Computers and the Medievalist

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Medieval Academy of America

Report: Computers and the MedievalistAuthor(s): Vern L. Bullough, Serge Lusignan, Thomas H. OhlgrenSource: Speculum, Vol. 49, No. 2 (Apr., 1974), pp. 392-402Published by: Medieval Academy of AmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2856091

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ReportCOMPUTERS AND THE MEDIEVALIST

COMPUTERS imply quantification and quantification is nothing new to medievalists, whohave been interested in word counts, in manuscript collation, and in various kinds ofdemographic and economic data. Medievalists have calculated such things as the price ofbasic cereal at Namur from 1392 to 1490, the influence of the plague upon the accession ofnew bourgeois, and population in medieval England.' All of these studies were made beforethe development of the computer, and many of us continue to do similar studies withoutusing the computer. Since the early 1960s, however, the number of computer-oriented re-search projects in medieval studies has proliferated. This report is a survey of representa-tive examples of these activities. The compilation of research is not intended to be ex-haustive since the more we investigate the more we find medievalists working in compara-tive isolation, not knowing that there are others also active in the field. A listing ofprojects, in addition, has proved to be more difficult than anticipated because many ofthe projects noted in the various publications have been dropped or suspended for variousreasons, often the lack of funds. Many other announced projects have been quietly buriedas their chief investigator, the standard term used for listing the scholar involved, sud-denly realized that the computer was not going to solve the problems he thought it wasgoing to solve. Still, in spite of these difficulties, we have located about 200 differentindividuals working in some aspect of medieval studies on a computerized basis.2 Thefield covered by this survey is extremely wide. All known projects have not been listedhere, but we have tried to give significant examples of the different types of computer-assisted research within the field of medieval studies and some bibliographical references,hoping that they will provide sufficient hints for further research.The common denominator of medievalists is a set of cultural data inherited from adefined period rather than a method. Consequently, the different types of computer studieshereafter surveyed are first of all grouped along the types of data processed: literary data,musical data, archeological data and lastly social and economic data. A much greaternumber of projects fall within the first class, as is generally the case with any survey ofthe use of computers in a humanistic field. However, we must admit that social andeconomic data processing is not as well represented here as in other domains of history.Many projects carried out by historians fall within the field of literary data processingsince texts are their raw material.

1LeopoldGenicot,"CrisisFrom the MiddleAgesto ModernTimes," n the CambridgeconomicHistory, ditedby M. M. Postan, (2nded., Cambridge, 966), igure12,p. 685,and table18,p. 693,and JosiahC. Russell,LateAncientandMedievalPopulation Philadelphia,1958),but particularlyBritishMedievalPopulation Albuquerque, 948).2 Ourmainsourcesofinformation reComputersnd heHumanitiesCHum)DirectoriesfScholarsActive ndComputersndMedievalDataProcessingCAMDAP)which n 1971began istingresearchin progressn medievalstudies.For each projectwe referto, we give the reference o the CHumdescriptionn Directory f ScholarsActiveand the CAMDAPnumbering,f such a descriptionhasalreadybeenpublished.ComputersndMedievalDataProcessings theoutcomeof aresolution oteduponby the MediaevalAcademyof America's tandingCommitteeon CentersandRegionalAssociations.Chairmans JeanGagne,Membersre Aldo S. Bernardo Centerfor Medievaland EarlyRenaissanceStudies,StateUniversityof New York at Binghamton),Thomas H. Ohlgren(Departmentof English,Purdue

University),Advisorsre:JohnR. Allen(UniversityofManitoba,Winnipeg),PaulBratley (Departe-ment d'informatique,Universitede Montreal),VernBullough(CaliforniaState University,North-ridge),SergeLusignan Institutd'etudesmedievales,Universitede Montreal),PhilipH. Smith,Jr(Universityof Waterloo),RichardL. Venezky(WisconsinResearchand DevelopmentCenterforCognitiveLearning,Universityof Wisconsin).The bulletin s sent freeof chargeby applying o JeanGagn6, nstitut d'6tudesmedi6vales,UniversitedeMontreal,C.P.6128,Montreal101, P.Q.,Canada.


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ReportLITERARY DATA PROCESSING

Projects in the field of literary data processing range from concordancing, indexing,and other types of character-string manipulation to the more sophisticated statisticalstudies, textual criticism, and literary analysis.Computers, it has been said, have their finest hour in preparing concordances. This isparticularly the case with the concordances to some of the medieval source materials inLatin, Old English, Middle English, Old German, and Old French, where the number ofworks and words are fairly limited. Previously, concordances have not only required largequantities of finickly clerical work, but great devotion to detail. Very sophisticated con-cordance packages have been written which permit the arrangement of all occurrences ofall the words in a text in alphabetical order, give their places of occurrence, and their en-vironment, and are capable of yielding output in any alphabetical order. Some of theseprogramspermit mapping of two or more characters into one, distinguish between differentfunctions of the same character, and preserve in the finaloutput information that was notconcorded. Sometimes they include a user's word list or some other means that permitsthe scholar not only to include or exclude words but also to transfer all instances of oneword to another heading, such as listing "go" under "went," to include non-first elementsof words, to concord Beowulf under both the B's and W's, and to organize the final con-cordance along the lines of a thesaurus.3One of the pioneering works in automatic concordancing is Robert Busa's concordanceand indices to the Corpus Thomisticum. This project involved the encoding of severalmillion words and is of great importance for scholars interested in St. Thomas and me-dieval Latin. It is now coming to completion and the first six volumes will be releasedsoon.4 Another important concordance-generation project is that of the Centre de Traite-ment Electronique des Documents of the Universite Catholique de Louvain (CETEDOC),directed by Paul Tombeur. The Louvain Center aims at the production of basic tools toassist medievalists in their research in the form of concordances, indices and vocabularycounts. Scholars at this center are involved in various philological studies of medievalLatin literature. Among their main projects are the preparation of a Belgian dictionaryof medieval Latin for which they are encoding works written in Belgium anterior to 1200,and the study of the medieval oecumenical councils (from Latran I to Latran V), a projectcarried out under the direction of Professor Michel Mollat.5 A project of great interest forthe historian as well as for the philologist is the encoding and keypunching of all pre 1100medieval French deeds. This work, begun under the inspiration of Professor Jean

