This is a past event
This paper, based on an ongoing digital humanities research project at Simon Fraser University, reports on the challenges faced and theoretical perspectives gained in the digitization, encoding and analysis of “The Lyon in Mourning.” Compiled by Jacobite Episcopalian minister Robert Forbes after the suppression of the 1745 Jacobite Rising, “The Lyon in Mourning” consists of 2148 pages of transcribed conversations, narrative accounts, poems, songs, letters, epitaphs and even material relics such as scraps of fabric and pieces of a boat. It is an extraordinary document in Scottish history, compiled to preserve the memories of those on the losing side of the Jacobite conflict. It is also a remarkable document in the history of text encoding: not only do the ten volumes serve as an early “hypertext” with various cross-references and footnotes throughout the collection, but Forbes’ meticulously compiled manuscript also seems to anticipate the methodological protocols of the TEI, featuring careful documentation on the biographical, bibliographical and presentational metadata about his source material. Drawing from the “msdescription” and “corpus” modules of the TEI, I discuss how the project reveals new evidence about the extent and nature of Jacobite activity in post-1745 Scotland, despite government attempts to suppress the Jacobite cause.
- Speaker
- Leith Davis (Simon Fraser University)
- Hosted by
- Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies
- Venue
- Humanity Manse Seminar Room
- Contact
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For further information please contact Profoessor Michael Brown (m.brown@abdn.ac.uk)