The Forum
The Forum is CELL's on-line discussion area. Its purpose is to stimulate debate, raise issues, provide advice, suggest examples and offer a point of contact for researchers working in the field. We invite contributions and responses to be emailed to info@livesandletters.ac.uk.
Articles
'Toward a History of the Manicule' print-friendly PDF version
'Toward a History of the Manicule' hypertext HTML version [new window])
Prof. William H. Sherman. Posted: March 2005. CELL references: FOR/2005/04/001 (PDF), FOR/2005/04/002 (HTML). (First presented at the Birkbeck conference 'Book-Trade Consumers: Owners, Annotators and the Signs of Reading', December 2004. A version will be published in the conference proceedings.)
'...This project on the textual hand-with-pointing-finger symbol--what I will call the "manicule" for reasons to be explored below--grows out of a book-in-progress called Used Books: Reading Renaissance Marginalia, which is the product of my long-standing interest in the marks that readers make in books, particularly during the first century or two after the invention of printing. As I was working on the chapter devoted to the symbols used by and for readers in marginalia, I quickly realized that the pointing hand needed a full-length essay (if not book) of its own. Trying to get a handle on the late Medieval and Renaissance uses of this almost universal symbol poses all kinds of methodological challenges; but I discovered the biggest one when I had to give this essay a title. The problem is that everyone knows what the symbol is and does when they see it, but almost nobody knows what to call it. There is no single word, in fact, that will conjure it up for everyone--and I would even suggest that it may be the most pervasive feature in the history of textual culture that does not have a standard name...'.
Professor William H. Sherman is currently finishing a year as an NEH Long-Term Fellow at the Folger Shakespeare Library, where he is also Associate Editor of Shakespeare Quarterly. In the summer of 2005 he will move to the University of York, where he will be Professor of Early Modern Studies in the Department of English & Related Literature and Co-Director of the new Centre for Renaissance & Early Modern Studies. He is a member of CELL's Advisory Board.
Position papers
'The Auchinleck Manuscript Project as an exemplar of collaborative research' (PDF). The benefits, implications, and issued raised by cross-institutional collaboration are discussed in relation to creation of the online facsimile-edition of The Auchinleck Manuscript http://www.nls.uk/auchinleck. Dr Alison Wiggins (CELL). Posted: February 2004. CELL reference: FOR/2004/04/001.
'W(h)ither the Copy Text?' (PDF). CELL's Deputy Director Dr Jan Broadway discusses the implications for editors and readers of the hypertextual archive becoming the dominant model for electronic editions. Dr Jan Broadway (CELL). Posted: October 2003. CELL reference: FOR/2003/04/001.
Articles and papers relating to CELL projects
'Layered Readings: Towards an Electronic Editing of Gabriel Harvey's Marginalia' (PDF). Posted: December 2004. In this pilot project report Dr Jan Broadway, CELL's technical director, outlines the desirability of being able to encoding concurrent multiple hierarchies within a text. Her approach exemplifies the importance of defining a project according to intellectual demands and questions, rather than technical limitations. The solution outlined takes account of the realities of the task of encoding. It emphasises the importance of allowing human researchers to do what they do best (perceive and understand the complexity of a source) whilst letting the machines consistently apply rules, the task that they were designed for. A version of this paper was delivered by Dr Broadway at the Digital Resources for the Humanities Conference, Newcastle University, 5-8 September 2004.
'The Editing of Francis Bacon as a Man of all Parties' (PDF). This paper identifies and addresses some of the editorial issues presented by historical correspondence through examination of one of the letters of Francis Bacon. Particular attention is given to the relationship between editorial decisions, the reception of Bacon, and his biographical construction. Dr Patricia Brewerton (CELL). Posted: October 2003. Originally presented at the 'unFamiliar Letters Conference', Birkbeck, University of London, July 2002. CELL reference: BAC/2003/03/001.
'Defamiliarising Erasmus: Unstitching P.S. Allen's Edition of the Letters' (PDF), Appendix 1 (PDF), Appendix 2 (PDF). This paper encapsulates some of the issues involved in editing correspondence and demonstrates why the chronological ordering of letter collections traditionally adopted for print publication can often be unsatisfactory and a hindrance to research. Professor Lisa Jardine (CELL). Posted: November 2002. Originally presented at the 'unFamiliar Letters Conference', Birkbeck, University of London, July 2002. CELL reference: ERA/2002/02/001 (appendices, ERA/2002/02/001.01 and ERA/002/02/001.02).
The Graduate Forum
'Navigating Bacon's New Atlantis: beyond the old texts and the new'. '...the Winde came about, and setled in the West for many dayes, so as we could make little or no way' (NA, a3r). CELL doctoral student Pete Langman reflects on the process of creating an electronic edition of Francis Bacon's New Atlantis, for his Masters in Research dissertation, and the issues of navigation, accessibility, and narrative structure that he encountered. Pete Langman (CELL). Posted: June 2004. CELL reference: GFOR/2004/05/001.
'Is the Royal Arse for Kicking or for Licking? Francis Bacon and the conflicting urges of the statesman, the client and the philosopher'. Pete Langman considers to two letters, both from Francis Bacon to James I, enclosed with the lavish presentation copy of Novum Organum presented to the King in October 1620. Pete Langman (CELL). Posted: June 2004. Originally presented at the Renaissance Studies research seminar, School of English and Drama, Queen Mary, 25 February 2004. CELL reference: GFOR/2004/05/001.