3Among theseconcordance ackagesare CONCORDproducedat the EdinburghRegionalCom-putingCenter,whichhas been discussedby N. Hamilton-Smithn his recentlypublishedpaper"Aversatileconcordance rogramora textualarchive" n R. A. Wisbey,Thecomputern literaryandlinguistic esearchCambridge,971),p. 235-244;COCOA, roduced t the AtlasComputerLabora-tory (Chilton,Didcot,Berkshire)by G. L. M. Berry-Rogghewhichhasrecentlybeenrewritten; ndJEUDEMO:Systeme etraitementetexte,a text handling ystem by PaulBratley,SergeLusignanand FrancineOuellette romthe Universitede Montreal(handoutin Englishavailablefrom theauthors)which willsoonbe operating.4 R. Busa, Indicis thomisticiedendi rationes, mensuraeatque specimina (Pisa: Centro Naz. Univers.Calc. elettronico, 1968), CHum S-43 (ii, 2; ii, 5; iv, 2), CAMDAP 68 (ii, 2). The publisher of the40 volumesof the series s Frommann romStuttgart.6 Paul Tombeurand AndreStainier,"Les methodeset les travaux du Centre de TraitementElectronique des Documents," Bulletin de Philosophie medievale,x-xn (1968-70), 141-74, and PaulTombeur,"Researchcarriedout at the Centre de TraitementElectroniquedes Documentsof theCatholicUniversityofLouvain,"nA.J. Aitkenet al., TheComputerndLiterary tudies Edinburgh,1973)p. 335-340. Onthe useof computersn the fieldof canon awsee the veryrecentarticleby A.Stainierand E. VanBalberghe, Letraitementautomatique es collections ystematiques nterieuresau D6cret de Gratien," Revue d'histoireecclsiastique, LXVIII (1973), 465-480.

393


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394 ReportSchneider,5 is conducted by Lucie Fossier and Michel Parisse from Nancy. These scholarsare particularly interested in the philological study of legal vocabulary as well as in thediplomatic formulas.6 Altogether, these projects will surely throw some light on thepeculiar nature of medieval Latin.

Specialists in medieval vernacular languages are also receiving wide benefits from thecomputer. An ambitious project is the proposed Dictionary of Old English, which willeventually replace the old Bosworth-Toller Dictionary. The publication plans resultedfrom a 1969 conference at Toronto on Computers and Old English Concordances.7AngusCameron (Toronto) and C. J. E. Ball (Lincoln College, Oxford) were subsequentlyappointed editors of the Dictionary. A second Conference was held in September 1970.A summary of it and other material related to the enterprise has been published byCameron and Ball in A Plan for the Dictionary of Old English (Toronto, 1973). RichardVenezky (University of Wisconsin) chairs the Computer Committee of the Dictionary.The transcription on magnetic tapes of the complete corpus of Old English texts is nearlycompleted.8 Another dictionary project is that of the OlderScottish Texts series being com-piled by A. J. Aitken and Neil Hamilton Smith as part of the Dictionary of the OlderScottish Tongue.9There is also a project for a dictionary of Middle High German.10Anotherproject involving Middle High German is being conducted by Roy A. Wisbey and hisassociates at Cambridge University. The Cambridge group has over one million words inmachine-readable form and several concordances have already been published.l An

