The Online Froissart : a searchable electronic edition
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Sheffield
Department Name: French
Abstract
The Online Froissart is a joint project based in the French Departments of the Universities of Sheffield and Liverpool. Arising from a colaborative programme of research completed in December 2003, it will deliver a facsimile edition of Books I-III of Jean Froissart's Chronicles, the most important prose history in French of the Hundred Years War, covering the years 1325-1390 and penned by the chronicler in 1390-91.
Based on five of the earliest, most reliable and most beautifully decorated manuscript witnesses (Besançon Public Library MSS 864-865, Stonyhurst College MS 1, Toulouse Public Library MS 511, Brussels, Royal Library MSS II 88 and IV 251), it will incorporate fully manipulable high-resolution images, complete transcriptions and edited texts for Books I-III, a search engine to support sophisticated queries, detailed annotation of text and image content, a glossary, index, and hypertext commentaries. Word-for-word collation across witnesses, to compare different manuscript versions of the same text, will also be supplied, as will an entirely new translation into modern English of substantial sections of Books I-III, which readers will be able to compare both to the edited transcription and the original manuscript versions.
The Online Froissart will incorporate new viewing software developed between June and December 2006 under the joint AHeSSC/EPSRC e-Science demonstrator initiative. The edition itself will be delivered over the web by HriOnline and be freely accessible worldwide.
The resource will offer researchers, students and other interested persons, both in the UK and abroad, a rich source of material for the study of the Hundred Years' War and its conduct. Froissart was intent upon producing as accurate an account as he could manage of the dynastic and feudal wars between France and England and their respective allies, from 1325 to the late 1380s. He therefore travelled widely in Europe, reaching Aberdeen as well as Avignon, Chepstow as well as Rome, interviewing informants wherever he could. These included combatants on either side, heralds and other royal officers, and companions met with on the road as he journeyed south or north. Book III includes the celebrated 'Journey to Béarn', a mixture of narration and travelogue which tell us a great deal about the chronicler's interviewing techniques and professional approach to chronicle production.
The Chronicles remain a major resource for historians of medieval, political and cultural history, but also for students of narrative and early modern historical literature in prose. They are a key resource for the study of Middle French language and syntax. They are, however, prodigiously long. The availability of a rapidly searchable and perusable electronic edition will allow scholars to scan the hundreds of thousands of words of text, and to swiftly locate information about persons and places referred to by the chronicler.
The Online Froissart also offers students of medieval manuscript production and painting an unrivalled source of primary material. It features a series of early 15th-century illuminated manuscripts, all of which were produced in Paris at around the same time (ca. 1408-1418), and almost certainly under the direction of an 'entrepreneur' by the name of Pierre de Liffol. Across the two Besançon volumes, the Stonyhurst Library manuscript, the Toulouse manuscript and the two Brussels copies, one can trace the activity of the same small group of scribes and artists responsible for the production of these books. Pierre de Liffol seems to have spotted an opportunity, producing copies of the same text decorated for either French or English consumption. Two artist masters contributed to their decoration: the Boethius and Giac Masters, together with their associates and apprentices. We can examine their respective methods and techniques acrossthis fascinating group of manuscripts.
Based on five of the earliest, most reliable and most beautifully decorated manuscript witnesses (Besançon Public Library MSS 864-865, Stonyhurst College MS 1, Toulouse Public Library MS 511, Brussels, Royal Library MSS II 88 and IV 251), it will incorporate fully manipulable high-resolution images, complete transcriptions and edited texts for Books I-III, a search engine to support sophisticated queries, detailed annotation of text and image content, a glossary, index, and hypertext commentaries. Word-for-word collation across witnesses, to compare different manuscript versions of the same text, will also be supplied, as will an entirely new translation into modern English of substantial sections of Books I-III, which readers will be able to compare both to the edited transcription and the original manuscript versions.
The Online Froissart will incorporate new viewing software developed between June and December 2006 under the joint AHeSSC/EPSRC e-Science demonstrator initiative. The edition itself will be delivered over the web by HriOnline and be freely accessible worldwide.
The resource will offer researchers, students and other interested persons, both in the UK and abroad, a rich source of material for the study of the Hundred Years' War and its conduct. Froissart was intent upon producing as accurate an account as he could manage of the dynastic and feudal wars between France and England and their respective allies, from 1325 to the late 1380s. He therefore travelled widely in Europe, reaching Aberdeen as well as Avignon, Chepstow as well as Rome, interviewing informants wherever he could. These included combatants on either side, heralds and other royal officers, and companions met with on the road as he journeyed south or north. Book III includes the celebrated 'Journey to Béarn', a mixture of narration and travelogue which tell us a great deal about the chronicler's interviewing techniques and professional approach to chronicle production.
The Chronicles remain a major resource for historians of medieval, political and cultural history, but also for students of narrative and early modern historical literature in prose. They are a key resource for the study of Middle French language and syntax. They are, however, prodigiously long. The availability of a rapidly searchable and perusable electronic edition will allow scholars to scan the hundreds of thousands of words of text, and to swiftly locate information about persons and places referred to by the chronicler.
