GEN-MEDIEVAL-L Archives

From: "Chris Phillips" <>
Subject: Durham Liber Vitae project
Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2003 09:22:26 +0100

The press release below appeared on the mediev-l list.

The project's website is embryonic at the moment - only two thumbnail images
of the manuscript are included - but the bibliography looks useful, and
there are links to related online material, mostly on Continental records.
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_

DURHAM LIBER VITAE PROJECT
www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/dlv/

Press release, August 2003. Please recirculate.

A major project to produce an innovative computerised edition of the
medieval Durham Liber Vitae, with full supporting scholarly material, is now
underway in partnership with the British Library. The project is funded by
the Arts and Humanities Research Board.

This Liber Vitae, or "book of life" was one among several put together in
Europe during the Middle Ages. As the name suggests, these books were
modelled on the one envisioned in the biblical book of Revelation, hence to
be inscribed therein was, at least originally, a highly meaningful act. The
Durham Liber Vitae originated in the mid-ninth-century as a list of several
hundred names of persons associated with a Northumbrian church, probably
Lindisfarne, but possibly Monkwearmouth/Jarrow. (These names, written in
alternating gold and silver, are arranged according to the status and
functions of the persons who bore them and have the potential to provide
remarkable insights into a 'dark age' of English history.) In the 10th and
11th centuries a few more names were entered. Then, around the year 1100,
the book began to be used to record the names of all the monks of Durham, as
well as a very large number of lay people, some great persons, others so
humble that nothing else is known of them. Family groups also appear,
especially the families of the last monks of Durham before Henry VIII
dissolved the cathedral monastery in 1539, when the book ceased to be used.

The kinds and arrangements of these names raise several important historical
questions. Why, for example, were the names listed in this way? What light
can they shed on the political, social and cultural history of medieval
England, e.g. the emergence of Scandinavian and Norman names in the eleventh
century? What can be learned from the innumerable examples of handwriting
which the book contains? What patterns are discernible in the development of
the languages (Old English, Middle English, Scandinavian, Britonic, Irish)
in which the names are written?

Despite its great historical importance, the book has not been as widely
studied as it deserves because access to the manuscript itself has been
limited, and it has been impossible to edit by conventional means. Hence the
current project to design an electronic edition that will not only provide
high-definition images of all pages but also make possible complete
representation of all that is known about the manuscript and its contents.
The edition will represent a major step forward in the computer
representation of medieval manuscripts.

The Durham Liber Vitae project is led by Prof. David Rollason and Mr Alan
Piper (AHRB Centre for North-East England History, University of Durham) and
by Dr Willard McCarty and Mr Harold Short (Centre for Computing in the
Humanities, King's College London). The major part of the work is currently
being undertaken by the project's researcher, Dr Andrew Wareham (King's
College London) and by the technical officer (Dr Gabriel Bodard, King's
College London). A second researcher will be appointed to start work in
November 2003 at the University of Durham.



Dr Willard McCarty | Senior Lecturer | Centre for Computing in the
Humanities | King's College London | Strand | London WC2R 2LS
|| +44 (0)20 7848-2784 fax: -2980 ||

www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/wlm/

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