Rome Wasn't Digitized in a Day - Council on Library and Information ...

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palaeographical expertise can the tool or its modules <strong>in</strong>corporate” Ciula asked, add<strong>in</strong>g that “if the use
of the tool itself contributes to def<strong>in</strong>e, ref<strong>in</strong>e and enrich the underly<strong>in</strong>g method, to what extent can this
process be fed back <strong>in</strong>to the tool and make it more sophisticated” (Ciula 2009). The iterative process
of model<strong>in</strong>g scholarly expertise <strong>in</strong> a computational manner and creat<strong>in</strong>g a tool that can both utilize this
<strong>in</strong>itial knowledge and feed new knowledge back <strong>in</strong>to the system has also been explored by the eSAD
project <strong>in</strong> their development of an <strong>in</strong>terpretation support system for papyrologists (Tarte 2011, Olsen et
al. 2009).
In sum, Ciula hoped that the functionality of the SPI could be turned <strong>in</strong>to a paleographical module that
could be utilized as a web service as part of larger <strong>in</strong>frastructure that might be used <strong>in</strong> the “creation and
annotation of digital editions.” Other necessities Ciula proposed for a larger digital research
<strong>in</strong>frastructure <strong>in</strong>cluded the need for documentation and transparency, the use of standards, systems that
were extensible and <strong>in</strong>teroperable, and more fund<strong>in</strong>g for <strong>in</strong>terdiscipl<strong>in</strong>ary research.
Papyrology
As described by Bauer et al. (2008) papyrology “focuses on the study of ancient literature,
correspondence, legal archives, etc. as preserved <strong>in</strong> papyri.” Both <strong>in</strong>dividual papyri collections and
massive <strong>in</strong>tegrated databases of papyri can be found onl<strong>in</strong>e. In fact, digital papyrology is considered to
be a relatively “mature” digital discipl<strong>in</strong>e. 458 “Repositories for certa<strong>in</strong> primary sources, such as papyri,
are already play<strong>in</strong>g an important role <strong>in</strong> ensur<strong>in</strong>g access to digital surrogates of artifacts,” Harley et al.
(2010) observed, add<strong>in</strong>g that “<strong>in</strong> the study of written evidence, these databases of annotated primary
sources could also play an important role as digital critical editions.” As noted <strong>in</strong> the discussion of
<strong>in</strong>scriptions, the amount of scholarly edit<strong>in</strong>g and <strong>in</strong>terpretation that often goes <strong>in</strong>to the production of
onl<strong>in</strong>e images and transcriptions of papyri should be considered ak<strong>in</strong> to the act of creat<strong>in</strong>g a critical
scholarly edition.
The discipl<strong>in</strong>e of papyrology began to take shape <strong>in</strong> the late 1880s and 1890s, accord<strong>in</strong>g to an article
by Ann E. Hanson, and the importance of these sources for the study of the ancient world was quickly
recognized:
A direct and immediate contact with the ancient Mediterranean was be<strong>in</strong>g established, as texts,
unexam<strong>in</strong>ed s<strong>in</strong>ce antiquity, were be<strong>in</strong>g made available to the modern world. To be sure, this
writ<strong>in</strong>g paper of the ancients had been used not only for elegant rolls of Greek literature, but
also for quite everyday purposes <strong>in</strong> a variety of languages, accounts, letters, petitions,
medic<strong>in</strong>al recipes. Still, it was the copies of Greek literature which had not survived <strong>in</strong> the
manuscript traditions that were particularly prized <strong>in</strong> the early days, for these were the more
accessible to scholars tra<strong>in</strong>ed <strong>in</strong> the authors of the canon (Hanson 2001).
Papyri thus offered access not just to works of lost literature but also to the documents of daily life. In
the late-n<strong>in</strong>eteenth and early-twentieth centuries, many European and American libraries began to
create collections of papyri such as from Tebtunis, 459 Oxyrhynchus, 460 and Herculaneum, 461
collections that are <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>gly becom<strong>in</strong>g available onl<strong>in</strong>e. Despite some competition for collections,
Hanson noted there was a considerable amount of collegiality between scholars and collectors that was
458 For example, the 26 th International Conference on Papyrology has three separate sessions on “Digital Technology and Tools of the Trade”
(http://www.stoa.org/p=1177).
459 http://tebtunis.berkeley.edu/
460 http://www.papyrology.ox.ac.uk/POxy
461 http://www.herculaneum.ox.ac.uk/papyri.html