The Online Froissart also offers students of medieval manuscript production and painting an unrivalled source of primary material. It features a series of early 15th-century illuminated manuscripts, all of which were produced in Paris at around the same time (ca. 1408-1418), and almost certainly under the direction of an 'entrepreneur' by the name of Pierre de Liffol. Across the two Besançon volumes, the Stonyhurst Library manuscript, the Toulouse manuscript and the two Brussels copies, one can trace the activity of the same small group of scribes and artists responsible for the production of these books. Pierre de Liffol seems to have spotted an opportunity, producing copies of the same text decorated for either French or English consumption. Two artist masters contributed to their decoration: the Boethius and Giac Masters, together with their associates and apprentices. We can examine their respective methods and techniques acrossthis fascinating group of manuscripts.
Organisations
- University of Sheffield (Lead Research Organisation)
- University of Lorraine (Collaboration)
- Michigan State University (Collaboration)
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Collaboration)
- Worldwide Universities Network (Collaboration)
- Royal Library of Belgium (Collaboration)
- University of St Andrews (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL (Collaboration)
- Toulouse Library for Study and Heritage (Collaboration)
Publications
Ainsworth PF
(2010)
Encyclopaedia of the Medieval Chronicle, ed. RG Dunphy
Ainsworth PF
(2011)
Breaching the Strongroom : a Pervasive Informatics Approach to Working with Medieval Manuscripts
in Proceedings of the KMIS 2011 International Conference on Knowledge Management and Information Sharing, Paris, Université de Créteil
Ainsworth PF
(2009)
Jean Froissart et la Guerre de Cent Ans
in Art de l'Enluminure
Ainsworth PF
(2008)
Villes en guerre, XIVe-XVe siècles, sous la direction de Christiane Raynaud
Ainsworth PF
(2009)
e-Science for medievalists: options, challenges, solutions and opportunities
in Digital Humanities Quarterly
Ainsworth PF
(2010)
Encyclopaedia of the Medieval Chronicle, ed. RG Dunphy
| Title | Cy commencent : Jean Froissart chroniqueur de la guerre de Cent Ans |
| Description | Public exhibition mounted at the Musée de l'Armée, Hôtel national des Invalides (Paris), in Spring 2010, in partnership with the Bibliothèque nationale de France and Bibliothèque d'Etude et de Conservation, Besançon. 02 April to 04 July 2010. Approximately 80 000 visitors. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2010 |
| Impact | Publication of the exhibition Catalogue: Art de l'enluminure no. 31 (déc. 2009 - fév. 2010). Subsequent invitation to Ainsworth to contribute to a further national exhibition mounted in Paris and Pau:- Gaston Fébus. Prince Soleil 1331-1391, Musée de Cluny - musée national du Moyen Age, Paris, 30 November 2011 to 5 March 2012; Musée national du Château de Pau, 17 March to 17 June 2012; contribution by Peter Ainsworth to the Catalogue: 'Le Fébus de Froissart' (rmn/BnF, Paris, 2011, pp. 44-51). |
| URL | http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/panoply/exhibitions/paris/index.html |
| Title | The Chronicles of Froissart |
| Description | Exhibition based on Froissart's Chronicles and on contemporary arms and armour from the UK national collections, mounted at The Royal Armouries, Leeds, 08 December 2007 to 06 April 2008. Some 50 000 visitors estimated to have attended, with a lot of very positive feedback received via the Visitors Book. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2007 |
| Impact | The provision of an absorbing, immersive, historical, cultural and literary experience for some 50 000 visitors of all ages. Major impact was evidenced by the decision taken by the Royal Armouries' sister museum Le Musée national de l'Armée, Hôtel national des Invalides, Paris, to mount a follow-on exhibition which attracted 80 000 international visitors during the spring of 2010. |
| URL | http://www.royalarmouries.org/what-we-do/exhibitions/the-chronicles-of-froissart |
| Description | This AHRC award supported the enhancement of a large-scale research resource in Middle French based on the narratives, manuscript content (codicology, palaeography and miniatures), language and textual transmission of the 'Chronicles' of Hainaulter historian Jehan Froissart (?1337-?1404), covering the larger part of the Hundred Years' War (1325-1400) and its social, political and military history. Some 113 manuscripts were transcribed, completely or partially; 200,000 place and personal names were glossed; 7 million words of Middle French were recorded. Around 4 million of these words have since been lemmatised and converted into a searchable electronic lexicon linked to the website thanks to a subsequent project joint-funded by the British Academy and CNRS which links the Universities of Edinburgh, Liverpool, Sheffield, St Andrews and Plymouth to the University of Lorraine, Nancy 2, and its world-famous online Dictionnaire du Moyen Français;. The Online Froissart has thus enriched the DMF with a vast lexicon fully available to all users via 'Attestations dans les bases' (under 'OFP'), contributing to the Dictionary, in addition, no less than two dozen hitherto unattested Middle French words. Lemmatised glossaries are also available on the Online Froissart website, as are our searchable transcriptions, background essays and iconographical commentaries. Thanks to the number and sheer extent of the transcriptions we have been able to deliver, together with our application to these of sophisticated collation tools and search engines, new knowledge has emerged concerning the relationships between key manuscript witnesses of the major recensions of Froissart's 'Chronicles'. A better understanding of the overall manuscript tradition and textual evolution of this great work has emerged during the funded period of the project and even more recently (work continues apace). Close attention to the language of the 'Chronicles' has informed a new translation into modern idiomatic English of key chapters from all three Books: this is proving popular with students and with medievalist scholars having only limited or no Middle French; it is in use, along with the website's other resources, in universities across the UK, USA, South America and Australia. Through the use of e-Tools such as VIRTUAL VELLUM, and thanks to a subsequent JISC/NEH/NSF 'Digging into Data' joint-funded project with Illinois and Michigan Universities, we have gained a more precise understanding of a range of palaeographical issues (e.g. palimpsests and scribal 'fingerprints'). Collaborations with historians of the book and with specialists in the study of medieval manuscript illumination and connoisseurship have led to fresh discoveries about the identities and practices of several of the artists and workshops behind the books, and in particular about bookseller Pierre de Liffol (active in Paris during the first two decades of the fifteenth century) and his methods and clients. |
