images of manuscripts and early printed books and present them online in order to bring them to a broad public audience.
Multispectral Imaging: We image selected pages from these manuscripts and early printed books at specific frequencies in the ultraviolet-visible-near-infrared spectrum. We also conduct spot-level densitometry and Raman spectroscopy on elements in these books to answer questions about their production and reception history.
Book Histories: We have extensive book histories of the objects that we are investigating, describing the physical characteristics and provenance of these works.
You can find details about all of our work on our Projects Page.