The Virtual Monastery: Integrating Archaeology. Architecture and Text at St-Jean-des-Vignes

FAIN: RZ-50207-04

Brown University (Providence, RI 02912-9100)
Sheila Bonde (Project Director: November 2003 to September 2008)

Development of a digital publication allowing the exploration of archaeological and historical issues through the various modes of information: the site plan and reconstructions, the text of the chapter book and translations, and the material culture database.

This collaborative project will create a multi-disciplinary research environment for the exploration of an important medieval abbey, Saint-Jean-des-Vignes in Soissons (France). The project will bring together archaeologists, architectural historians, scholars of comparative liturgy and experts in information design. The resulting tool will integrate standing and excavated buildings and the abbey's unpublished Latin chapter book with a set of interactive architectural models and site plans, as well as a database containing records of the material culture of the site. A print and CD-ROM edition of the chapter book with contextual discussion of the site's architecture is also planned. The proposed NEH project will provide researchers with a virtual and interdisciplinary entry into the daily life and social context of a medieval monastery.