French Vernacular Books: A Short-Title Catalogue of Books in the French language published before 1601
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Grant Holder:
Professor Andrew Pettegree
The St Andrews French Book Project intends to create an analytical bibliography of all books published in the French language before 1601. It is the first ever global survey of early French books, based on an exhaustive investigation of over 1550 libraries worldwide. It is also the first major national bibliographical project to have been designed and completed entirely in the electronic age. Intended ultimately to be available both as a hard-cover reference tool and fully searchable on-line resource, it is an indispensable resource for the study of the history, literature and culture of early modern France.
| Project start date: 1997-08 | Project end date: 2007-08 |
Subject domains:
Era(s):
Country/region(s):
| Methods used | Category |
|---|---|
| 2d Scanning and photography | Data capture |
| Collating | Data analysis |
| Image enhancement | Data structuring and enhancement |
| Use of existing digital data | Data capture |
| Manual input and transcription | Data capture |
Funding sources:
Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
Content types created:
Dataset/structured data, Still Image/Graphics, Text
Software tools used:
Microsoft Access, Oracle, Adobe Acrobat
Source material used:
Location information on some 150,000 copies have been carefully logged, gathered from the incorporation of published library catalogues and specialist bibliographies, on-line searches of library holdings, and from inventories compiled from library visits. From the beginning, the project has paid particular attention to the provincial libraries of France.
Digital resource created:
Database containing references to over 50,000 editions, existing in around 150,000 known copies. 30,500 of the 50,000 editions have been inspected in at least one copy and have been fully described. These descriptions include collations, title page transcriptions and information on dedications and privileges. In total, 56,000 individual copies have been inspected. The data collection portion of the system is handled in Microsoft Access. The publishing portion of the system is managed in Oracle. The Oracle database will be used to render the data in short title catalogue form. It will also form the backend of the online version.
A key feature of our database is the inclusion of a linked image databank which contains digital photographs of around 20,000 title pages. This resource has proved immensely valuable to researchers in the field in helping them to identify often subtle differences between different states.
Access to digital resource:
Open Access
Data Formats created:
JPEG File Interchange Format (JPG), Microsoft Access Database (MDB), Oracle Database
Project staff and expertise:
| Principal staff member: | Dr Alexander Wilkinson; Dr Malcolm Walsby; Professor Andrew Pettegree |
|---|---|
| Other staff: | PhD student(s), Postdoctoral researcher(s) / Research assistant(s) |
| External expertise: |
| Metadata on this arts-humanities.net record | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) of record | Alexander Wilkinson |
| Title | French Vernacular Books: A Short-Title Catalogue of Books in the French language published before 1601 |
| Record created | 2005-11-07 |
| Record updated | 2011-01-14 17:26 |
| URL of record | http://www.arts-humanities.net/node/2152 |
| Citation of record | Alexander Wilkinson: French Vernacular Books: A Short-Title Catalogue of Books in the French language published before 1601. <http://www.arts-humanities.net/node/2152> created: 2005-11-07, last updated 2011-01-14 17:26 |