Early Modern Manuscripts Online (EMMO)

Early Modern Manuscripts Online, or EMMO, is a multi-faceted project funded by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) that will provide scholars and the general public with convenient web access to transcriptions, images, and metadata for a substantial number of English manuscripts from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

The EMMO project will make a variety of rare manuscripts from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s premier collection available to users for free via an easy, searchable web site with high-quality images and consistent transcriptions of letters, diaries, wills, coats of arms, literary pieces, recipe books, miscellanies, and more. This combination of resources will enhance research in many disciplines by removing barriers to the rich content of manuscripts, such as: location, early handwriting, and the current inability to search manuscript texts online. At the same time, EMMO will also promote the learning of paleography (the study of pre-modern handwriting methods) through events such as conferences, classes, and online tutorials so users may attain the skills necessary to understand and appreciate these manuscripts in their original form.

The project will advance in phases, so by the end of the three years that are currently funded, the following will be complete:

Phase 1: Create and prepare transcriptions

Phase 2: Develop an optimized, searchable database

Phase 3: Design online tutorials

Phase 4: Roll out shareable software

Educational events highlighting paleography and scholarly research regarding the study of manuscripts will take place throughout all of the above phases and continue beyond these early stages of the project.

Events and presentations

Various events are planned to promote EMMO and its various offerings over the next three years; all of these will encourage discussion of current and potential research projects in paleography and crowdsourcing. A cursory list is below. Check back for updates and additions as the project progresses.

• June 2014: English Paleography: A Mellon Summer 2014 Institute (at the Folger Shakespeare Library), participants from a number of universities attended this month-long intensive training program in order to learn and enhance their paleography skills. Transcriptions made during the institute were contributed to the transcriptions, tags, and glosses that will ultimately appear in EMMO.
• November 2014 - September 2015: Practical Paleography, an informal series of sessions meeting for one hour every other week to transcribe a manuscript page or two, open to readers and staff of the Folger Shakespeare Library.
• December 4, 2014: Transcribe the Renaissance, a noon-to-midnight "transcribathon" in conjunction with the Kislak Center to be held at the University of Pennsylvania.
• December 8-12, 2014: Advanced Early Modern English Paleography, a week-long advanced workshop on paleography in conjunction with the Folger Institute.
• March 18, 2015: Transcribathon at UVa in conjunction with the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville.
• March 26, 2015: Roundtable discussion, Adventures in Crowdsourcing for the Humanities, Renaissance Society of America annual meeting, Berlin, Germany
• May 19, 2015: Transcription Night, 5:30-8:30 PM, at the Big Board on H Street.
• July 2, 2015: Panel presentation, "Crowdsourcing the Text: Contemporary Approaches to Participatory Resource Creation," Global Digital Humanities annual conference, Sydney, Australia.
• July 24, 2015: Presentation in Showcase of Digital Projects, Early Modern Manuscripts Online, Keystone Digital Humanities Conference, Kislak Center for Special Collections, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
• October 7, 2015: Transcribathon in conjunction with the Early Modern Recipes Online Collective (EMROC) at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC.
• October 24, 2015: Transcribathon in conjunction with the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
• December 14-18, 2015: Early Modern English Paleography, a week-long advanced workshop on paleography in conjunction with the Folger Institute.
• Spring 2016: anticipated presentations at various academic annual conferences (e.g., Renaissance Society of America, Sixteenth Century Society and Conference, Modern Language Association, American Historical Association, Society of American Archivists)
• July 2016: English Paleography: Summer Institute (at The Huntington Library), participants from a number of universities will attend this month-long intensive training program in order to learn and enhance their paleography skills.
• Spring 2017: Scholarly conference hosted at the Folger by the Folger Institute

Paleography and transcriptions

The majority of manuscripts written in English during the period stretching from 1500-1700 were written in what has come to be known as secretary hand, a mode of handwriting that most people today cannot read accurately without advanced training in paleography. Since transcriptions customarily serve as the bridge between secretary hand and our present-day typefaces, EMMO will provide searchable transcriptions for ease of use. However, EMMO will also give users the opportunity to learn about paleography and make their own transcriptions.

