Projects / Programmes
Unknown 17th and 18th century manuscripts of Slovenian literature: information-technology aided register, scholarly editions and analyses
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 6.07.00 |
Humanities |
Literary sciences |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| H390 |
Humanities |
General and comparative literature, literary criticism, literary theory |
Slovenian literature, manuscripts, baroque, enlightenment, scholarly editing, digital resources, digital editions, language technologies, digital humanities, XML, TEI
Researchers (15)
Organisations (3)
Abstract
The number, location and nature of preserved but unpublished Slovenian-language manuscripts from the 17th and 18th centuries are still unknown. Although included in a number of works on Slovenian literary and general history, these aspects have always been given a sketchy treatment, serving merely to illustrate the general outlines of the nation’s literary and cultural development. The subject has never been systematically researched; with the exception of Kidrič’s article (cf. 15.3), no register has been made of the Slovenian-language manuscripts belonging to this period. Even some of those entered on the record of Slovenian literary history, e.g. the comprehensive Skalar manuscript from 1643, have remained unpublished and relatively unknown despite their importance. The same applies to the manuscripts of Slovenian literature in a broader sense, i.e. to largely unknown official texts including oaths, bequests, announcements, etc. A large share of this material has only come to light in the recent years, suggesting the possibility of still new discoveries. Thus we propose to do the following:
• Systematically collect the data on Slovenian-language manuscripts from the 17th, 18th, and sometimes early 19th centuries, preserved in the collections of Slovenian and other institutions, and produce a digitised manuscript register, open to the addition of new discoveries.
• Publish a selection of representative, hitherto unpublished texts in scholarly digital editions.
• Analyse the above-mentioned texts from the aspects of literary history and theory, as well as of Slovenian linguistic, cultural, and general history.
The recording, analysis, publication, and transmission of manuscripts belonging to this period will be based on modern information technologies and their application to the humanities (cf. 15.2, Section II.). The high-performance, user-friendly electronic tools developed in the course of the project will be freely accessible on the Internet, thus enabling other interested scholars to join in the further examination and publication of manuscripts.
Given that only a few books were published in Slovenian language in 17th and 18th cent., every discovery of Slovenian-language manuscript (and even fragment) is of considerable importance.
Significance for science
The results of the NRSS project are relevant to several Humanities disciplines in Slovenia – mostly for literary studies, cultural history and general history. By this project, the first electronic archive of Slovenian-language manuscripts was produced and is freely available in open access
<http://nl.ijs.si:8080/fedora/get/nrss:nrss/VIEW/>.
The archive integrates scholarly descriptions of distinguished Slovenian manuscripts from the era of baroque and enlightenment, together with their digital images. Many manuscripts which are 'published' here, are hardly known in literary studies, while some others are recorded for the first time at all. In this way, the results of the project contribute considerably to a more complete knowledge of Slovenian culture and literature in the 17th and 18th centuries.
For the manuscript descriptions and the XML encoding, the Ms module of the Text Encoding Initiative Guidelines was used. For the repository, the Fedora Commons system was used together with Lucene SoLR search engine. In this way, old Slovenian-language primary sources – many of them for the very first time at all – were analysed, described and represented by means of the most up-to-date IT tools for the research in the Digital Humanities.
Significance for the country
The digital Register of 17th and 18th cent. Slovenian-language manuscripts, available in open access <http://nl.ijs.si:8080/fedora/get/nrss:nrss/VIEW/>, is the first specialized digital archive of manuscripts in Slovenia.
In this Register, the descriptions of Slovenian manuscripts from the baroque and enlightenment centuries, which are scattered in libraries, archives and collections throughout Slovenia, together with their digital images, are collected and presented in one place. These manuscripts have been written in towns and in monasteries in the valleys and in villages and farms in the mountains. Writers of these manuscripts, for the most part, didn't know for each other. And yet, they were writing because of a congenial fundamental impetus: they were acting out of the Slovenian religious culture – in its various forms and its varied expressions – which always tended to exist as written culture in manifold genres and literary forms. In the Register, the works of these writers – who didn't know for each other's work – are collected, described and presented in a digital environment. Until today, many of these manuscripts were nearly or completely unknown to the public. Now, the Register gives a direct insight to the Slovenian handwritten literature from baroque and enlightenment periods. In Slovenia, surprisingly, the manuscript culture retained significant impact and role in both periods and marked them at least as much as the book culture did. This is why the NRSS Register gives a new insight into literary and cultural history of Slovenians in early modern time. By the use of the NRSS Register, the interested public may find a new, more direct and genuine contact with an important part of Slovenian cultural heritage in the long period between the Reformation movement and Romanticism.
Most important scientific results
Annual report
2008,
2009,
final report,
complete report on dLib.si
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Annual report
2008,
2009,
final report,
complete report on dLib.si
