Types of Digitalization

Even when manuscripts were being copied by hand in scriptoria, there was doubt as to how to transcribe them, and difficulty deciding exactly what processes should be used to preserve valuable meaning and artistic integrity. When printed transcriptions began to appear, we had the option os using runes or not, then using photographs or not, and with technology our options multiply into types of paper and ink, transcriptions, commentaries, interpretations, and more.

Most manuscripts that we find on the internet are being produced for the sake of scholars, or for the education of the general public. This means that there is a wide variety of digitalisation protocol, ranging from simple transcription of text to actual recreation and interpretation.

For ease of viewing here, I have divided them into four groups: those with solely transcriptions of text, those with selected images but no whole manuscripts, those with edited multimedia productions which are likely to be on a larger scale than the previous examples, and unusual or unorthodox examples of medieval manuscript reproduction on the internet.