biblio: The rewards of digitisation: a corpus-based approach to writing history

The digitisation of primary materials and other research aids in the Humanities started some time ago, with numerous collections and texts now available in a range of formats from CD ROM to online database. To this broad portfolio we add a contribution aimed at historians: an interactive and interpretative resource on early-modern trade, retailing, and material culture, the DICTIONARY OF TRADED GOODS AND COMMODITIES 1550-1820.



This paper focuses on the construction of that Dictionary as an example of the use of digitised material. As a work of reference it provides an additional interpretative layer between historians and their data.