| Exploitation Route | The Online Froissart was and continues to be a resolutely academic enterprise, but the project has so far fed successfully into no fewer than three national and international exhibitions described elsewhere on this system. In the course of gathering evaluation feedback from visitors to the Musée de l'Armée (Paris) and Royal Armouries (Leeds) exhibitions, Keira Borrill uncovered a vibrant interest in the Middle Ages and the Hundred Years' War on the part of interviewees as young as 7 and as old as 90 kindled by the exhibits, interactive software and narratives (evidenced in the survey questionnaires, interviews and Visitors Book comments). Part of the appeal of the exhibitions for us was finding ways to attract broader, non-academic publics and engage with them in approaches calculated to draw them in (rather than patronise them). Working alongside world-class curators from the Royal Armouries, Musée de l'Armée, Scriptorial d'Avranches and Musée national du Moyen Age, and seeing how they reacted to our more academic content and materials, was a revelation; it helped us in turn to articulate our scholarship more efficiently and eloquently (we believe) to these much broader audiences. Providing gallery labels, texts and software commentaries written and narrated in both French and English, for each of the Leeds and Paris exhibitions, was an especially rewarding challenge: one has to grab the visitor's attention very quickly with information that is both accurate and appealing. The KIOSQUE software specially developed for the Leeds and Paris exhibitions is freely available for wider use and has since been deployed (with additional refinements) in regional schools and displays in South Yorkshire and Derbyshire. Photo galleries from each exhibition are provided on the Online Froissart website (under 'About The Project', Related Projects). |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education |
| URL | http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/onlinefroissart/ |
| Description | Two free international exhibitions attracting visitors of all ages and nationalities: Royal Armouries (2007-08; 50 000 visitors), and Musée national de l'Armée, Invalides, Paris (2010; 80 000 visitors) were inspired by our research on illuminated manuscripts of Jehan Froissart's Chronicles of the Hundred Years' War (covering the years 1325-1404). Miniatures from the manuscripts depicting key events were displayed alongside items selected from each country's national collection of arms and armour; interactive displays showed how the manuscripts were copied and illustrated. The research enabled an SME to be launched and opened up access to major aspects of French cultural heritage whilst enabling the preservation of the originals' integrity, part of the intellectual and artistic patrimony of Western Europe. Electronic and paper editions of the Chronicles were published, plus several essays for learned journals or volumes in both English and French. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2007 |
| Sector | Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Description | Digging into Data to Answer Authorship-Related Questions |
| Amount | £51,181 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Jisc |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2010 |
| End | 07/2011 |
| Description | Digitising Illuminated Medieval Manuscripts for the Grid |
| Amount | £5,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Worldwide Universities Network |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2008 |
| End | 12/2008 |
| Description | Knowledge Transfer (Exhibitor project, Meredith, MJ, Dr investigator |
| Amount | £69,080 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Sheffield |
| Department | EPSRC KTA Knowledge Transfer Account |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 05/2010 |
| End | 06/2011 |
| Description | Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, Kiosque interactive exhibition software |
| Amount | £100,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2006 |
| End | 05/2008 |
| Description | Middle French and Other Vernacular Dictionaries |
| Amount | £5,090 (GBP) |
| Organisation | The British Academy |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2008 |
| End | 07/2012 |
| Title | Image datasets and XML transcriptions, AHRC Online Froissart project |
| Description | A large number of high-resolution images were produced between 2007 and 2011, available in part as high-quality facsimiles of complete manuscripts via the Online Froissart, but also held as a database on the University of Liverpool's VOCAL server, and by the project PI. The images were used for two national exhibitions, and offered at no charge to the research libraries involved: the Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Bibliothèque d'Etude et de Conservation (Besançon), the Bibliothèque d'Etude et du Patrimoine (Toulouse), and the Library of Stonyhurst College (Clitheroe, Lancs). In addition, XML transcriptions of several millions of words of Middle French were produced; 4 million of these were made freely available to the online Dictionnaire du Moyen Français as a glossary under the rubric 'OFP', and through this outlet to thousands of scholars of Middle French language and literature. There is a seamless link between our Online Froissart transcriptions on our website and the DMF's own website. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2010 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The use of our material by graduate students and faculty researchers via the Online Froissart and via the online Dictionnaire du Moyen Français. |
| URL | http://atilf.atilf.fr/scripts/dmfX.exe?INIT_SESSION;LGERM_FORME;OUVRIR_MENU=MENU_LEXIQUE;RECHERCHE=1... |
| Description | Digitising Illuminated Medieval Manuscripts for the Grid |
| Organisation | Royal Library of Belgium |
