Europa Inventa

1. Europa Inventa Taking Australia’s manuscript holdings to the world Toby Burrows, University of Western Australia

2. Europa Inventa: History • Developed by the ARC Network for Early European Research (NEER) – funded 2005 to 2010 • Covers Early European objects in Australian collections: about 300 manuscripts and 1,500 artworks and museum objects • Now maintained by the University of Western Australia • Builds on several printed catalogues (Sinclair 1969, Manion & Vines 1984, Manion 2005, Stocks & Morgan 2008 etc.) and library catalogue records • http://europa.arts.uwa.edu.au

3. Europa Inventa:Standards and Formats • PostgreSQL database (originally FileMaker Pro) + custom-built search, browse and edit functions • Format for manuscript records: Text Encoding Initiative Guidelines: Section 10, Manuscript Description • Different format for artwork records: CDWA Lite (Getty Institute) • Manuscript records split into (a) parent record for the manuscript as object, and (b) records for individual texts or items contained within that manuscript • Sources: Sinclair’s 1969 Descriptive Catalogue, supplemented for later acquisitions by library on-line catalogues • Links to digitized versions of manuscripts – especially those of the State Library of Victoria

8. Europa Inventa: Desiderata • Work still needs to be done on normalizing and standardizing titles and authors • Work still needs to be done on updating and correcting descriptions (particularly Sinclair’s), especially from the results of the ARC Linkage Project’s work on manuscripts in Victorian collections • Doesn’t yet incorporate more detailed descriptions, e.g. of illuminated manuscripts in Manion & Vines 1984, State Library of Victoria’s exhibition catalogue 2008, articles and theses on specific manuscripts • Doesn’t yet link to any related materials (other than digitized versions)

9. Manuscripts Online: WrittenCulture from 1000 to 1500 • JISC-funded project 2012, led by University of Sheffield + 5 other UK universities (Medieval Manuscripts Research Consortium) • Single search across 21 datasets with manuscript descriptions and full-text transcriptions • Europa Inventa records will be included in this search; also represented on the project’s Stakeholder Panel • Other sources in Manuscripts Online will include Parker on the Web and the British Library’s Online Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts

11. Other International Initiatives • CERL Portal: search of multiple databases – 15,000 medieval manuscript records + 235,000 general manuscript records • Manuscripta Mediaevalia (Germany): 75,000 manuscript records • Medieval Manuscripts in Dutch Collections: 5,200 manuscripts + 11,700 descriptions • Medium (IRHT, Paris): 76,000 manuscript records; Initiale (IRHT): catalogue of illuminated manuscripts; Enluminures (IRHT): 5,000 digitized manuscripts; • Manuscriptorium (Prague): EU-funded portal for descriptions of medieval manuscripts, incunabula etc. (including some digital images) • Europeana Regia: EU-funded collection of 900 digitized medieval royal manuscripts • Europeana: EU-funded digital library – over 46,000 “medieval” items • Digital Scriptorium (US): 5,300 manuscripts and 24,300 images • Catalogue of Digitized Medieval Manuscripts (UCLA): 2,500 digitized manuscripts

12. Europa Inventa: Future Directions • Enriched environment – new platform • Up-to-date summary descriptions • Previous descriptions available for comparison • In-depth supporting materials, analysis, commentary • Links to on-line versions of research publications • Annotations and comments – “mediated crowd-sourcing” • Linked Data • Making descriptions available in suitable formats for use by Linked Data services • Creating unique identifiers (URIs) for Australian manuscripts and their components • Mapping to vocabularies used by other Linked Data services

14. Linking Open Data cloud diagram, by Richard Cyganiak and Anja Jentzsch. http://lod-cloud.net/

17. VICTORIA [State Library of Victoria] 223BoethiusDE MUSICA – Pseudo-HucbaldusMUSICA ENCHIRIADIS – in Latin – 11c. Vellum, 305 x 210mm, A modernpaper + B modern vellum + C contemporaryvellum + 56 + D modernvellum + E modernpaper. Collation: (8)1-7. No catchwords, quire signatures in roman numerals placed in the centre of the lower margin of last folio verso of each gathering, foliation modern pencil in arabic numerals, no pagination. Av.-Bv., Cv., Dr.-Er. are blank. Some folios have been repaired. Most sheets have purple stains, however, they rarely efface the text. Worm-holes in fols 1-18 without loss of text. Dark brown ink, ruling dry-point, one col. of 39-40 lines, Daseia musical notation.Prickingsin outer margins. Script is first half 11c. Rhineland or northern Italianlitteraprae-gothicatextualis. Explicit to the first text 49r. FINIT. Decoration: orange rubrics and green, orange, or brown ink drawings. Edges cut and gilded, binding 19c. brown morocco over boards, gilt, by C. Lewis (see below), spine gilt with lettering BOETII / MUSICA / M.S. / SEC. XIII (sic). Incipits: 2r. –ulescentis; 9r. His igitur; 55v. Alleluia; 56r. asteriscoostendi. Ownership: Cr. in a 15c. litterahybridacurrensis a schematic table of astrological texts mentioning such authorities as Ptolomaeus, Thebit, IohannesHispalensis, Alkabitus, Albumasaris, Alfagranus, and there follows immediately a much rubbed transcription of a commentary (here without ascription) on portion of Arzachel, Canones ad tabulastholetanasand it begins: Quoniamcuiusque actionis72archazel(sic) arabuscomposuittabulas ad ciuitatemtoletti…; 56v. among scribbles now almost illegible is a 15c. musical diagram of the diatesseron; Ar. has a note ‘BoetiiMusica, an Ancient MS. in fine Condition with diagrams. A MS. of a work of rare occurrence bound by C. Lewis. H. Drury731824’; spine carries the small printed number ‘3345’, being that of Sir Thomas Phillipps; Ev. in modernpencil ‘W. H. Robinson 5.9.1949. £LE-N/a/-’; Ar. has the stock no. ‘587673’; Ev. bears the library’s shelf-mark *091/B63. 72 These opening words are underlined and are the incipit of Arzachel’s text, cf. Thorndike, 1268. 73 Henry Drury (1778-1841); see above p.185 for another MS. he owned.

18. Current Difficulties • Lack of standard terminology for describing manuscripts • Inconsistent use of names, titles and concepts • Different formats for manuscript descriptions • Multiple languages for manuscript descriptions • Difficult to trace relationships between different manifestations (images, transcriptions, editions) • Difficult to trace relationships between manuscripts and their dependents (articles, books, commentaries) • Too many sources: image collections, metadata collections, digital editions