The Digital Reframing of a Study Collection

Abstract

Abstract: Manuscript fragments that have been reused can pose a challenge for their digital reproduction. They may have been cut up, folded, pasted down, and then, often through conservation, extracted to become their own items in digital repositories. The fragments’ complex materiality is not always the best fit for standard digitization. This article analyses Stanford, CA, Stanford University Libraries, M0299, a medieval fragments study collection, with documents spanning the eleventh to the sixteenth century. By tracing the story of its use and digitization, this essay problematizes how the study of a fragments collection differs between a reading room and online context. Special attention is given to the evolution and change in the study aids for the collection as they migrated from the analogue to the digital domain.