Divine offices and commonsense
| Pages | 30-38 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb040641 |
| Published date | 01 March 1997 |
| Date | 01 March 1997 |
| Author | Iain Beavan,Michael Arnott,Colin McLaren |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Divine offices and
commonsense
by lain Beavan, Michael Arnott and
Colin McLaren, Directorate of Informa-
tion Systems and Services, University
of Aberdeen
Aberdeen University Library's digitisation
programme has reached an advanced stage,
with three projects all designed to deliver
images (of
a
300-page medieval liturgical
text,
of
the
papers of
a
nineteenth-century
philosopher,
and of
1000
Jacobite engravings)
via the
Web.
A comparison of these projects
highlights differences in image capture
pathways, quality requirements and file
storage solutions.
Introduction
Aberdeen University's Directorate of Information
Systems and Services, Heritage Division, is cur-
rently undertaking a programme to digitise
sections of the written, printed and visual re-
sources under its charge. The underlying aim is to
facilitate and increase access to the university's
internationally important collections through the
WWW. The overall programme is financed
through the Joint Funding Council's Initiative for
Specialist Research Collections in the Humanities.
Aberdeen University's digitisation programme is
exceptional, in that it is one of only eight
(3%
of
total) such undertakings to be funded by the
Initiative, the majority given over to conservation,
cataloguing and listing, and other more conven-
tional (though no less important) user-related
projects (1).
The pilot project within Aberdeen's programme —
the On-line Bestiary (Version I) — is complete(2).
Work is now well advanced on three subsequent
projects: the digitisation of the Burnet Psalter, the
engravings and woodcuts from the MacBean Stuart
and Jacobite Collection, and the papers of Thomas
Reid (3).
This paper will consider the differences between
each project, particularly the image capture
pathways, the choices of which were largely
determined by the physical nature of the originals
and the image quality requirements of the separate
undertakings.
The Burnet Psalter
The Burnet Psalter was bequeathed to Marischal
College, the university of the New Town of Aber-
deen, by Gilbert Burnet in 1714. Burnet was one of
the College's most celebrated students, graduating
with ease at the tender age of thirteen before going
on to become bishop of Salisbury, friend and
adviser to King William and Queen Mary, and
historian 'of
his
own time'. If Burnet was to speak
later in less than flattering terms of the education
he received at Marischal, the psalter was neverthe-
less a handsome gift to his alma mater. On
aesthetic grounds, at least, it has remained one of
the most prized possessions of the University
Library.
Surprisingly, however, little serious scholarly work
has been done on the psalter. Clues about its
provenance, noted by M.R. James when he cata-
logued it for the Library in 1932, have not been
followed up; and there has been no advance on his
fairly cursory list of
its
contents (4). Only his
description of the artwork as 'Franco-Flemish' has
been questioned, by Dr Donal Byrne of the Univer-
sity's History of Art Department in the 1980s;
sadly, however, Dr Byrne died before he could
begin his intended study of the miniatures.
One reason for the neglect of the psalter over the
past sixty years may have been its relative inacces-
sibility in Aberdeen. Another may have been the
comparative familiarity among art historians and
liturgical scholars with the contents of psalters as a
whole. However, the codicology of such manu-
scripts is now a significant part of the research into
the trade in lay devotional works; while, more
recently, there has been a revival of interest in
traditional religion in the Middle Ages, as much
from a cultural as a religious viewpoint
(5).
This
seems a particularly appropriate time, therefore, to
publish the Burnet Psalter in digital format: mak-
ing it more accessible; stimulating interest in its
provenance and illustrations; and providing, for the
first time on the Internet, a collection of prayers,
hymns, commemorations and incantations,
30
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VINE 107
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