| Country | Belgium |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Funding from the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN Grid) supported our research on and digitisation of illuminated manuscripts held at major French and Belgian research libraries. We produced codicological and iconographical commentaries used for two national exhibitions (Royal Armouries, Leeds; Musée national de l'Armée, Invalides, Paris). |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique and Bibliothèque du Patrimoine at Toulouse opened their special collections to the Online Froissart project and gave permission for us to photograph high-resolution images of several priceless 15th-century illuminated manuscripts. The facsimiles can be viewed for free on the Online Froissart website |
| Impact | High-resolution facsimiles of four complete 15th-century illuminated manuscripts of Froissart's Chronicles, with photographer Colin Dunn of Scriptura Ltd. These were used for the software developed for two national exhibitions (Leeds and Paris), for the AHRC-funded Online Froissart, and for the EPSRC Pegasus and JISC Digging into Image Data projects. |
| Start Year | 2008 |
| Description | Digitising Illuminated Medieval Manuscripts for the Grid |
| Organisation | Toulouse Library for Study and Heritage |
| Country | France |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Funding from the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN Grid) supported our research on and digitisation of illuminated manuscripts held at major French and Belgian research libraries. We produced codicological and iconographical commentaries used for two national exhibitions (Royal Armouries, Leeds; Musée national de l'Armée, Invalides, Paris). |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique and Bibliothèque du Patrimoine at Toulouse opened their special collections to the Online Froissart project and gave permission for us to photograph high-resolution images of several priceless 15th-century illuminated manuscripts. The facsimiles can be viewed for free on the Online Froissart website |
| Impact | High-resolution facsimiles of four complete 15th-century illuminated manuscripts of Froissart's Chronicles, with photographer Colin Dunn of Scriptura Ltd. These were used for the software developed for two national exhibitions (Leeds and Paris), for the AHRC-funded Online Froissart, and for the EPSRC Pegasus and JISC Digging into Image Data projects. |
| Start Year | 2008 |
| Description | Digitising Illuminated Medieval Manuscripts for the Grid |
| Organisation | Worldwide Universities Network |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Funding from the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN Grid) supported our research on and digitisation of illuminated manuscripts held at major French and Belgian research libraries. We produced codicological and iconographical commentaries used for two national exhibitions (Royal Armouries, Leeds; Musée national de l'Armée, Invalides, Paris). |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique and Bibliothèque du Patrimoine at Toulouse opened their special collections to the Online Froissart project and gave permission for us to photograph high-resolution images of several priceless 15th-century illuminated manuscripts. The facsimiles can be viewed for free on the Online Froissart website |
| Impact | High-resolution facsimiles of four complete 15th-century illuminated manuscripts of Froissart's Chronicles, with photographer Colin Dunn of Scriptura Ltd. These were used for the software developed for two national exhibitions (Leeds and Paris), for the AHRC-funded Online Froissart, and for the EPSRC Pegasus and JISC Digging into Image Data projects. |
| Start Year | 2008 |
| Description | JISC/NEH/NSF Digging into Image Data network: Universy of Sheffield, State University of Michigan, U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| Organisation | Michigan State University |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | From Final Report |
| Collaborator Contribution | Digging into Data to Answer Authorship Related Questions set out to explore authorship studies of visual arts through computational image analyses. Three datasets of visual works - 15th-century manuscripts, 17th- and 18th-century maps, and 19th-and 21st-century quilts - were chosen to investigate what might be revealed about the authors and their artistic lineages by comparing manuscripts, maps, and quilts across four centuries; the project investigated the accuracy and computational scalability of adaptive image analyses when applied to diverse collections of image data. Outcomes published during a major international conference in Washington DC in July 2011, with our partners from the State University of Michigan, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Urbana- Champaign. |
| Impact | The collaboration covered medieval manuscript and iconographic studies, supercomputing and data analysis, and social and cultural history of artefacts. Publications by Ainsworth and Meredith are recorded on ResearchFish. |
| Start Year | 2010 |
| Description | JISC/NEH/NSF Digging into Image Data network: Universy of Sheffield, State University of Michigan, U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| Organisation | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | From Final Report |
| Collaborator Contribution | Digging into Data to Answer Authorship Related Questions set out to explore authorship studies of visual arts through computational image analyses. Three datasets of visual works - 15th-century manuscripts, 17th- and 18th-century maps, and 19th-and 21st-century quilts - were chosen to investigate what might be revealed about the authors and their artistic lineages by comparing manuscripts, maps, and quilts across four centuries; the project investigated the accuracy and computational scalability of adaptive image analyses when applied to diverse collections of image data. Outcomes published during a major international conference in Washington DC in July 2011, with our partners from the State University of Michigan, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Urbana- Champaign. |
| Impact | The collaboration covered medieval manuscript and iconographic studies, supercomputing and data analysis, and social and cultural history of artefacts. Publications by Ainsworth and Meredith are recorded on ResearchFish. |
| Start Year | 2010 |
| Description | Middle French and Other Vernacular Dictionaries |
