Lynn Ransom
Lynn Ransom joined Penn Libraries in February 2008 as the Project Manager for the Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts and is a founding member of the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies. Lynn holds a B.A. in art history from the University of the South and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in medieval art history, with an emphasis on manuscript illumination. Before coming to Penn, Lynn held positions in the manuscript collections at the Free Library of Philadelphia and the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, MD. She also served as a researcher at the Index of Christian Art at Princeton University. She has published on manuscript illumination of the 13th and 16th centuries. Her current research interests involve the provenance of medieval manuscripts and the research potential of Name Authorites in Linked Open Data contexts.
Lynn oversaw the NEH-funded redevelopment of the Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts (2014-2017) into an open-access, user-maintained finding aid for the world's pre-modern manuscripts and served as the Principal Investigator for the US team on the Mapping Manuscript Migrations project, a Round 4 Trans-Atlantic Platform Digging into Data Challenge Award recipient (2017-2020). She is currently serving as the Director of Digital Medievalist (until 2022) and the President and Executive Director of Digital Scriptorium (2021-2023). She is also Co-Editor of the Schoenberg Institute's journal Manuscript Studies. A list of her other publications can be found here.
In this paper I will discuss some of the issues relating to the digitization of manuscript rolls, focusing on a fifteenth-century genealogical roll produced during the Wars of the Roses currently held at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch in New Zealand, the Canterbury Roll. A collaboration between scholars at UC and Nottingham Trent University in the UK, the current project provides a test case for exploring the challenges of representing these large, complex, and delicate material objects in digital form. As the project moves into a new phase, we are exploring new ways to incorporate, compare and contrast more rolls, adding layers of historical interpretation, network analysis, and heritage science data. I will discuss how we might combine three research streams – History, Heritage Science, and Digital Humanities – to better understand the impetus and processes behind the construction of genealogical rolls as well as the establishment of their wider socio-cultural and political importance.
A recording of the event is available via this link on the SIMS Youtube channel..
More information about the SIMS Online Lecture Series can be found here.
Dr. Natasha Hodgson is Associate Professor in History and Director of the Centre for the Study of Religion and Conflict at Nottingham Trent University in the UK. Her recent publications include Miracles Power and Authority in Medieval and Early Modern History (Routledge, 2021); Religion and Conflict in Medieval and Early Modern Worlds: Identities, Communities and Authorities (Routledge, 2020); Crusading and Masculinities (Routledge, 2019) and Women, Crusading and the Holy Land in Historical Narrative (Boydell, 2017). She has also published diverse articles and datasets on Domesday Book, Norman identity, animal symbolism, honour and shame, and Armenian Cilicia. She is the editor of the journal Nottingham Medieval Studies and two Routledge book series: Themes in Medieval and Early Modern History and Advances in Crusades Research. She was appointed co-director of the Canterbury Roll Project in 2021 alongside Dr. Chris Jones of the University of Canterbury.
