Pizan

The Making of the Queen's Manuscript

The AHRC-funded proect 'The Making of the Queen's Manuscript' focused on London, British Library, Harley MS 4431, the largest surviving collected manuscript of the works of Christine de Pizan (1365-ca1431). Commissioned by Queen Isabel of France, the collection was planned, copied, decorated and corrected under Christine's direct supervision, before being presented to Queen Isabel early in 1414. This research programme has been funded by an Arts and Humanities Research Council grant of £199,716 over the five years from 1 October 2004 to 31 October 2009, and was carried out in partnership with the British Library. The BL contributed a complete set of high-resolution digital images of Harley MS 4431.

The Research Programme

The planned outcomes of the research programme were a study of Christine de Pizan's language. In that connexion the University of Edinburgh signed a collaboration agreement with ATILF (Analyse et Traitement Informatique de la Langue Française - Analysis and Computer Processing of the French Language), a joint research unit of the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) and the University of Nancy 2. ATILF is recognised worldwide for its outstanding work on the French language from the Middle Ages to the present day. Of particular relevance to The Making of the Queen's Manuscript is the ATILF research on Old and Middle French which has developed the Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes and the Dictionnaire du Moyen Français.

French and Special Collections

The project was located in the University of Edinburgh, partly in the French section of the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, partly in the Special Collections department of Edinburgh University Library (EUL). The Project Director was Professor James Laidlaw. Dr Andrew Grout, Special Collections Digital Library Officer, was Project Officer. The Research Associate was Dr Charles Mansfield. Dr Justin Clegg, Curator of Medieval Literary Manuscripts, was the Project Officer for the British Library.

References

Laidlaw, J. and Mansfield, C. (2006). 'Designing a Digital Version of British Library Harley MS 4431. The Making of the Queen's Manuscript' in Van Hemelryck, Tania & Van Hoorebeeck, Céline (éds), L'écrit et le manuscrit à la fin du Moyen Âge, Turnhout: Brepols, 2006 (ISBN 2503519911)

Mansfield, C. (2010). 'The Accolades Project on Large Textual Corpora - Working Paper', Edinburgh Research Archive (ERA), Edinburgh. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/4836

Mansfield, C. (2007). 'Modéliser l'espace dans les textes en moyen français : le développement d'un script informatisé pour faire le tamisage (SIFT)', Edinburgh Research Archive (ERA), Edinburgh. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/1983

Members of the research team

James Laidlaw, Emeritus Professor of French, University of Aberdeen; Honorary Professorial Fellow, University of Edinburgh (Project Director)

Justin Clegg, Curator of Medieval Literary Manuscripts, British Library

Marie-Thérèse Gousset, Ingénieur de recherche, Centre de recherche sur les manuscrits enluminés, Bibliothque nationale de France

Andrew Grout, Digital Library Officer, Edinburgh University Library

Anthony Lodge, Emeritus Professor of French, University of St Andrews

Charles Mansfield, Lecturer in Tourism, Managing People and French

Gabriella Parussa, Professeur à l’Université de Paris III

Christine Reno, Professor of French, Vassar College

René Stuip, Associate Professor of French, University of Utrecht

Tania Van Hemelryck, Professeur à l’Université catholique de Louvain, Chercheur qualifié du F.R.S. - FNRS, Groupe de recherche sur le moyen français

Consultants to the project

François Avril, Conservateur général honoraire, Département des manuscrits, Bibliothèque nationale de France

†Gilbert Ouy, Directeur de Recherche Émérite, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

 

Researchers associated with the project

Mark Aussems, Ph.D. (University of Edinburgh)

Olivier Delsaux, Groupe de recherche sur le moyen français, Université catholique de Louvain