| Organisation | University of Edinburgh |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Workshops were supported entailing the sharing of research, tools and online resources from each of the sub-projects represented. Lexical data and analytical tools were shared with the Online Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (Online Dictionary of Middle French). Four million words from the Online Froissart were converted into a searchable database available to all DMF users worldwide. Glossaries from the Online Froissart were lemmatised by our French partners. Workshops were held at each partner institution throughout the duration of the award. |
| Collaborator Contribution | See above. |
| Impact | Four million words from the Online Froissart were converted into a searchable database available to all DMF users worldwide. Glossaries from the Online Froissart were lemmatised by our French partners. Workshops were held at each partner institution throughout the duration of the award. |
| Start Year | 2008 |
| Description | Middle French and Other Vernacular Dictionaries |
| Organisation | University of Liverpool |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Workshops were supported entailing the sharing of research, tools and online resources from each of the sub-projects represented. Lexical data and analytical tools were shared with the Online Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (Online Dictionary of Middle French). Four million words from the Online Froissart were converted into a searchable database available to all DMF users worldwide. Glossaries from the Online Froissart were lemmatised by our French partners. Workshops were held at each partner institution throughout the duration of the award. |
| Collaborator Contribution | See above. |
| Impact | Four million words from the Online Froissart were converted into a searchable database available to all DMF users worldwide. Glossaries from the Online Froissart were lemmatised by our French partners. Workshops were held at each partner institution throughout the duration of the award. |
| Start Year | 2008 |
| Description | Middle French and Other Vernacular Dictionaries |
| Organisation | University of Nancy |
| Country | France |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Workshops were supported entailing the sharing of research, tools and online resources from each of the sub-projects represented. Lexical data and analytical tools were shared with the Online Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (Online Dictionary of Middle French). Four million words from the Online Froissart were converted into a searchable database available to all DMF users worldwide. Glossaries from the Online Froissart were lemmatised by our French partners. Workshops were held at each partner institution throughout the duration of the award. |
| Collaborator Contribution | See above. |
| Impact | Four million words from the Online Froissart were converted into a searchable database available to all DMF users worldwide. Glossaries from the Online Froissart were lemmatised by our French partners. Workshops were held at each partner institution throughout the duration of the award. |
| Start Year | 2008 |
| Description | Middle French and Other Vernacular Dictionaries |
| Organisation | University of St Andrews |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Workshops were supported entailing the sharing of research, tools and online resources from each of the sub-projects represented. Lexical data and analytical tools were shared with the Online Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (Online Dictionary of Middle French). Four million words from the Online Froissart were converted into a searchable database available to all DMF users worldwide. Glossaries from the Online Froissart were lemmatised by our French partners. Workshops were held at each partner institution throughout the duration of the award. |
| Collaborator Contribution | See above. |
| Impact | Four million words from the Online Froissart were converted into a searchable database available to all DMF users worldwide. Glossaries from the Online Froissart were lemmatised by our French partners. Workshops were held at each partner institution throughout the duration of the award. |
| Start Year | 2008 |
| Description | Ainsworth PF (PI) Invited paper entitled Vernaculars, Registers, Audiences : time to talk about the Bascot de Mauléon |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Scientific meeting (conference/symposium etc.) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Type Of Presentation | keynote/invited speaker |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | My invited paper to the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Bergen, Conference on Medieval Vernaculars, November 2012, stimulated a lively discussion and debate. Research paper and demonstration of the Online Froissart resource, plus VIRTUAL VELLUM and KIOSQUE software and their capabilities. A number of those present expressed interest in using these resources in the future. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Ainsworth PF (PI) delivered keynote address at the invitation of Dr G Croenen, UK launch of Online Froissart, University of Liverpool. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Scientific meeting (conference/symposium etc.) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Type Of Presentation | keynote/invited speaker |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Keynote address, launch event in the UK for the AHRC-funded Online Froissart project Keynote address to mark the UK launch of the AHRC-funded Online Froissart. Day conference organised by Dr G Croenen, with papers by him, Ainsworth (PI) and Dr Craig Taylor, University of York, etc., feeding into an engaged and absorbing discussion by participants, and resulting in extended use of the resource by colleagues in similar or related fields. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
| URL | http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/onlinefroissart/ |
| Description | Ainsworth PF, AHRC Online Froissart roundtable and US project launch, 2010 International Medieval Congress, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | The project was warmly received by this international audience of faculty and graduate students, and a lively discussion ensued. Several participants are now regularly using the Online Froissart for their own research. Both the PI (Ainsworth) and Co-I (Croenen) gave papers. The roundtable launch of the Online Froissart at the International Medieval Congress, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, May 2010 led to several international scholars adopting the resource themselves for their personal research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
