A Digital Studio for the Optical and Chemical Analysis Of Manuscripts and Printed Books

FAIN: HD-51668-13

University of Missouri, Kansas City (Kansas City, MO 64110-2235)
Jeffrey A. Rydberg-Cox (Project Director: October 2012 to May 2016)

The analysis of a 15th-century printed book and development of an online educational resource to further researchers’ understanding of how a range of imaging technologies offer new knowledge about the production and reception of books and manuscripts.

We propose the creation of a digital studio for the optical and chemical analysis of manuscripts and printed books. In this Level II start-up project, we will capture images of a 1472 guide for priests written in Latin by a Florentine archbishop and printed in Strasbourg using moveable type. We will image selected pages from this book at specific frequencies in the ultraviolet-visible-near-infrared spectrum. We will also conduct spot-level densitometry and Raman spectroscopy on elements in this book. The resulting data from these images will then allow us to create a digital studio that will include interactive tutorials and demonstrations explaining the principles of optical and chemical analysis to students, scholars, and life-long learners in the humanities. This digital studio will also allow users to browse and compare the images and spectroscopic data to form their own understanding of the book’s production process and reception history.