6sSeeSchneider'seport Lamachine t'histoire.De'emploi desmoyensmecaniquest lectroniquesdans a rechercheistorique)ivenat the XIIIth InternationalCongress f HistoricalSciencesheldinMoscow 16-23August1970) [Moscow,Editions"Naouka,"1970,11pp.].6 JacquesMonfrin,"Le latin medieval et la languedes chartes,"Vivarium,viII (1970) 81-98.L. Fossier,G. Contamine,J. Graff,P. Bichard-Breaud, e traitement utomatiquees documentsdiplomatiquesu haut-moyen-dge,ahiersdu CRAL no. 21 (Centrede recherches t d'applicationslinguistiquesde l'Universitede Nancy II, 1973).See also CHum L-146 (ii, 2; v, 5), CAMDAP57(ni, 1). Anotherproject n this field is L. Fossier,Analysedes documentsdiplomatiquesmedi6vaux(apres1100),CAMDAP49 (ii, 1).7See ComputersndOldEnglishConcordances,ditedby AngusCameron,RobertaFrank,andJohnLeyerle(Toronto,1970).See alsoJohnLeyerle,"TheDictionaryof OldEnglish:A ProgressReport,"ComputersndtheHumanities, , 5 (May, 1971),279-83.8 In relation o that project:A. F. Cameron ndP. H. SmithJr.,The Homiliesof Aelfric,CHumL-450 (v, 5), CAMDAP1 (I, 1); N. C. Hultin,The Old English Dialoguesof Gregory he Great,CAMDAP27 (ii, 1); A. F. Cameron nd P. H. SmithJr., Aelfric'sLives of Saints,CAMDAP28(II, 1).9OlderScottishTextualArchive,CHumL-498(vi, 5), CAMDAP10 (i, 2).10H. MoserandAss.,Dictionaryof MiddleHighGerman,CHumL-E47(II, 5;Iv, 2), CAMDAP61 (ii, 1).1 CHum L-87 (I, 5; ii, 5), and CAMDAP56 (ii, 1) for the latest list of texts and publications.Otherstudies n earlyMiddleHigh German:D. A. Wells,LexicographicalndStylisticAnalysisofan EarlyMiddleHigh GermanText, CHumL-257III, 5), CAMDAP62 (ii, 1); B.O. Murdoch,AConcordanceo theEarlyMiddleHighGermanPoemDazAnegenge, HumL-259III, 5), CAMDAP63 (ii, 1); to be published n R. A. Wisbey'sCompendia eries:M. J. Preston,ConcordancendAppendices,CHumL-329(iv, 2), CAMDAP8 (I, 1). Forthe MiddleLowGerman here s a projectofdictionary nnounced y K. H. Hyldgaard-Jensennder he titleMiddleLowGermanDictionary,Grammar,WordAtlas, CHum L-430 (v, 5). Related to the same language s Anne Brautaset'sproject:MiddleLow German nfluenceon a NorwegianDialect of the SixteenthCentury,CHumL-431 (v, 5). Severalcoordinatedclearinghouses ave been established o facilitatecooperationamongscholarsusing computers n the study of German anguageand literature.For medievalGermanpeopleshould contact: Dr Rudolf Hirschmann,Departmentof German,UniversityofSouthernCalifornia,Los Angeles,Ca.90007,U.S.A.orDr WinfriedLenders, nstitut ftir DeutscheSprache,Forschungsstelleonn,53Bonn,Adenauerallee6,West-Germany. heir atest list oftextsavailablehas beenpublishedn ComputersndtheHumanities, ii, 4 (March1973),253-255.


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Report 395ambitious project to compile a lexical, morphological, and syntactical inventory of allOld Italian texts up to the twelfth century is being directed by Mario L. Alinei.'2Otherprojects of a less ambitious scope include concordances to Geoffrey Chaucer, to Guillaumede Lorris' section of the Romandela Rose, to Middle English poems, and to Hartmann vonAue.'3 Computer concordances to Beowulf, to Le Charroide Nimes and to the ChansondeRoland have already been published, and more recently concordances to AuctoritatesAristotelis and two treatises by Bonaventura have been released by the CETEDOC.14Concordances, while conceptually simple, are not without problems and the results attimes have been uneven. Given inferior equipment, computational ignorance, carelessproof-reading, and a consistent talent for making the wrong linguistic decisions, it is alltoo easy to produce a flawed concordance. They still require the compiler to have con-siderable expertise. So far it has not been possible to produce an old-fashioned lexiconcompletely with the computer, the next logical step after a concordance.'5Moreover, afteryears of KWIC concordances, people become aware that mechanically determined con-texts may not yield the most meaningful output. Efforts are being made to overcome the

12Mario Alinei, Spogli elettronici dell'italiano delle origini e del duecento (Bologna, 1971), andCHum L-159 (ii, i), CAMDAP 59 (II, 1).13T. J. Ray, A ComputerConcordancef the Workof GeoffreyChaucer,CHum L-308(iv, 2);J. R. Danos, Romrose, CHum L-301 (iv, i), CAMDAP 23 (I, 2); R. A. Boggs, A Concordanceto theWork of Hartmann von Aue, CHum L-64 (I, 5; ii, 5; III, 5; iv, 5), CAMDAP 37 (ii, 1). Many otherprojectsof indicesand concordances ave beenannouncednow and then in different ources.Hereis a list ofsomeof them.Under henameofS. N. Werbow ndR. Jansen,UniversityofTexas,Austin,we find:ComputerConcordancesnd Analysisof MedievalGermanLyrics,CHum L-1 (I, 5), andMinnesangsFriihling,Walthervon derVogelweide,Minnesangs es 13Jahrhunderts,NeidhartvonReuenthal,CHumL-83 (I, 5). Daton A. Dodsonof the HoustonBaptist College s listed as chiefinvestigatoror a concordance f someof the late MedievalDietrichepics.MichaelS. Batts, Uni-versity of British Columbia, s chief investigator or a concordance f manuscriptB of Nibelun-genlied.Marion F. Hodappof ColoradoState University s listed as chiefinvestigatoror a con-cordance to the Libro de Buen Amor of Juan Ruiz. Felicien J. de Tollenaere, editor of the WordenboekderNederladscheaal n Leidenwaspreparing concordanceo the GothicBible. PaulW.Pillsbury,Eastern Michigan, is chief investigator for a concordance of West Saxon Gospels, CHum L-106(I, 5; II, 5; inI, 5), CAMDAP 40 (II, 1). Sidney Berger, Department of English, University of Cali-fornia, Davis, is working on a computer-assisted concordance to Lazamon's Brut which should becompleted soon, CHum L-499 (vi, 5), CAMDAP 25 (I, 2). Professor Hays, Center for MedievalStudies, University of Toronto, is doing the same for Basil of Caesarea's Adversus Eunomium I-V,CHum L-494 (vi, 5), CAMDAP 15 (i, 2). W. P. Lehmann, University of Texas, was directing anumber of computer produced concordances including works on the Parker ("A") manuscript of theAnglo Saxon Chronicleand the Old Saxon Heliand. R. Venezky announced a concordance to Rush-worth Matthew, CHum L-449 (v, 5), CAMDAP 1 (I, 1); T. Stallknecht a general concordance toJohn Duns Scotus, CHum L-496 (vi, 5), CAMDAP 13 (I, 2); Dom J. Froger a concordance to theRegula Magistri, CHum L-202 (v, 2), CAMDAP 66 (II, 1); and Lidwine Fitzgerald a concordance tothe works of C. Julius Uyginus. We should not forget also studies from Prof. J. A. Baird and Ass. onthe Bible, CHum L-465 (vi, 2), CAMDAP 48 (II, 1); from Prof. G. E. Weil and Ass. on semitictexts, CHum L-74 (I, 5), CAMDAP 53, 54, 55 (II, 1); from B. Fisher and W. Ott, Vulgata-Kon-kordanz, CHum L-296 (iv, 2); and from D. E. Y. Sarna, at Brandeis, on Rabbinic Texts.