| URL | http://hridigital.shef.ac.uk/online-froissart |
| Description | Ainsworth PF, Digitising the 100 Years' War |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Digitising the 100 Years' War was an invited talk and presentation to the University of Warwick postgraduate medieval seminar. I presented the Online Froissart and answered questions. Heightened interest in the project, and in its various tools. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| URL | http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/hrc/events/mss/ |
| Description | Ainsworth PF, Ecole du Louvre, Musée du Louvre, Paris |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to give a lecture and presentation to an audience of trainee museographers and PhD students in Medieval Studies at the Ecole du Louvre, Mus?e du Louvre, Paris, in the Autumn of 2007. The talk stimulated a lively Q&A session, and requests for additional information. The lecture and Q&A led to some changes to the design of the Paris exhibition I co-curated in Spring 2010. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2007 |
| URL | http://www.ecoledulouvre.fr/ |
| Description | Ainsworth PF, Invitation and repeat invitation to visit the University of Ottawa, Canada |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | PI (Ainsworth) took up a Research and Teaching Fellowship in the Department of English, University of Ottawa, Canada, enabling him to publicise the Online Froissart and related projects, conduct e-Science workshops and deliver research outcomes to a pan-Canadian audience (using the White Rose Grid and TeraGrid). Two Visiting Fellowships were taken up at Ottawa, respectively in October 2008 and 2009. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2008,2009 |
| Description | Ainsworth PF, Les familles royales dans les Chroniques de Jean Froissart : entre textes et images |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | My invited keynote presentation at the Université de Provence, Aix-Marseille, entitled Les familles royales dans les Chroniques de Jean Froissart : entre textes et images stimulated a lively response from graduate students enrolled at several southern French universities, and from colleagues at Lyon, Aix-Marseille and Avignon universities. Publication of the paper in a subsequent edited volume of studies on Families in the Middle Ages. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2007 |
| Description | Ainsworth PF, Nouveaux regards sur les Chroniques de Jean Froissart |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Nouveaux regards sur les Chroniques de Jean Froissart was an invited public lecture delivered at the Cité du Livre, Bibliothèque Méjanes, Aix-en-Provence. I gave another invited public lecture at the Alcazar Library in Marseilles, entitled Froissart et la guerre de Cent Ans. Both were delivered in December 2007, just after the opening of my Royal Armouries exhibition in Leeds. There was enormous interest on the part of these open audiences of non-specialists, and both occasions were unforgettable, stimulating lively debate and subsequent conversation in cafés near the two venues. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2007 |
| Description | Ainsworth PF, Pegasus, Virtual Vellum and the Froissart Manuscripts Project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Scientific meeting (conference/symposium etc.) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Type Of Presentation | paper presentation |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This was an invited live Access and Data Grid Workshop conducted synchronously at the Universities of Ottawa (PI plus Professor Andrew Taylor), Sheffield (Dr MJ Meredith) and Saskatchewan (Canadian research colleagues), Oct 2008. Interactive tools were successfully used and operated from each of the 3 particiapting sites. There was lively interest from faculty and graduate students, and raised awareness of the potential uses of the Access Grid for live, shared graduate teaching and learning, as well as for the dissemination of research material. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2008 |
| Description | Ainsworth PF, Royalty Reflected in the Chronicles of Jean Froissart |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | My paper was well received and stimulated a lot of discussion. It was subsequently selected for publication by the editors of the conference volume. The volume was successfully published; colleagues present at the conference expressed keen interest in ideas disseminated during my paper. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2008 |
| Description | Ainsworth PF, The Online Froissart, Trinity College Dublin seminar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Scientific meeting (conference/symposium etc.) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Type Of Presentation | keynote/invited speaker |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Around 60 faculty and graduate students heard my Invited research paper and demonstration of the Online Froissart resource; the international audience comprised medievalists from the Republic of Ireland, the UK, USA and Scandinavia. The event was held at Trinity College, Dublin. International conference bringing together a diverse group of medievalists from the Republic of Ireland, UK, USA and Scandinavia, to explore aspects of textuality. Opportunity to showcase the Online Froissart and its associated tools and software, and to publicise it to fellow medievalists, some of whom have since begun to use it. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
