Unlocking the Mysteries of a Medieval Chant Book with Multispectral Imaging

FAIN: HAA-271735-20

University of Missouri, Kansas City (Kansas City, MO 64110-2235)
Jeffrey A. Rydberg-Cox (Project Director: January 2020 to present)
Virginia Blanton (Co Project Director: July 2020 to present)
Nathan Oyler (Co Project Director: July 2020 to present)
Yugyung Lee (Co Project Director: July 2020 to present)
Zhu Li (Co Project Director: July 2020 to present)

The refinement and dissemination of a new method for multispectral imaging of early modern manuscripts and print materials, drawing upon special collections held by the University of Missouri, Kansas City, the Linda Hall Library of Science, and the University of Kansas.

This Level III Digital Humanities Advancement Grant project has three goals: 1) to use a multispectral imaging system to study palimpsests in a medieval chant book owned by LaBudde Special Collections at the University of Missouri Kansas City Libraries; 2) to develop an alternative, deep learning model that will allow us to derive visible light multispectral images from normal RGB images; and 3) to apply both methodologies comparatively, testing their efficacy on the UMKC chant book and on two additional heritage documents held by other libraries in the Kansas City region. Should this alternative be viable, it will dramatically reduce the cost and lower the economic barriers for other scholars, archivists, and librarians who would like to use multispectral analysis for their materials. In effect, it would allow humanities centers, libraries, and archives the ability to conduct their own investigations with these techniques using readily available and affordable equipment.