14 J. B. Bessinger and Philip H. Smith, Jr, A Concordance o Beowulf (Ithaca, 1969); G. de Poerck,R. Van Deyck and R. Zwaenepoel, Le Charroi de Nimes, 2 vol. (Saint-Aquilin-de-Pacy, 1970);Joseph J. Duggan, A Concordanceof the Chanson de Roland (Columbus, 1969); Jacqueline Hamesse,AuctoritatesAristotelis, I, Concordance Louvain: CETEDOC, 1972) and by the same author, The-saurus bonaventurianus, , Itinerarium mentis in Deum and De reductioneartium ad theologiam(Lou-vain: CETEDOC, 1972).15For computer-assisted lexicon manipulation: J. S. Bross, English-old ChurchSlavonic Dictionary,CHum L-433 (v, 5), CAMDAP 46 (II, 1); R. P. de Gorog, A Modern French-Old French Lexicon,CHum L-57 (i, 5; v, 2), CAMDAP 36 (ii, 1).


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396 Reportproblem by taking into account the punctuation marks while determining a context.Nevertheless, concordancingpackages will never meet all requirements, unless syntacticalfeatures of the text concorded are taken into consideration. To sum up, we should concludethat there are still problems to be solved in the simple domain of concordancing.

In many of the listed projects, concordances and indices are not produced for theirown sake nor are they the sole type of data manipulation involved. They are usually ac-companied by frequency counts and may be completed, depending on the case, by re-versed word lists, indices of rhymes, and so forth.16These techniques exploit the computer'saptitude as a fast and powerful manipulator of character-strings. Once a text has beenkeypunched, the computer can output any reorganization of the character-strings. Theproblem is to make sense of this data. The results, of course, can be supplied to theacademic community as helpful tools to research, but this simply postpones the problem,deferring to someone else the task of making intelligent use of the computer output.7Many of the projects described above aim at some lexicographical or philological goal.Projects in the general field of lexicography are of two types: a systematic dictionary of alanguage of a certain period, or a study of the vocabulary of a special semantic field.Philological research is usually devoted to a single work or author. In many cases the datainput cannot be restricted to the text alone. More information is needed about the linguis-tic features of the text. Two options are then possible: pre-coding of the text, or implemen-tation of computer programs that can perform the linguistic analysis. The first approach,which can result in some very sophisticated pre-coding as accomplished at Louvain, is theway usually followed.18 Some attempts, however, have been made to develop programsto analyze texts regarding their linguistic features. For Latin, two programs have beenimplemented, one at Liege by L. Delatte's group and one at Gallarate by Father Busa.29These programs, however, are quite complicated and leave many linguistic decisions tothe investigator. Professors Hugo Moser and Helene Nai's are conducting linguistic anal-ysis by computer of Middle High German and Old French respectively.20 For shorterprojects it seems that pre-coding is the more feasible approach, but in both proceduresdata preparation is time consuming.Several attempts have been made to apply new linguistic approaches to textual studies.

