shakespeare quarto archives
TRANSCRIPT
Scholarly Digital Libraries
Provides online access across geographical boundaries
Open access
Furnishes materials held in various locations
Supplies primary sources for a scholar, educator, student Images – captured in high resolution Text – transcribed and fully searchable Video – may be primary sources or tutorial
Shakespeare Quartos Archive
Intended audience Literary scholars Theatre professionals – actors, directors,
playwrights University students Educators
Value of Quartos
No manuscripts survive
Quartos are earliest extant copies from Shakespeare’s lifetime (1567-1616)
They show what Shakespeare probably wrote
About half of Shakespeare’s plays printed as quartos Quarto refers to the format or paper folding
and leaves Formats include: folio, quarto, octavo,
duodecimo
Uses of Shakespeare Archive
Quartos are dispersed throughout the world
Archive provides central point of accessing 32 quartos
Scholars and researchers need to examine different editions for variations in text
Archive provides electronic tools to analyze text
Scholars need annotations and marginalia
Tools Enable
Comparison between two or more texts
Images of pages can be cropped and resized for study
Search feature allows users to search across all editions
Cue lines rendered in blue for staging prompts
Site provides tools for notes, labels, and exhibitions
Examples of Functionality
Select a library
Multiple Editions, Locations
1603 Edition, British Library
Multiple Editions, Locations
1637 Edition, National Library of Scotland
Compare Editions, Copies
British Library, 1603 and Huntington Library, 1603
Compare Editions, Copies
British Library, 1603; Huntington, 1603; Folger, 1604
Textual Comparison
British Library, 1603 and British Library, 1605 Highlight indicates difference in text
Zoom and Details
British Library, 1603 -- Zoom and Bleeding Ink
Zoom and Notes
British Library, 1603 and Annotations
Search Across Texts
Huntington, 1604; Search Across All Texts
Cue Lines -- Actors, Directors
British Library, 1603; Cue Lines
Notation Features
Bodleian Library 1622, Note with Label
Annotation, Print View
Example of notes about possible printer’s errors as reason for variation
Digitization, Administrative Data
Location of encoding – British Library and Folger Library
Thank you!
Florence Paisey, Spring 2012