Digital Scriptorium

For this month’s blog, DS Graduate Fellow @rosemccandless.bsky.social considers the Peripheral Manuscripts Project, the missions of PMP and DS, and the value of smaller and Midwestern collections: digital-scriptorium.org/about/blog/2...

New to the DS blog: DS Graduate Fellow @rosemccandless.bsky.social follows a trail of connections between manuscripts and their formers owners made possible through the DS Catalog, with some expert insight from @laurajcleaver.bsky.social!

Read here: digital-scriptorium.org/about/blog/2...

New to the blog: WMU Professor and Librarian for Distinctive Collections @suembs.bsky.social discusses the significant benefits institutions with smaller manuscript collections receive as a result of their participation in DS: digital-scriptorium.org/about/blog/2...

On this Friday the 13th, thanks to the quality metadata received from members, here are the records in the DS Catalog for manuscripts that have been described as being about superstitions, omens, and (ill?) fortune🔮: tinyurl.com/4w7bp7ks

@digitalscriptorium.bsky.social data work leading to some interesting connections… keep an eye out for our next blog post!!

New to the blog, DS Graduate Fellow @rosemccandless.bsky.social considers how DS can contribute to improving institutional data by providing an outside set of eyes: digital-scriptorium.org/about/blog/2...

In light of new research on a Magna Carta manuscript held by Harvard Law School, DS Manuscript Data Curation Graduate Fellow @rosemccandless.bsky.social investigates early manuscripts containing Magna Carta that are discoverable in the DS Catalog.

digital-scriptorium.org/magna-carta-...

With recent new additions from Columbia University and University of Pennsylvania, the DS Catalog now boasts representation of just over 2,000 manuscripts with Hebrew language content. Take a look at these in our member collections through this link: search.digital-scriptorium.org?f%5Blanguage...

Perhaps you heard about the Large Hadron Collider experiment that (very briefly) turned lead into gold? www.home.cern/news/news/ph...

What better way to explore this dream of medieval alchemists than looking for manuscripts in the DS Catalog about gold, lead, and alchemy⚗️! tinyurl.com/mubs6nk7

Yet another connection made by the DS Catalog at ICMS: A 16th century paterik (or compiliation of hagiographic texts) in Church Slavonic held at Harvard University (MS Slavic 27 / DS10364) of interest to a researcher at University of Michigan!

search.digital-scriptorium.org/catalog/DS10...

Another connection made by DS: Researchers from Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities working on Coptic manuscripts were delighted to search the DS Catalog and learn about the existence of WMU MS 190 / DS 6477 while visiting our ICMS exhibit!

search.digital-scriptorium.org/catalog/DS6477

It's passed but the recording will be up on YouTube ASAP!

Seems like a good time to highlight manuscript objects in the DS Catalog about various popes and the papacy⛪: tinyurl.com/784buaba

This subject keyword highlight is thanks to expert descriptions from scholars and catalogers from our members institutions!

Coffee with a Codex on the Road: Treatise of the Eucharist at Kalamazoo On May 8, Curator Dot Porter will present WMU MS 170, a 12th century copy of a treatise of the Eucharist by Paschasius Radbertus, abbot of Corbie, with an extensive marginal apparatus.

As part of the 60th ICMS festivities at WMU, join @sims-mss.bsky.social Curator @leoba.bsky.social and DS Board President @suembs.bsky.social for Coffee with a Codex on the Road as they look at DS6452 / WMU MS 170!

search.digital-scriptorium.org/catalog/DS6452

www.library.upenn.edu/events/coffe...

Huge thanks to our Manuscript Data Curation Graduate Fellow @rosemccandless.bsky.social for the creating the descriptive metadata needed for these records and the staff at the Chapin Library for assisting her efforts!

Among the newest additions to the DS Catalog are the manuscript holdings of Williams College, who just joined DS in October 2024.

Their collection is now searchable and browsable in the DS Catalog alongside other institutions: tinyurl.com/54m5bykx

Folks: we've officially surpassed 25,000 records in the DS Catalog! 🎉🎉🎉

This is a momentous milestone in making manuscript objects in North American collections more discoverable and the data about them more powerful!

Take a look at this treasure trove yourself: search.digital-scriptorium.org

In this month's blog post, DS Graduate Fellow @rosemccandless.bsky.social explores how we define what belongs (and what doesn’t) in the DS Catalog—and why it matters.

Read about how Rose and the DS Advisory Council consider boundaries, identity, and mission: digital-scriptorium.org/about/blog/2...

What kind of information about a manuscript can you see in a DS Catalog record?

This handy chart shows the kinds of metadata we capture and aggregate about manuscripts as well as the vocabularies we align to for improved browsing and searching: digital-scriptorium.org/help/using-t...

The DS Catalog has thousands of keywords to facilitate manuscript discovery. Thanks to expert catalogers and our data enrichment process, you can explore one of the two certainties in the world (according to Ben Franklin).

Here are manuscript objects about taxes and taxation💸: tinyurl.com/3whwy8bu

Answer: Otto Ege!

Check out these posts from DS members about their research regarding manuscript objects once owned by Ege, including the fragments he was so (in)famous for.

Rochester Institute of Technology: www.rit.edu/news/rit-stu...

Ohio State University: news.osu.edu/rare-medieva...

A DS SPARQL Viz Quiz! (aka "DS Jeopardy")

Which former owner's previous holdings are represented by the subject and genre terms used to describe items in member institution collections depicted in this visualization?

If you can decode a SPARQL query, this might help: tinyurl.com/25dqjf3e

DS Catalog Project and Data Manager @lpc359.bsky.social will be giving live, on-demand demos of browse and search features of the DS Catalog, showing querying strategies available through the DS Wikibase, and answering questions about how member data is transformed into Linked Open Data.

Did you know Digital Scriptorium will be an exhibitor at this year's International Congress on Medieval Studies held May 8-10, 2025 at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan? We are very excited to be joining a stellar list of exhibitors at the 60th Congress! wmich.edu/medievalcong...

To stay informed on meeting details and other DS news, sign up for our online newsletter here: eepurl.com/hKznqL

Save the date! The Annual DS Member Meeting will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025 at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.

More details will be forthcoming, but anyone interested in learning more about DS is welcome to attend, either in person or virtually.

California State Library, Sutro Collection, M000120. Image Courtesy of California State Library Sutro Collection

Drawing on the expertise of Dr. Evyn Kropf from our DS Advisory Council, our Graduate Fellow @rosemccandless.bsky.social blogs about new descriptions of three Islamic manuscripts owned by the California State Library soon making their way into the DS Catalog. digital-scriptorium.org/20250327-csl...

The Ellesmere Chaucer has been the subject of much scholarship, including this 2022 essay by Prof. James Simpson that discusses Chaucer's role as a visual figure throughout the manuscript, and the possibility that the author oversaw the preparation of the manuscript himself. doi.org/10.1353/hlq....

Digitized version here: hdl.huntington.org/digital/coll...

Canterbury Tales, f. 10r (Knight's Tale), ca. 1400-1410, mssEL 26 C 9, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Did you know one of the most significant manuscript witnesses to the Canterbury Tales is in the DS Catalog? search.digital-scriptorium.org/catalog/DS9601

The "Ellesmere Chaucer" is so precious that it does not circulate, making DS an easy digital access point to view this piece of history!