16Herefollow someannouncedprojectsof glossaries nd word-indexes:M. Mundt,Word-Indexto Hakonar Saga, Knytlinga Saga, CHum L-46 (I, 5), CAMDAP 51 (II, 1); A. M. and P. J. Lucas:Glossary of the Middle English Romance Gamelyn,CHum L-292 (III, 5), The Old Exodus: a Glossary,CHum L-401(v, 2), CAMDAP65 (ii, 1) and Word-listof the Late MiddleEnglishChronicle yJohn Capgrave, CHum L-202 (II, 5; v, 5), CAMDAP 60 (ii, 1); C. Gellinek, A Word FrequencyDictionaryof Minnesangdes 13. Jahrhunderts,CHum L-429 (v, 5), CAMDAP45 (II, 1); R. L.Jones, Gothic WordIndex, Reverse WordList, Appendices, CHum L-463 (vi, 2), CAMDAP 47 (II, 1);C. D. Gall, Words-Indexes of the Rolandslied Fragments, CHum L-122 (II, 2).17 In some cases the aim seems to have been the sole production of computer readable text or selec-tions of texts: VirginiaJoan Cyrus at the University of Washington preparedin 1968 a Ph.D. disserta-tion: The TollemacheOrosius: Text,with Spacing Notation Editedfor ComputerAnalysis (DissertationAbstracts 29 January 1969, 2241-A). Darell Jackson, Society for the humanities Cornell University,has prepared a series of machine readable Latin texts, including several of the Church Fathers, butmost of them are not the complete texts. Instead he has selected passages of approximately 500 wordschosen by using a table of random numbers. The texts are available from Stephen V. F. Waite, Dart-mouth College, Hanover, N. H.18Paul Tombeur and Andre Stainier, op. cit., cf. footnote 5.19For a description of both: L. Delatte, "Le LEL de Liege," Revue,2 (1969), 11-39, and R. Busa,"Le LEL de Gallarate," Revue,2 (1969), 40-56. Papers are followed by a discussion reported on pages57 to 86. Since that time, an improved version of the system of Liege has been described by JosephDenooz in his paper "Recherches sur le traitement automatique de la langue latine," Revue,1 (1973),1-89. But even there, the problem of homography remains far from being overcome.20Hugo Moser, cf. footnote 10. H. Nai's, Traitement automatique des textes d'ancien frangais,CHum L-153 (11,2), CAMDAP 58 (ii, 1).


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Report 397Goran Kjellmer is studying the distributional and semantic relations in a group of MiddleEnglish words. Professor Kjellmer has analyzed the meaning of a set of words pertainingto a particular semantic field in relation to the syntagmatic contexts where these wordsappear.21Although linguistic concepts are not always applicable to text processing andtheir computer implementation is still at an experimental level, medievalists should care-fully watch developments in computational linguistics.22There remains a wide gap be-tween computational linguistics and text processing, between the interest of the linguistin building up an accurate language analyser and that of the medievalist in processing alarge corpus at a tolerable cost.Concordances and other types of string manipulation can also give rise to stylisticstudies. Joseph J. Duggan, who studied 725 different formulas in the 2688 verses of LeCouronnementde Louis as they appeared in conjunction with different personnages andthemes, linked the themes and individuals.23A number of stylistic studies involving versescanning and rhyme analysis are currently in progress.24Without a clearly articulatedtheory, however, computational stylistics cannot fully develop. So far the theory has oftenbeen borrowed from quantitative linguistics. Among the first, G. Udny Yule utilizedquantitative linguistics in his attribution study of De Imitatione Christi to Thomas aKempis or Gerson.25Another sound statistical study of a medieval text is Simone Mon-sonego's work on La ChantefableAucassin et Nicolette.26A number of other statisticalstudies of medieval texts have been announced.27Quantitative linguistic concepts, in ouropinion, are not easy to use; one should be very cautious with frequency counts and per-centages, which are too often presented beyond any coherent theory of language.For a time there was great interest in machine translation. There were even somerather grandiose schemes, including rapid translation of Canadian documents intoEnglish and French, but none of them has as yet been successful. The lack of success isperhaps natural when we realize the problems involved in producing computer programs

21 G. Kjellmer,Folk, Leode,Man, Nation,People,Theode,CHum L-331(iv, 5), CAMDAP44(ii, 1).Theoretical spectofthisresearchs discussed t length n:GoranKjellmer,Context ndMean-ing, Gothenburg tudies n English22 (Stockholm:ActaUniversitatisGothoburgensis,971).Otherstudies of semantical ield are:G. B. Ladnerand M. Phelps,Indexof Termsand Concepts n theMoraliaofGregoryheGreat,CAMDAP11 (I, 2);HansAnderson,LatinMedievalUrbanTerminol-ogy in NorthernEuropeto c. 1350,CAMDAP50 (ii, 1). S. Lusignanhasundertaken nanalysisofthe vocabulary f somemedievalcommentariesn Isagoge,CAMDAP79, (ii, 2). Foranexampleofsyntacticalanalysis:B. Woledgeand Ass., the Syntax of Twelfth CenturyFrench,CHumL-56(I, 5; II, 5; II, 5), CAMDAP 52 (II, 1).22 Jacob L. May, "Computational inguisticsand the Study of LinguisticPerformance,"Com-putersandtheHumanities, i (1972),131-136.23 J. J. Duggan,Analysisof Old FrenchOralFormulaicPoetry,CHumL-10(i, 5), CAMDAP34(II, 1). J. J. Duggan, "Formulas in the Couronnement de Louis," Romania, xxxviII (1966), 315-344.4MerleFifield,PotentialVarietyof MetricalStress n Chaucer'sRhymedIambicPentametern asystemAllowingourLevelsofMetricalStress,CHumL-500(vi, 5), CAMDAP19(I,2);B. A.BeatieandR. Hirschmann,ndexedCatalogsof StrophicForms n MedievalLyricPoetry, CHumL-142(ni, 2), CAMDAP41 (ii, 1); R. Hirschmann,Analysisof DactylicMeterin MiddleHigh GermanLyric Poetry, CHum L-27 (I, 5; ii, 2; II, 5), CAMDAP 35 (ii, 1); J. C. Wells, Dictionary of the OldHighGermanGlosses,CHumL-19(i, 5; II, 5); ThomasB. Hanson,Poetryof the AlliterativeRe-vival,CAMDAP30 (ii, 1);andRobertW.Sapora,TheAuthorshipfthe Gawain-Group,AMDAP31 (II, 1).

