Digital Medievalist (Aug 2022)

Transcribing "Le Pèlerinage de Damoiselle Sapience": Scholarly Editing Covid19-Style

  • Anna de Bakker ,
  • Anna Siebach-Larsen ,
  • Benjamin Kozlowski ,
  • Caitlin Postal ,
  • Charlotte Gauthier ,
  • Chris Fadel ,
  • Debora Dameri ,
  • Ebba Strutzenbladh ,
  • Elizabeth Hebbard ,
  • Estelle Champeau ,
  • Frederick Pedersen ,
  • Gerardo Sánchez Argüelles ,
  • Jaeden Alan Reppert ,
  • Jagoda Marszałek ,
  • Kersti Francis ,
  • Laura Morreale,
  • Lea D. Pokorny ,
  • Lisa D. Iacobellis ,
  • Lisa Fagin Davis,
  • Louis Meiselman ,
  • Melissa Conway ,
  • Nathalie Lacarrière ,
  • Nicolas A. Lazaro ,
  • Piergiorgio Consagra ,
  • Rafael Jaime ,
  • Sara Powell ,
  • S.C. Kaplan ,
  • Scott Francis,
  • Shannon Strinati ,
  • Stephanie J. Lahey ,
  • Tamsyn Mahoney-Steel ,
  • Toby Baldwin ,
  • Tristan B. Taylor

DOI
https://doi.org/10.16995/dm.8071
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 1

Abstract

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This article describes a methodological experiment conducted during the 13th Annual (Virtual) Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age, hosted by the University of Pennsylvania, November 18–20, 2020. The experiment consisted of a “relay style” event in which three teams transcribed, revised, and prepared for submission to this journal a full edition of the “Le Pèlerinage de Damoiselle Sapience” and other texts from UPenn Ms Codex 660, ff. 86r–95v within the three-day timespan of the conference. The project used methods typical of crowdsourcing and drew participants from all over the world and from all different stages of their careers. After one group completed its work, the results were passed into the hands of the next. The final result—in the form of a finished manuscript edition, ready for submission to Digital Medievalist—was presented on the last day of the conference. The main purpose of this experiment was to demonstrate how the work of the transcriber and editor might be structured as a short-term digital event that relied wholly on virtual interactions with both the source materials and among collaborators. This method also reveals the positive aspects of the many challenges posed by working simultaneously, remotely, and globally.

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