HUGOYE: JOURNAL OF SYRIAC STUDIES
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HUGOYE: JOURNAL OF SYRIAC STUDIES |
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Vol. 3, No. 2 July 2000 |
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PROJECT REPORT The Digitizing of Selected Syriac MSS in the Vatican Apostolic Library
E. Jan WILSON Introduction: [1] In an effort to facilitate access to important Syriac manuscripts, the Center for the Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts (CPART) of Brigham Young and the Vatican Apostolic Library (VAL) have begun work on a joint project which involves digitizing 28 selected Syriac manuscripts in the possession of the VAL. [2] The agreement was signed on March 20, 2000 and according to the terms of this agreement, CPART and the VAL will electronically co-publish the texts and electronic images of these manuscripts. [3] The manuscripts to be digitized were chosen from a short list of manuscripts prepared by Sebastian Brock and include the following:
Phase 1: [4] During the first phase of this project, the manuscripts are being digitized in the VAL by CPART and VAL staff. In all cases, high-resolution images are being created in grayscale using a Kodak MegaPlus camera with an array of 2x3k. These images are stored in TIFF format and are 6 megabytes each. In addition to these high-resolution grayscale images, low-resolution color images are being created of many of the manuscripts. In the case of certain mss, however, such images are not made. For example, Vat. Syr. 110 and Vat. Syr. 111 are sixth century manuscripts of Ephrem, and the ink is so monotone (and on many folios very faded) that color pictures do not add anything substantial to the viewing of these texts. [5] The images thus obtained are stored both on CDs and on AIT tapes for archival purposes. In most cases, the mss are clear enough that even the low resolution images allow a user to read the texts easily.
[6] In those cases where the ink is very faded, or the manuscript otherwise damaged, we have been using filters, or else choosing specific wavelengths of light in order to get clearer grayscale images. [7] Ultimately, these electronic images will constitute a backup system for these valuable texts, but this is not the primary purpose of the project. The primary purpose of the project is the electronic publication of these texts, as will be explained in the following paragraphs. Phase 2:[8] The texts of these 28 mss will be keyed into computer files and then marked and put into WordCruncher, the search engine which CPART used to create its Dead Sea Scroll database (published in 1999 by Brill). This phase will be quite labor intensive, and it is anticipated that it will take approximately two years to complete. Final publication:[9] After the texts have been prepared electronically in WordCruncher, they will be published on CDs along with the electronic images. It is anticipated that at the beginning of each page, there will be an icon which, when activated, will display the image of the original manuscript for that page. The publication will be a joint publication of the VAL and CPART/BYU. [10] At the time of this writing, we are in the middle of phase 1, i.e. digitizing the manuscripts in the VAL. We expect that this first phase will be completed before the middle of July. We hope that we will be ready for final publication during the summer of 2002. |