26 G. UdnyYule, TheStatistical tudyof LiteraryVocabularyCambridge,944).6SimoneMonsonego,Etude tylo-statistiqueuvocabulaireesversetde a prosedans a chantefableAucassinetNicoletteParis,1966).2 J. R. Allen,TheBalligantEpisoden the Chanson eRoland,CHumL-482(vi, 6), CAMDAP9(i, 2);T. J. Ray, StylostatisticalAnalysisofAnglo-Saxon attlePoetryto determine ffectof themeon syntax,CHumL-164 (ii, 5); L. M. Bell, SPON (StatisticalProfileof OldNorse),CHumL-113(I, 5).


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Report 399In the field of information retrieval, or more accurately, reference retrieval, a number ofmedievalists are engaged in the compilation by computer of catalogues, bibliographies,and indices. Walter M. Hayes of the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies in Torontois attempting to compile an author-name-work-title survey of catalogued Greek manu-

scripts listed in M. Richard's Repertoiredes Bibliothequeset des cataloguesde manuscrits.34Since the catalogues are in various languages and the manuscripts are in some 821 libraries,the scope and importance of the project is readily apparent. Professor Hayes plans topublish the results in some fifty volumes and keep the tapes on file. Thomas H. Ohlgrenof Purdue University has been working since 1969 on a computer-aided cataloguing andindexing system for the medieval manuscript photographic holdings of the Bodleian Li-brary, Oxford. Each of the 600 rolls of color microfilms (totalling some 18,000 trans-parencies) is represented in the IBM 370 by a structured abstract, composed of fifteenfields of data, including three separate fields for iconography. The indices generated fromeach field permit access to individual frames within each microfilmroll.35There are a num-ber of other cataloguing and indexing projects under way.36We have found that theseprojects are extremely expensive, although the costs can be reduced considerably if thedata already exists in the form of bibliography, card catalogue, or handlist. We agree withDavid Vance who has pointed out that a commitment to complete, verify, or updaterecords before input would probably exclude forever the very information the computer'sdata file is intended to make available.37Another problem concerns the possibility of datainterface. Although the formation of a national data bank of information about medievalmanuscripts holdings is not immediately feasible, steps need to be taken now to plan forsuch a data repository if it is to become a reality. A vital first step is the formulation of astandardized set of field designations, which determine the nature of the data structure.In our opinion, an international committee, composed of archivists, art historians, andslide librarians, should be organized to study the feasibility of standardization.38MUSICAL DATA PROCESSING

Second only to language and literature as fields for computer-oriented research in themedieval period is musicology. Documentation, cataloguing, quantitative studies ofcodicum nd the theoriesof Dom H. Quentin," n A. J. Aitken et al., TheComputerndLiteraryStudies Edinburgh, 973),p. 225-237.34An Author-TitleSurveyof CataloguedGreekManuscripts,CHumL-410(v, 5), CAMDAP14(, 2).3 ThomasH. Ohlgren,"Medievaland RenaissanceManuscriptPhotographic nformationRe-trieval,"Computertudiesn theHumanities ndVerbalBehavior,II,4 (1972),228-231;by thesame,"The Digital Scriptorium:Computer ndexingof MedievalManuscript lluminations,"Art andArchaeologyesearch apers,IV (1973).36EdithBrayer s attempting o computerizehe catalogof pre-sixteenth enturymanuscriptsnLatin, Arabic,Hebrew, Greek, French,Provencal,and Spanishof the Institut de Rechercheetd'Histoiredes textes in Parisin cooperationwith the Centrede Recherches t d'Applicationsin-guistiques t the Universityof Nancy,CHumL-144(II, 2). Otherprojectsare:J. K. McConica,Col-lectiveBiography f TudorOxford,CHumS-174(vi, 5), CAMDAP12(i, 2);A,L. Gabriel,MedievalandRenaissanceScientificManuscripts f the Ambrosiana,CHumL-446(v, 5), CAMDAP5 (I, 1;I, 2); J. Joyce, On-LineInformationRetrievalin Bibliography:Gawainand the GreenKnight,CHum L-447(v, 5); J. V. Reel, An Index to EnglishBiography,1000-1485A.D., CAMDAP16(I,2); GeroDolezalek,Verzeichnis erHandschriften um roimischen echtbis 1600,CAMDAP76(ii, 2); Randall Millen, The Indexing of Blazons, CAMDAP 73 (ii, 2).37David Vance,"MuseumData Banks,"Information torage ndRetrieval, (1970) p. 206.38 An invaluable ontributiono.computerizedmuseumdatabanks,withpotentialapplicationsomanuscript rchives, s the work of the MuseumComputerNetwork.The annotationclassesde-scribed n David Vanceand JackHeller's"Structure nd Contentof a MuseumData Bank,"Com-puters nd heHumanities,i, 2 (1971),67-84,couldbeexpandedo include pecificields or medievalmanuscripts.


