Dates of Project

2013-2015

Project Abstract

This project focuses on creating a digital studio for the optical and chemical analysis of manuscripts and printed books. We capture images of a 1472 guide for priests written in Latin by a Florentine archbishop and printed in Strasbourg using moveable type. We image selected pages at specific frequencies in the ultraviolet-visible-near-infrared spectrum and conduct spot-level densitometry and Raman spectroscopy. The resulting data allows us to create a digital studio with interactive tutorials and demonstrations explaining the principles of optical and chemical analysis to students, scholars, and life-long learners in the humanities. Users can browse and compare images and spectroscopic data to form their own understanding of the book's production process and reception history.

Results

• Detailed book history of all four volumes of the Summa theologica
• Tutorial for undergraduate and graduate students about how to write book histories
• Image gallery containing images taken in the visible light spectrum for the four volumes

Student Projects

• Plamen Doynov, doctoral dissertation: "Framework for Automatic Identification of Paper Watermarks with Chain Codes"
• Chainy Folsom, doctoral dissertation: "Tracing Paper"

Presentations

• Virginia Blanton and Nathan Oyler, "CODICES: Writing a Narrative of the 1486/7 Edition of Antoninus' Summa theologica," Early Book Society, Oxford University, July 2015
• Playmen Doynov, "Imaging and Analysis of Historical Manuscripts at Early Printed Documents," Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Seminar Series, University of Missouri-Kansas City, April, 2015
• Virginia Blanton, Playmen Doynov, Chainy Folsom, Melissa Morris, Nathan Oyler, and Jeff Rydberg-Cox, CODICES Book Imaging Demo, Mid-America Medieval Association, University of Missouri-Kansas City, February, 2015
• Chainy Folsom and Melissa Morris, "Reimagining Incunables: How Accessible Digital Technology Illuminates the Production Process of Antoninus' Summa theologica," Landmarks of Printing: From Origins to the Digital Age: Printing Historical Society 50th Anniversary Conference, London, England, November, 2014
• Chainy Folsom and Melissa Morris, "Reimagining Incunables: How Accessible Digital Technology Illuminates the Production Process of Antoninus' Summa theologica," First Friday Lecture: New Historical Research. Department of History, University of Missouri - Kansas City, November, 2014

Funding Agency

Funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities Digital Humanities Start-Up Program and the University of Missouri Research Board supported research on a four-volume guide for priests written in Latin by the Dominican friar Antonino Pierozzi (1389-1459). Entitled Summa theologica, this work was printed in Nuremberg by Anton Koberger in 1486-1487 using moveable type. Our copy of the Summa theologica was on loan from the Library at Conception Abbey, Conception, Missouri. During this project, the CODICES team built its multispectral imaging system, developed a computer process for identifying and matching watermarks, and studied the paper used in Koberger printed books.

Project Team

Virginia Blanton
Department of English
College of Arts & Sciences

Reza Derakhshani
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

Sara Derakhshani
Graduate Student, Master of Arts in Liberal Studies
College of Arts & Sciences

Plamen Doynov
Doctoral Student, Department of Computer Science Electrical Engineering
School of Computing and Engineering

Chainy Folsom
Doctoral Student, Departments of History & English
College of Arts & Sciences

Melissa Morris
Doctoral Student, Departments of History & English
College of Arts & Sciences