As more scholars—or anyone interested in the early modern period—engage with the manuscripts directly, intriguing questions about and investigations into language, history, and culture will undoubtedly emerge. Software tools are under development by Folger staff to assist users in the learning process.

Through a combination of methods that includes gathering existing edited and published transcriptions, producing transcriptions at the Folger, organizing special events such as transcribathons, and encouraging robust online crowdsourcing efforts, EMMO will create a body of transcriptions that are then vetted for accuracy and consistency, and published online for study.

The viewable transcriptions in EMMO’s approved collection will follow established conventions of semi-diplomatic transcription i.e., minor alterations will be made in the transcribed text. These changes enhance clarity and facilitate reading for a twenty-first century audience, for example archaic letters such as “þ” (thorn) would be updated to “th.” It is important to remember that the transcriptions in EMMO—as is the case with all transcriptions—are simply useful depictions of what appears on the actual, physical manuscripts. However, the high-quality images that accompany each semi-diplomatic transcription in EMMO will give users a good sense of the original, and comparing the two onscreen constitutes a learning experience of its own.

Text encoding

In addition to transcribing the text of manuscripts, EMMO will encode the transcriptions for proper digital representation online, using tags in XML that adhere to TEI P5 guidelines, thereby giving the digital transcriptions an appropriate and consistent look as well as streamlining them for quick computer searches and analysis. More advanced encoding to add glosses on the text or highlight items for debate may be done in later stages of EMMO or as part of specific research or learning initiatives in the future.

Staffing and structure

Initial funding for EMMO comes from a three-year grant by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS); the project will run from 2014 through early 2017 in its early phases. This broad venture will draw upon the expertise of staff members across several divisions at the Library, including personnel from Central Library, Digital Media and Publications, and Folger Institute.

Key staff at Folger Shakespeare Library involved in EMMO:

Dan DeSimone, Eric Weinmann Librarian (Director for EMMO Project)

Heather Wolfe, Curator of Manuscripts (Primary Investigator for EMMO Project)

Michael Poston, Database Applications Associate

Eric Johnson, Director of Digital Access

Kathleen Lynch, Executive Director, Folger Institute

Owen Williams, Assistant Director for Scholarly Programs, Folger Institute

Elyse Martin, Program Assistant for Scholarly Programs, Folger Institute

Julie Ainsworth, Head of Photography and Digital Imaging

Melanie Leung, Image Request Coordinator

Denny Henry, Photography and Digital Imaging Assistant

Renate Mesmer, J. Franklin Mowery Head of Conservation

Emily Wahl, Metadata Specialist

IMLS grant-funded, dedicated staff hired by Folger:

Paul Dingman, EMMO Project Manager

Sarah Powell, EMMO Project Paleographer

EMMO also has a highly-respected external advisory group whose guidance and assistance will be of immense help in achieving the project’s goals:

Julia Flanders, Brown University

Neil Fraistat, University of Maryland

Alan Galey, University of Toronto

James Ginther, St. Louis University

Ben Vershbow, New York Public Library

Peter Stallybrass, University of Pennsylvania

Alan Stewart, Columbia University

Kathryn James, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University

Elizabeth O’Keefe, The Morgan Library and Museum

The online tools and scholarly programs of EMMO will serve as important resources for students, teachers, and researchers in a host of fields. By expanding the study of paleography and manuscripts, our understanding of the early modern period will deepen. Assumptions about the literary record will be challenged; new questions will be asked and new answers found.

Further Readings

The Collation: EMMO

National Archives - Paleography: reading old handwriting

Early Modern Handwriting: An Introduction by Elisabeth Leedham-Green

Early English Handwriting: 1500-1700

Manuscripts (disambiguation)

Manuscript transcription projects

Digitized manuscripts

Scriptorium: Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts Online

List of online resources for early modern English paleography