Monthly Archives: June 2013

Two New Mobile Apps of Note

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Chronicle of Eusebius of Caesarea (ca. 1480), via e-codices iPad app

Chronicle of Eusebius of Caesarea (ca. 1480), via e-codices iPad app

One of the more intriguing horizons of development in terms of digital research applications is the creation of mobile apps for displaying and manipulating digital texts. The Google Play app, for instance, which allows you to “favorite” Google Books and the Post-Reformation Digital Library have made a helpful pairing for some time.

I recently got notice of two new apps developed for iOS, and ideally experienced on the iPad. The first is the Europeana Open Culture app for the iPad which “introduces you to specially selected collections from Europeana.” Europeana has come a long way, in my view, since it’s opening, and it will be interesting to see how this app makes the vast resources theoretically available at the site actually useful.

The second notice came in today from e-codices, the Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland. The e-codices app has been developed for the iPad and iPhone, and will allow you to “search, browse and view medieval and early modern manuscripts in high resolution” on these devices.

My initial experience with these apps has been a bit buggy and inconsistent, but there are some really promising possibilities for display while travelling, giving lectures, presenting papers, and teaching in the classroom. Right now my impression is that the apps might be most helpful for displaying digital texts that you are already aware of rather than really finding new things.

Digital History at SCSC 2013

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SCSC2013Prog_Page_01The program for the 2013 meeting of the Sixteenth Century Society Conference in Puerto Rico (October 24-27) has been posted, and it is encouraging to see a variety of panels focusing on digital research methods and topics. Here’s a quick overview:

Friday, October 25, 3:30-5:00pm

114. Early Modern Italy and Pedagogical Practice: From Lay Conservatories to Digital Humanities (Flamingo B)
Organizer: Meredith K. Ray
Chair: Mark Judjevic

  • Educating Rich and Poor Girls in Counter-Reformation Florence
    Jennifer Haraguchi, Brigham Young University
  • Machiavelli and Castiglione: In Service to a Senior Humanities Seminar
    Veena Carlson, Dominican University

120. Digital Maps (1): Mapping the History of Printing and Text Circulation (Tropical A)
Organizer: Colin F. Wilder
Chair: Niall Atkinson

  • “And All the Good Journeymen”: Visualizing the Early Printing Trade
    Greg Prickman, University of Iowa
  • Printing and Text-Transmission Networks in Early Modern Germany
    Colin Wilder, University of South Carolina
  • A cultural Industry on the Digital Highway
    Paul Dijstelberge, University of Amsterdam

Saturday, October 26, 8:30-10:00am

142. Digital Maps (2): Spatial Humanities / New Uses of Digital Mapping (Tropical A)
Organizer: Colin F. Wilder
Chair: Paul Dijstelberge

  • Mapping the Soundscape of Pre-Modern Florence
    Peter Leonard & Niall Atkinson, University of Chicago
  • Envisioning a Historiography: Geospatial and Thematic Connections between Local Social Histories of
    Early Modern Europe
    John Theibault, Richard Stockton College
  • Digital Maps (2): Spatial Humanities / New Uses of Digital Mapping
    Paul Dijstelberge, University of Amsterdam
  • Waves of Empire: Mapping Renaissance Sovereignty at Sea
    Jason Cohen, Berea College

Saturday, October 26, 10:30am-Noon

164. Digital Methods (1): Digitization, Editing and Text Curation (Tropical A)
Organizer: Colin F. Wilder
Chair: John Theibault

  • A comparison of computer-assisted collation techniques
    Gabriel Egan, De Montfort University
  • Standardization and Authenticity: Classroom Use of Archival and Digital Versions of Early Modern
    English Manuscripts
    Marie Baxter, Albion College
  • A Digital Edition of the Business Correspondence of the Venetian printer Giovanni Bartolomeo da
    Gabiano (ca. 1520-1530): Some Technical and Scholarly Considerations
    Giovanni Colavizza, Universitá Ca’Foscari Venezia

Saturday, October 26, 1:30-3:00pm

186. Digital Methods (2): Text Curation, Text Analysis and Network Analysis (Tropical A)
Organizer and Chair: Colin F. Wilder

  • Little Gidding: An Early Modern Digital Humanities Collaboratory
    Whitney Trettien, Duke University
  • Martyrs, Exiles and Dissemblers: The Networking of Protestants during the Marian Persecution (1553-1558)
    Martin Skoeries, University of Leipzig
  • Topic-Modeling the Correspondence of Hugo Grotius
    Matthew Simmermon-Gomes, University of Aberdeen

Saturday, October 26, 3:30-5:00pm
208. Roundtable: Early Modern Digital Humanities (Tropical A)
Organizer and Chair: Colin F. Wilder

Participants:

  • Matthew Simmermon-Gomes, University of Aberdeen
  • Whitney Trettien, Duke University
  • John Theibault, Stockton College
  • Greg Prickman, University of Iowa
  • Paul Dijstelberge, University of Amsterdam
  • Niall Atkinson, University of Chicago

Tropical A certainly looks like the place to be. You can download a PDF of the program here. This will be the first conference I’ve missed in a number of years, and it just happens to be one that is chock-full of sessions related to digital research! This is an encouraging trend, and no doubt one that will continue in the years ahead.