The Guggenheim had made 99 art catalogues available for free online, while the Metropolitan Museum of Art offers a whopping 375 free art books and catalogues overall.
For more information, please visit this link: http://www.openculture.com/2013/08/free-the-metropolitan-museum-of-art-and-the-guggenheim-offer-474-free-art-catalogues-online.html
Those members who have Apple or Android devices may be interested in a newly released app that is designed to help you with your medieval palaeography.
The origins of this app lie in online exercises in palaeography developed for postgraduate students in the Institute for Medieval Studies at the University of Leeds in West Yorkshire, U.K. The aim is to provide practice in the transcription of a wide range of medieval hands, from the twelfth to the late fifteenth century.
Apple users: https://itunes.apple.com/app/medieval-handwriting/id734335308
Android Users: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.agbooth.handwriting.medieval
The first stage of the open access project “The Copenhagen Chansonnier and the ‘Loire Valley’ chansonniers” is now completed and can be accessed at:
The web site contains new editions of all the polyphonic songs in the French 15th century chansonnier in The Royal Library, Copenhagen, MS Thott 291 8° (the so-called Copenhagen chansonnier). Each song is here edited as a ‘performance on paper’ according to the manuscript, and all the concordances in the related ‘Loire Valley’ chansonniers are edited in a similar way. Each song is accompanied by a list of sources, an edition of the poem(s), incl. English translation, links to online facsimile editions, and extensive comments on sources, texts and music. The site further contains detailed descriptions of the five chansonniers and proposes hypotheses concerning their genesis and dating; the latter is summarized in the introduction, which also discusses the principles of the edition.
Furthermore, the site offers supplementary materials, which serve to support the investigation of the repertory. They comprise articles and editions concerning the composers Gilles Mureau (complete works), Philippe Basiron (complete chansons) and Fede alias Jean Sohier, about the French music manuscript Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, Ms. 2794, about chansons notated in ‘clefless notation’, etc.
DigiPal is a new resource for the study of medieval handwriting, particularly that produced in England during the years 1000–1100, the time of Æthelred, Cnut and William the Conqueror. It currently has:
Funded by the EU FP7, it is based at the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London.
For further information, visit the DigiPal website: http://www.digipal.eu
Six students from De Montfort University have created a stellar 3D representation of 17th century London, as it existed before The Great Fire of 1666. The three-minute video provides a realistic animation of Tudor London, and particularly a section called Pudding Lane where the fire started.
For more information and to view this wonderful animation, please visit: http://www.openculture.com/2013/11/fly-through-17th-century-london.html
Trinity College, Cambridge is digitizing its medieval manuscripts, and making them freely available on the Web. A few years ago, M.R.James’s catalogue of the manuscripts was put up on the Library’s website, with some updates. This is now being used as the index tool for searching for digitized volumes. So far, about 150 of the thousand or so manuscripts have been copied, in a programme that is part-funded by the College’s alumni.
For access, go to the Library’s website http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php?pageid=9
Click on ‘Early manuscripts’, and then ‘The James catalogue’. From there follow the links to the manuscript you wish to see. The descriptions of those manuscripts that have been digitized are headed with access to the relevant images. Priority is being given to manuscripts that are most in demand. The Librarian (Professor David McKitterick) will be glad to receive suggestions for further manuscripts that might be treated early in the programme.
Thanks to the MEMC for passing on this resource.
The following news will be of interest to scholars who are looking for freely accessible medieval and early modern images.
The Getty Museum in Los Angeles has made available, without charge, all available digital images to which the Getty holds the rights or that are in the public domain to be used for any purpose. No permission is required.
Initially, the images available through the Open Content Program are of works in the J. Paul Getty Museum’s collections. Over time, images from the Getty Research Institute and the Getty Conservation Institute will be added.
For full details, visit: http://www.getty.edu/about/opencontent.html
Balingup Medieval Carnivale
Balingup, Western Australia
24th-25th August 2013
10:00am-4:30pm
Entry Fee: $15 per day or $20 for a weekend pass
Free Entry for accompanied Children Under 12
Featuring:
For more information, please visit: http://www.balingupmedievalcarnivale.com.au
The British Library has released a master list of all of the manuscripts from their Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts collections that have been uploaded, including hyperlinks to the digitised versions.
You can download an Excel version of the file here:
For more information about this master list, visit the British Library’s medieval manuscripts blog: http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2013/07/fancy-a-giant-list-of-digitised-manuscript-hyperlinks.html.
The British Library’s eBook Treasures series allows users to explore some of the British Library’s most treasured manuscripts in detail, together with text, video and audio interpretation. Developed with Armadillo Systems, eBook Treasures are viewable in full-screen high-definition, with realistic page-turning capabilities and, once downloaded, can be read offline. They can be read on the iPad, iPhone (3GS and 4) and iPod Touch (3rd and 4th generations). Additionally the series is now available as a Windows 8 app. It can be found in the Windows Store, under Books and Reference.
For more information about the series, including a full list of published titles, please visit: http://www.ebooktreasures.org