History
History of Gallery of Glosses
Introduction
This project has benefited from two internal grants from Saint Louis University (SLU) and one external grant from the American Philosophical Society (APS). It began with an intention to create an analogue edition of early twelfth-century glosses on the gospel of Matthew, prior to the formation c.1200 of the Glossa ordinaria on the Bible.
Initial Funding and Research (2019)
The project received a Franklin Research Grant from the APS amounting to $4,000, and a Summer Research Award in the Humanities from SLU amounting to $6,390. The objective was to acquire more digital manuscript copies of glossed Matthews and work on transcribing glosses. Eventually, Larson and Cuba decided to expand the project's scope, envisioning a digital humanities infrastructure for multiple medieval authoritative texts.
President's Research Fund Award (2020)
A 13-month grant of $21,000 was awarded. With this funding, more manuscript copies were purchased and two graduate student summer workers were employed for transcription. Additionally, Cuba and Haberberger developed digital humanities tools and platforms. There was refinement of the transcription software TPEN, development of a data-management tool titled “Glossing Matthew”, and plans were made for a public-facing web application.
Research Outcomes
The project achieved a complete transcription of glosses on Matthew 5 from sixteen twelfth-century manuscripts. Data was organized on the Glossing Matthew GitHub site. Patrick Cuba and Bryan Haberberger presented a paper titled "Building a IIIF-Aware Ecosystem" at the IIIF Annual Conference on June 23, 2021. A draft research article by Atria A. Larson was submitted to the journal Quaderni di storia religiosa medievale. Additionally, a poster titled "Digital Humanities Tools for Capturing Glosses on Authoritative Texts" was accepted for the 16th International Congress of Medieval Canon Law in July 2022.
Future Directions
The next iteration will transition from “Glossing Matthew” to the “Gallery of Glosses.” This will involve a broader use of manuscripts, refinement of transcription processes, and continued utilization of manuscripts of Matthew for transcription. The project will also collaborate with Saint Louis University’s Vatican Film Library (VFL) for research in medieval canon law and partner with the Walter J. Ong Center for Digital Humanities for ongoing projects.