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400 Reportwatermarks, caligraphy, and other information retrieval projects seem obvious areas forthe computer to help, but there also seem to be great possibilities in the areas of structuralanalysis, the investigation of similarities, and studies of melody, rhythm, harmony, andstylistic criteria. One of the pioneering efforts has been that of Harry B. Lincoln (SUNY,Binghamton) to develop a computerized thematic index of medieval and Renaissancemusic which would undoubtedly help all those doing research in the area. There are in-numerable sources of medieval and Renaissance music containing thousands of composi-tions, many of them anonymous, with thematic borrowingfrom one composer to anotheror from himself, and from the secular to the sacred repertoryand vice versa. The computershould make it easier to search out these coincidences systematically and to classify them.39Arthur Mendel and Lewis Lockwood have also attempted to analyze with the aid of thecomputer the style of the medieval French composer, Josquin DePrez.40There are severalother studies taking place.4

ARCHEOLOGICAL DATA PROCESSING

Archeology has also turned to the computer in an attempt to establish an archeologicaldata bank. So far this has been limited primarily to new world archeology where theAmerican Anthropological Association has taken the lead. There have been some attemptsto make the classification system international and this would be of assistance to me-dievalists if only for the purpose of listing all existing medieval archeological findingsand sites.42The computer allows for more rapid updating of finds or changes than othermeans, and allows the information to be kept current. Museums have also begun toput their collections on computer tapes to aid in retrieval, which also allows for moreeffective updating. A pioneering project is the Data Bank of Museum Holdings started in1967 through a consortium of New York and Washington museums known as the MuseumComputer Network. Since the MCN's primary objective is the formation of a central in-ventory file of museum holdings, the data base quite logically draws on the basic informa-tion that normally appears in a museum's card catalogue. The resulting data bank from

39HarryB. Lincoln,"SomeCriteriaand Techniques or Developing ComputerizedThematicIndices," in ElektronischeDatenverarbeitungn der Musikwissenschaft edited by Harold Heckman,(Regensburg, 967);Lincoln,"Musicology nd the Computer:The ThematicIndex," n Computersin HumanisticResearchditedby EdmundA. Bowles(EnglewoodCliffs,1967),and most recentlyComputersand Music edited by Harry B. Lincoln (Ithaca, 1970).40ArthurMendel,"SomePreliminaryAttemptsat Computer-Assistedtyle Analysis n Music,"Computersand the Humanities, iv, 1, (1969), 41-52.41NanaSchidtandBjanerSvejgaard ave undertaken computer idedstudyof musical ormulasof Byzantinehymns n order o gainanunderstandingf the genre's tyleand to discoverhe princi-plesunderlyinghecomposition fthesehymns(seeSchidtandSvejgaard, Applicationf ComputerTechniqueso theAnalysisofByzantineSticherarionMelodies,"nHeckman, p.cit.).R. F. Ericksonand W. G. Waitestudy the rhythmicproblemsand melodicstructure n Organum urum,CHumM-66(v, 5). F. E. Hansen s doingan investigationof tonalproperties f the gregorian epertory,CHumM-18 (i, 5). Musicologists avealsobegunto do thematic ndexing,a procedureimilar othe cataloguingand concordingn literature. ndexingof the Frenchchansonrepertoryof the fif-teenthcentury s beingundertaken y BartonHudson.L. M. Trowbridgen his studyof the Bur-gundianChansonries to developa systemfor the cataloguing f musical ncipitsordered ccordingto theirmusicalrelatedness,CHumM-47(iv, 5; v, 5), CAMDAP33 (I, 1). At Bern,Switzerland,H. R. Diirrenmatthas begunworkingon a listing, ncluding hematiccatalogue,of all Swiss musicupto 1800.In Kassel,Germany,HaraldHeckmanandothersareworking n an incipitcatalogue fGermanTenorlieder,CHum M-68 (v, 5). The wholebody of Byzantinetunes in the MonumentaMusicaeByzantineTranscriptas beingcomputer ecordedby the department f Musicology t TelAvivUniversityunder he directionof HanochAvenary.42RobertG. Chenall,"TheArchaeological ata Bank:A ProgressReport,"Computersnd theHumanities, , 3 (1971), 159-69; RobertWhallon,Jr, "The Computern Archaeology:A CriticalSurvey," Computersand the Humanities, vr, 1 (1972), 29-45.


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Report 401the assembly of this data base is, therefore, rich in such information as media, sizes, dates,exhibition history, and photographic sources. The Museum Computer Network, we be-lieve, will eventually be uniformly adopted by every major museum and archive in theUnited States. Its major advantage over all the other retrieval systems, manual orcomputer-based, is that it is primarily user-oriented;all tedious data manipulations aredone by the computer. And instead of imposing arbitrary and inflexible classificationschemes on its data, the output of the MCN reflects the actual contents of the naturallanguage by using free format data files.43Predating this effort was one in Cologne startedin 1966 to put on computer the catalogue of the Cologne Museum Libraries.

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DATA PROCESSINGInevitably, social and economic historians have entered into the field as well, althoughthey have been somewhat slower than their colleagues in other fields. David Herlihy ofHarvard, who has been working with an international team of American, French, andItalian scholars to prepare a machine-readable edition of the Florentine Catasto of 1427,

