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Roman de la Rose Digital Library at Kalamazoo IMC 2018
We are seeking submissions for the following session at the International Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 10-13, 2018:
The Roman de la Rose: The Evolution of Digital Research
Sponsor: Roman de la Rose Digital Library; Johns Hopkins Univ
Contact: Tamsyn Mahoney-Steel
110 Chesley Ave.
Baltimore, MD 21206
Phone: 310-910-5883
Email: tamsyn@jhu.edu
Since its inception over 20 years ago, the Roman de la Rose Digital Library has been enabling scholars to produce high-quality research based on over 130 digitized manuscripts of the famous 13th-century narrative by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun. We are now about to launch our latest version of the site, featuring an International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) compliant viewer that will support enhanced interaction with manuscript images.
We are seeking submissions that present scholarship based on digitized images of the Roman de la Rose, or that offer a theoretical take on using such images for researching or teaching the narrative, its miniatures, or its manuscripts. How has the Rose Digital Library been used in research and teaching? What scholarship has resulted from being able to access this wealth of digitized images? How has being able to compare multiple images led to a greater understanding of medieval literary and artistic, and in what ways might such comparisons skew or obscure understanding if we are not mindful? How might such a resource be further developed to enhance our appreciation of this important narrative and promote new avenues of investigation?
Abstracts for papers of 15-20 minutes or any questions should be sent to Tamsyn Mahoney-Steel (Tamsyn@jhu.edu). The deadline for submissions is September 15 2017. The submission guidelines and the required Participant Information Form are available at wmich.edu/medievalcongress/submissions.
Images unavailable temporarily
We apologize, but due to some technical issues, manuscript images are temporarily unavailable. The website works, but you will be unable to see manuscript images in the various viewers. Images will gradually come back online over the course of a few weeks. We will update this post with more information as it becomes available.
Thank you for your patience.
Update on 11/6: About 60% of the images are available now. We expect all the images to be available by 11/18.
Update on 11/14: All of the images are available.
Images temporarily unavailable
Due to an issue with our image serving software, some manuscript images are temporarily unavailable. If an image is unavailable, you will see a “gear” icon for it. Images are coming back online gradually in a process that will take about two days.
Thank you for your patience.
Update on 4/24
Images are coming back online steadily, but slower than we hoped.
All images should be available by 4/28.
Update on 4/28
80% of the images are available. The rest should be online by 4/30.
Update on 5/1
All of the images are available.
2013 Usage Statistics
After another long delay, we promise to get back on track with posting these statistics. Please comment if you find these interesting, and if so, how often you would like to see them. For a start, here is 2013.
24,476 visits from 136 countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, France, United Kingdom, Canada, Italy
14,579 absolute unique visitors
42% of these visitors have returned to the site
804 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
693 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
737 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
517 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
598 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
1,968 of these visitors have used the site more than 200 times
1,634 of these visits lasted between 10 and 30 minutes
1,363 of these visits lasted longer than 30 minutes
Since the launch of the site in September 2008 through December 31, 2012, the Rose team has noted the following usage statistics:
111,968 visits from 170 countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, France, United Kingdom, Italy, Canada
71,456 absolute unique visitors
36% of these visitors have returned to the site
3,533 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
3,157 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
3,065 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
2,665 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
2,479 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
4,334 of these visitors have used the site more than 200 times
8,127 of these visits lasted between 10 and 30 minutes
6,125 of these visits lasted longer than 30 minutes
2012 Usage Statistics
We have not shared our usage statistics in quite some time, so here is some information about use of the Roman de la Rose Digital Library for the period January 1, 2012-December 31, 2012:
23,478 visits from 126 countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, France, Italy, United Kingdom, Germany
14,707 absolute unique visitors
39% of these visitors have returned to the site
769 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
728 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
688 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
771 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
684 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
629 of these visitors have used the site more than 200 times
1,777 of these visits lasted between 10 and 30 minutes
1,298 of these visits lasted longer than 30 minutes
Since the launch of the site in September 2008 through December 31, 2012, the Rose team has noted the following usage statistics:
87,522 visits from 161 countries or territories
The top five countries represented (in order): United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain
57,202 absolute unique visitors
35% of these visitors have returned to the site
2,729 of these visitors have used the site 9-14 times
2,464 of these visitors have used the site 15-25 times
2,328 of these visitors have used the site 26-50 times
2,148 of these visitors have used the site 51-100 times
1,881 of these visitors have used the site 101-200 times
2,366 of these visitors have used the site more than 200 times
6,493 of these visits lasted between 10 and 30 minutes
4,762of these visits lasted longer than 30 minutes
Three new manuscripts added to Rose library
The Roman de la Rose Digital Library team proudly announces the addition of three new manuscripts to our digital library. These additions bring the total number of manuscripts up to 145. This new batch is especially interesting because they are owned by libraries outside of France–we have two new German manuscripts and one from Spain. Each of these were originally produced in France in the 14th and 15th centuries.
