Navigating Media, Technology, and Narrative: Considering the Digital Turn in Scholarly Publishing

Abstract

Though it may seem counterintuitive to digital publishing, reflecting on analog bookmaking practices underscores the multimodal potential that has always underpinned the production of scholarly communications. In a medieval manuscript, for example, the content on a page might include text, illustration, marginalia, commentary, and rubrication, and the relationship between these elements shapes the way in which the narrative is understood and approached by readers; any modification to these formal features could alter how the content is interpreted, and indeed, scholarship exists that addresses the consequences of such changes from one edition of a text to the next.