is conducting a combined census and inventory of the families then subject to Florentinerule. This is a huge document since it includes about 60,000 households and nearly aquarter of a million people, and although the scope of the project is larger than anythingattempted by medievalists, it is a variant of the demographic analysis that medievalistshave traditionally done but which would have been impossible without the computer.44Going further afield, Loy Bilderback of Fresno State has been putting information con-cerning delegates attending the Council of Basle into computerized form. He has concludedthat those attending the Council showed varying levels of commitment to the concept ofConciliarism depending upon different periods of the Council and the geographical areafrom which they have come. Since Bilderback has correlated the variables, used probabilitytheory and regression analysis to evaluate the significance of his findings, his project isone of the most sophisticated uses of the computer. These same techniques can be appliedto other aspects of. medieval studies.Vern L. Bullough is pursuing a study of the background of humanists and scientists infifteenth-century Italy from which it became evident that the scientists came from alower economic and social stratum than the humanists, and were much more dependentupon a university professorship to continue their scholarly activities. As a preliminarystudy it proved interesting, and it seemed to show what might be done with the computer,but this study will need much more work before it is published as Bullough wants toreplicate some of the research done by his students.45Other historical projects have alsobeen announced.4In general, however, it seems that medieval historians have not shown a willingness toexperiment with computers, and in fact have been slightly more conservative in this thantheir colleagues in other parts of the medieval vineyard. Other than finding new ways to

43Seefootnotes37 and38.44See:ChristianeKlapisch,"Fiscaliteet demographien Toscane(1427-1430),"Annales.Econo-mies-SociAtes-Civilisations, xiv (1969),1313-1337.David Herlihyhas compileda very goodbibli-ographyon the usesof quantificationn historical tudyin "Quantificationndthe MiddleAges,"TheDimensions f thePast.Materials,ProblemsndOpportunitiesor QuantitativeWork n History,ed. ValR. LorwinandJacobM. Price(NewHavenandLondon,1972),p. 13-51.45See CAMDAP 71 (n, 2).

46 E. LeRoyLadurieand P. Couperie,"Le Mouvementdes loyersparisiensde la fin du MoyenAge au XVIIIe siecle," Annales.Economies-Soci6tMs-Civilisations,xv (1970), 1002-23.

MichaelGoodichandMichaelRadowaredoinga research n socialclassorigins,geographical istribution,etc.... of thirteenthcenturySaints,CHumS-173(vi, 5), CAMDAP24 (r,2). RaymonddeRooverandMhymanSardyhave usedthe computer or theirstudy of the BrugesMoneymarket n 1400.Howeverheyhaveconcluded: celane fait queconfirmeresr6sultats btenuspardes m6thodes lustraditionnelles,"CAMDAPQ2(I, 2). Finally,RichardC. Hoffmann s doinga researchon ruraleconomyof the duchyof Wrotlawn the latermiddleages,CAMDAP70 (n, 2).


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402 Reportobtain information retrieval, medievalists as a whole have not displayed much interest inthe computer. This might well be because of the uncertainty of the data, but it is due more,we think, to the conservativeness of medievalists themselves.

CONCLUSIONMedievalists have begun to look to computers, and we are at least far enough along torealize that computers offer no panacea to our problems. Nevertheless, a growing numberof scholars realise that certain kinds of studies, as in stylistics or philology for example,could not be properly achieved without the help of the computer. We cannot fail to recallas during the Fourth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law in Toronto or theFifth International Congress of Mediaeval Philosophy in Madrid in 1972, that more andmore sections of medieval studies meetings are devoted to computer uses. Of course, manyscholars are still hesitant and cautious about the computer. Others have been deceived bypromises from too enthusiastic computer men. Compared to such disciplines as sociology,

we are still in a confused age. But we feel that we are slowly leaving this barbarian age,and moving toward our CarolingianRenaissance. To do more, many of us will have to gainmore training, or perhaps demand that our students obtain training. In fact, it is signifi-cant that a high proportion of studies reported in this brief review were undertaken byassistant professors or fairly recent Ph.D. graduates. Perhaps they are the coming genera-tion. We should also provide ourselves with the necessary tools to achieve this progress.Data preparation remains the heaviest burden of text processing and here the setting upof a medieval data bank would bring an important relief to the scholar. Medieval textprocessing calls for its own Irish monastic libraries! Here the American PhilologicalAssociation gives us a good example of what could be done with its data bank directed byStephen V. F. Waite at Dartmouth College.Evidently, too many projects in all fields of humanistic research seemingly pass throughthe "brain of the computer" without ever engaging the brain of the scholar. Medievalistshave to take care that they are not doing the same thing. With the computer one losesthe quasi-non reflexive relation too often entertained with the documents studied. Beforethe intervention of the computer it was possible to read a text without having in mind aclear linguistic theory or to compile a bibliography without any knowledge of libraryscience. With the computer this way of doing things is over. The implementation of effec-tive computer programming relies finally on the articulation of a formal coherent theoryabout the data processed. Here we can quote from a medieval warning, taken from theDe Musica or Enchiridion improperly attributed to Odo of Cluny.47The pupil learningthe monochord, a musical instrument used mainly for pedagogy, and commenting on it

said that it was "a wonderful master, who, made by me, teaches me, and teaching me,knows nothing himself." The computer is our modern monochord. It knows nothing butwhat we program it for, but if we program it correctly it can help us immeasurably, andbefore us we have a true unexploited potential to uncover. In these conditions the me-dievalist ought to be more involved in interdisciplinary studies than before. For us this isthe challenge of the coming years. VERN L. BULLOUGHCalifornia tate University,NorthridgeSERGE LJSIGNANInstitutd'EtudesMedievales,Universit6de Montreal

THOMASH. OHLGRENPurdueUniversity47Theoriginalversionof the passagecitedby EdmundA. Bowles,op.cit.,p. viii, can be found n

Migne, PL, cxxxIII, 762D.

Computers and the Medievalist

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