3DVisA Resources

3DVisA Index of 3D Projects: Palaeography and Manuscript Studies

The Jean Froissart Project

The aim of this project is to produce an online edition of writings by Jean Froissart (c.1337-c.1404), the chronicler of the Hundred Years' War between France and England. The original manuscripts - some one hundred vellum and paper documents - are housed in dispersed archives in Europe and the United States. Due to the condition and rarity of these documents, access is restricted even to scholars; the manuscripts cannot be examined comparatively in one location. The project will provide scholars with images of folios and 3D visualisation of related objects, such as arms and armour recorded by the chronicler. This will open the manuscripts and their historical and cultural contexts to further study.

This project will develop an online viewing environment, which will enable simultaneous examination of several manuscripts and associated artefacts. It will also provide tools for the annotation of the folios, and parallel transcription and translation of the text. The resource will be delivered via the Data and Access Grids. This will be archived with the support of the White Rose Grid, and the Royal Armouries. The project also plans to use a SRB client developed by a research student for the Froissart database; and will trial the technology within a local Virtual Research Environment (VRE).

Project dates: 2006.

Resource status: To be created. The prototype application is decribed on the project's website.

Contributors:

The Jean Froissart Project is directed by Professor Peter Ainsworth, Department of French, University of Sheffield. The collaborators include: Dr Godfried Croenen, Institutional Research Fellow in the Department of French, University of Liverpool, and Emeritus Professor Christopher Allmand, formerly Head of the Department of History, University of Liverpool. Also closely associated with the project are Professors George T. Diller of the University of Florida at Gainesville, Alberto Varvaro of the Università Federico II, Naples, Richard Rouse and Mary Rouse of the University of California at Los Angeles, USA.

The principal collaborating organisations for the technical side of the project are the Royal Armouries Museum, with premises at Leeds, Louisville KY, Fort Nelson (Hants) and the Tower of London, the White Rose Grid and the World Universities Network, as well as various libraries and museums in France. The digitisation consultant for this project is the photographer, Colin Dunn of Scriptura Ltd., Oxford.

Funding:

The Jean Froissart Project is funded by the Humanities Research Board of the British Academy, the Higher Education Funding Council of England and Northern Ireland, the University of Liverpool and the Leverhulme Trust.

Sources and further details:

The Jean Froissart Project website.

The project page at the University of Sheffield Humanities Research Institute website.

Case Studies in Advanced ICT Methods: The Jean Froissart Project, the Arts and Humanities website, formerly at the AHRC ICT Methods Network website.

Information provided by Professor Peter Ainsworth. Record compiled by Anna Bentkowska-Kafel. Record created 12 July 2006. Last updated: 17 February 2009.

3DVisA gratefully acknowledges the help of Professor Peter Ainsworth with preparation of this record.

© The Jean Froissart Project and 3DVisA.