Our first new manuscript, BH Ms. 387 comes to us courtesy of the Bibliotèca Històrica of the Universitat de València. With more than 160 beautiful miniatures, this manuscript is one of the most lavishly illustrated in the collection. Many of the illustrations span two columns in width. Heidrun Ost wrote an extensive essay about the illustrations in this manuscript. While it is not certain who commissioned the work, there is speculation that it was Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. The style of illumination is similar to other manuscripts that the duke ordered for his collection. The Valencia Rose contains the usual text plus the “Testament de Jean de Meun”, the “Codicille de Jean de Meun”, and the “Articles de la Foy”.
The second new manuscript, Cod. gall. 80 is part of the collection of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. This 14th century manuscript has smaller and fewer miniatures than our Valencia example, but they are all in brilliant colors. In addition, there are many decorated initials on every page.
Finally we have Ham. 577, also from the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. In addition to the text of the Roman de la Rose, this manuscript has a “mystery” section at the end. This section has many geometric illustrations, and does not appear to relate to the Rose. Can you help us with this? Please post a comment on this blog post if you can help with any information.
We owe a big debt of gratitude to the two libraries that supplied the images for these manuscripts. It is this type of community cooperation that enables us to continue to build this digital library.
“L’art d’aimer du Moyen Âge: Le Roman de la rose”
The Roman de la Rose Digital Library is currently being featured in an important exhibition called “L’art d’aimer du Moyen Âge: Le Roman de la rose” at the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal in Paris. The exhibition began on 6 November 2012 and will close 13 February 2013. The exhibition displays around 100 manuscripts and a few printed editions.
The exposition is organized according to two approaches: telling the story literally via manuscript images that portray the narrative (featuring “Français 1574“), and allegorically, also using manuscript images illustrative of this important aspect of the work. Panels of miniatures allow viewers to obtain a synthesis of the work’s different sections.
On January 18, 2013 there will be a day-long workshop in which a group of Roman de la Rose scholars will discuss the question “Why should one read the Roman de la Rose today?”. Professor Stephen Nichols of the Johns Hopkins University will close the exhibition with a lecture about how and why digitization makes reading the Rose more meaningful today.
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| Portrait of Covoitise from Fr. 378 |
Finally, the newest issue (no. 42) of the journal “Art de l’enluminure” features two articles about the Roman de la Rose. The first article discusses Fr. 378 and Rothschild 2800 and the second covers Fr. 25526. We are always interested in hearing about your Roman de la Rose scholarship, so please keep us informed via the “contact us” on the website.
New image viewer supports mobile devices
The Roman de la Rose digital library has added a custom touch-enabled image viewer to support browsers without Flash. Mobile devices which lack Flash support, such as the iPad, iPhone, and some Android phones, can now fully use the site.
In order to use the new image viewer, turn off Flash support in the left sidebar. Clicking on the “Flash” check box will switch between the new image viewer and the Flash image viewer. By default iPhones and iPads will have Flash support turned off.
The image viewer has been tested on most modern browsers and a number of mobile devices, but undoubtedly problems remain. Please send bug reports and feedback to contactus@romandelarose.org. Bug reports should include your browser name and version.
The new image viewer has three modes, thumbnail browser, page turner, and single image viewer.
General features:
- Touch and gesture support on mobile devices (iPhone/iPad, Android phones/tablets)
- Dynamically responds to browser resizing and orientation changes
Thumbnail browser
- Only loads thumbnails being viewed
- Click/tap to go to page turner
Page turner
- Swipe or use the mouse wheel to flip pages
- Click/tap to go to detailed image viewer
- A toolbar provides buttons for navigating through the manuscript.
- Typing in an image name (e.g., 35r) jumps to that image
- Due to layout issues, the annotation display has become a draggable dialog
Image Viewer
- Tiles large images to support zoom/pan efficiently
- Mouse wheel or pinch to change zoom
- Tap/click in main image display to zoom in and center
- Tap/click on thumbnail to move view
- Drag thumbnail selection to move view
- Drag to move main view
- Toolbar allows click/tap to zoom in, zoom out, and reset the view.
Known issues
- The page turner displays uncropped images when cropped images are available.
- The help document needs to be updated
First update of the year
It has been a while since our last update, but at long last iPad and iPhone users can view manuscript images! A non-Flash image viewer has been added. Users can now switch between image viewers using the “Flash” check box on the left sidebar. A subsequent post will describe the new image viewer in detail.
New features:
- Added a JavaScript image viewer as an alternate to the Flash based viewer.
- User can switch between the Flash and JavaScript viewer
- Detect iPhone/iPad as not having flash support
- Update JavaScript viewer when orientation or browser size changes
Content updates:
- Updated National Library of South Africa in extant manuscript list
- Updated Rosenwald 917 image tagging so it is accounted for in the illustration title spreadsheet.
- Added Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Cod. poet. et phil. 2º 6 description and bibliography contributed by Professor Max Grosse
Bug fixes:
- Scroll image descriptions to prevent them from being cut off.