| Description | Ainsworth PF, invitation and repeat invitation to visit the University of Stockholm to publicise the Online Froissart, Pegasus and Virtual Vellum projects |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | In September 2008 PI Ainsworth accepted an invitation to speak to the Department of English and Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Stockholm on 'Froissart as Historian', and also on 'PANOPLY, PEGASUS and VIRTUAL VELLUM : tools for electronic editions'. This led to an invitation to take up a Visiting Professorship in September-October 2009, and to deliver a series of research seminars and masterclasses to an audience that included graduate students and senior Faculty members from Stockholm, Uppsala and Copenhagen. Ainsworth's visiting lecture and professorship enabled him to disseminate the first fruits (and later the more developed first outcomes) from the AHRC Online Froissart project, and also from the Virtual Vellum and Pegasus projects. I was awarded a Visiting Professorship at the University of Stockholm specifically to demonstrate the first fruits of the Online Froissart and its associated projects. During my visit I was invited to view rare medieval manuscripts at Stockholm and Uppsala University Libraries. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2008,2009 |
| Description | Ainsworth PF, invited keynote, University of Girona Centre for Medieval Studies, Catalonia, Spain |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Scientific meeting (conference/symposium etc.) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Type Of Presentation | keynote/invited speaker |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | The invitation was from the Renda Feudal i Fiscalitat a la Catalunya Baixmedieval, Centre de Recerca d'Història Rural (ILCC-Secció Vicens Vives, UdG), Institució Milà i Fontanals, Facultat de Lletres, Universitat de Girona, Spanish National Research Council, for the Medieval Studies research laboratory; title: Digitising Manuscripts: an Online Edition and Exhibition. Visiting professorial lecture and consequential seminar discussion on digitisation, online editions and public impact via national exhibitions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2008 |
| Description | Ainsworth PF, invited keynote, Université de Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, Jan 2009 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Scientific meeting (conference/symposium etc.) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Type Of Presentation | keynote/invited speaker |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Virtual Vellum and the Online Froissart : invited Paper delivered at a Journ?e d'?tude, Universit? de Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium: Outils informatiques et logiciels pour l'?dition des textes m?di?vaux, Universit? Catholique de Louvain, 24 April 2009. Attended by faculty and graduate students. Considerable interest expressed during a lively Q&A session. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2009 |
| Description | Ainsworth PF, invited presentation, launching the report to UK Govt of international review of UK e-Science, RCUK e-Science Town Meeting, Oxford |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Scientific meeting (conference/symposium etc.) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Type Of Presentation | poster presentation |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | PI (Ainsworth) was invited by the EPSRC to speak at the Town Meeting of RCUK's e-Science Programme, 9 February 2010. Discussions ensued with a considerable number of conference attenders. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
| Description | Ainsworth PF, invited visit to the Departments of English and French, University of Virginia at Charlottesville |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | From 15-20 October 2013 Professor Ainsworth visited by invitation the Departments of French and English at the University of Virginia (Charlottesville), USA, to speak to Faculty and graduate students about the Online Froissart and his international exhibitions. In addition, he delivered an invited public lecture on Froissart's Chronicles. Graduate students were introduced to new ways of working online with medieval manuscript materials. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Ainsworth PF, membership of Advisory Boards, plus Peer Review College Appointments, Visiting Professorships |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Advisory Board, Europeana Regia project (Framework 7, EU), Bibliothèque nationale de France, Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique etc, 2010-present Advisory Board, Manuscripts Online (JISC-funded; by invitation of the JISC) 2011-present Peer Review College, EPSRC (Grid and e-Science: by invitation), 2009-2011 Invited to serve on Advisory Board, Jean de Vignay Online Edition project (Louvain), 2009 AHRC Knowledge Transfer and Major Research Grants Panel, 2009-2011 Visiting Professorships, Universities of Stockholm and Ottawa. While in Ottawa, grid seminars with the Universities of Calgary, Saskatchewan, British Columbia and Sheffield using KIOSQUE, VIRTUAL VELLUM, PEGASUS and SRB client software. Awards were made to successful projects, Visiting Professorships were successfully undertaken. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2009,2010,2011,2012 |
| Description | Ainsworth, PF (PI), invited keynote: Time and Text Medieval Studies Colloquium, University of Ottawa |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Scientific meeting (conference/symposium etc.) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Type Of Presentation | keynote/invited speaker |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | A Visiting Professorship (Ainsworth) at the University of Ottawa enabled the PI to engage with graduate students and faculty colleagues during a lively Q&A session which followed the invited keynote lecture. This Visiting Professorship, Department of English, University of Ottawa, 26 October to 06 November 2009, led to a series of discussions and workshops allowing the PI to disseminate the AHRC-funded project's outcomes and results. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2009 |
| Description | Coverage in French national press of Jean Froissart exhibition at the Invalides, Paris |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The activity involved press preview coverage in several organs of the French national press of the Jean Froissart exhibition held at the Musée national de l'Armée, Hôtel national des Invalides, Paris, Spring 2010. Press packs and other releases (e.g. feature articles) were generated to publicise the opening of this 3-month international exhibition in the French capital, which attracted some 80 000 visitors during its very successful run. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
| Description | Croenen G (Co-I) organised the very successful UK launch of the Online Froissart, University of Liverpool. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Scientific meeting (conference/symposium etc.) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Type Of Presentation | workshop facilitator |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | This day conference, which took place in early May 2010, included papers given by Co-I Dr Godfried Croenen, project PI Professor Peter Ainsworth, and Dr Craig Taylor (Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York). The resource was comprehensively demonstrated to the conference audience, and a lively discussion ensued. Launch of the Online Froissart project funded by the AHRC (2007-09). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
| URL | http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/onlinefroissart/ |
| Description | Croenen G and Romanova N: Book II of Froissart's Chronicles: The Leiden MS and the rest of the manuscript tradition |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Scientific meeting (conference/symposium etc.) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Type Of Presentation | paper presentation |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | A good 40 or so graduate students and faculty colleagues listened to the paper and expressed considerable interest in its findings and implications. Conference paper for the leading conference for Medieval Chronicle Studies: Fifth International Medieval Chronicle Conference, Queen's University, Belfast, 21 -25 July 2008. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2008 |
| Description | Croenen G, Froissart manuscripts and the Parisian booktrade in the 15th century, Liverpool Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Liverpool |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Scientific meeting (conference/symposium etc.) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Type Of Presentation | paper presentation |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Invited paper presented to the Liverpool Centre for Medieval Studies, March 2008. Paper presenting original research on the environment within which early French booksellers produced manuscripts, and had them copied and illuminated. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2008 |
| Description | Invitations to visit overseas HEIs: invited to participate in Supercomputing '08 workshop on OCR & Pattern Recognition, US National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Scientific meeting (conference/symposium etc.) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Type Of Presentation | paper presentation |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Around 50 colleagues and graduate students attended this workshop Launched a joint platform for international cooperation on image data analysis using the Teragrid and White Rose Grid, leading to the joint-funded JISC/NSF/NEH project entitled "Digging into Image Data to Answer Authorship-Related Questions" (Universities of Sheffield, Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Michigan State). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2007 |
| URL | http://hridigital.shef.ac.uk/digging-into-image-data |
| Description | Meredith MJ and Ainsworth PF co-presention at DARIAH |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | A large number of Arts and Humanities researchers attended this international event showcasing the best in research in the Digital Arts and Humanities. We received expressions of interest from other delegates, and viewed other projects that were of interest to us. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
| Description | Meredith MJ and Ainsworth PF, All Hands Conference Presentations |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Regular invitations from AHeSSC/White Rose Grid/EPSRC to demonstrate at these successive All Hands conferences in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 allowed us to showcase and talk about our e-Science projects, to influence e-Science policy and funding modes, and to learn from other projects. New funding streams post 2010, via AHRC in particular. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2006,2007,2008,2009,2010 |
| Description | Meredith MJ, Network of Expert Centres workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Participants heard Meredith speak about our contribution to Arts and Humanities research deploying Digital Technologies. Enhanced awareness amongst the audience of what can be achieved. Indirectly, impact on decisions taken by funders of future research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2008 |
| Description | Meredith MJ, Supercomputer 2010, Grand Challenges in Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Meredith MJ was invited to sit on a panel at Supercomputer 2010 on Grand Challenges in Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, in Nov ember 2010. This allowed him to disseminate data, results and ideas from our own projects, and to engage with researchers doing cognate or similar work at an international gathering featuring the best in Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences, focused on Grand Challenges Networking and the opportunity to learn from other scholars and researchers working in similar fields. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
| Description | Meredith MJ, UK e-Science Engineering Task Force |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Meredith's invitation to speak at the UK e-Science Engineering Task Force meeting held in March 2008 allowed him to influence thinking and future funding of e-Science in Great Britain, and to disseminate ideas and thinking from our projects. Enhanced funding streams and research programmes due to raised profile for e-Science in the UK and abroad, especially in the USA (with Ameircan partners such as NSF and NEH), via White Rose Grid and Worldwide Universities Network (WUN). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2008 |
| Description | Meredith MJ, e-Uptake workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Meredith was invited to speak at this e-Uptake workshop focusing on the update of e-Infrastructure services in the Arts and Humanities, held in July 2010. It allowed him to disseminate ideas from our projects, and to feed informed comment into the decision making process designed to enhance the use and spread of Digital Arts and Humanities Enhancement of Digital Arts and Humanities, including raised profile and (ultimately) increase in funding programmes and streams. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |