Fragmentarium

Fragmentarium (Digital Research Laboratory for Medieval Manuscript Fragments) is an online database to collect and collate fragments of medieval manuscripts making them available to researchers, collectors and historians worldwide. It is an international collaboration of major libraries and collections including the British Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), Martin Schøyen Collection, Bavarian State Library, Harvard, Yale and the Vatican. It is based in Switzerland at the Institute for Medieval Studies of the University of Fribourg (Center for Studies in Manuscripts) and the project's current director is Professor Christoph Flüeler from the University of Fribourg and the Virtual Manuscript Library, Switzerland.{{cite news|last1=Kahn|first1=Eve M.|title=Yale Buys Collection of Scattered Medieval Pages|work=The New York Times |date=4 December 2015 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/04/arts/design/yale-buys-collection-of-scattered-medieval-pages.html|accessdate=18 September 2017}}

File:Annotations de Florus de Lyon, fol. 16v.jpg fragment, Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. lat. 16]]

History

The Fragmentarium project was first proposed in October 2013 and the first planning meeting took place in Cologny in 2014. It was supported initially by representatives of 12 institutions, its goal being to study the field of manuscript fragment research and look at worldwide cataloguing standards. Fragmentarium was officially launched on 1 September 2017, by the Medieval Institute of the University of Fribourg at Abbey Library of St. Gall in St. Gallen, Switzerland.{{cite web|title=Fragmentarium Launched|url=http://www.fragmentarium.unifr.ch/about/news|website=Fragmentarium|accessdate=18 September 2017}}

Historians and librarians are now able to upload images to the Fragmentarium where they will be made available for research and encouraged to publish images under a Creative Commons public domain license.{{cite web|last1=Dunning|first1=Andrew|title=Fragmentarium and the burnt Anglo-Saxon fragments|url=http://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2017/09/fragmentarium-and-the-burnt-anglo-saxon-fragments.html|website=British Library: Medieval Manuscripts|accessdate=18 September 2017}} The library currently operates as a closed system and will open up public resources gradually from 2018.

Method

File:Three palimpsest fragments Or. 6581.jpg fragments Or. 6581 with infrared (middle) and ultraviolet (right)]]

File:Composite images Or. 6581 palimpsest fragments.jpg

Fragmentarium follows an established Swiss codex digitisation system known as e-codices and aims to promote cooperative research and discussion between researchers and scholars from multiple institutions.{{cite web|last1=Kahn|first1=Eve M.|title=Antiquarian Book Fair Offers Victorian Children's Peep Shows|url=http://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/about/history|website=The New York Times|accessdate=18 September 2017}} As more fragments are uploaded it will be possible to reunite fragments which have become separated and compare analyses of similar manuscript pieces.{{cite web|title=Online-Plattform erleichtert die Erforschung alter Handschriften|url=http://www.freiburger-nachrichten.ch/nachrichten/online-plattform-erleichtert-die-erforschung-alter-handschriften|website=Freiburger Nachrichten|accessdate=18 September 2017}} Some fragments have been analysed using the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS) to identify pigments, creating a unique "fingerprint" to enable it to be matched to corresponding fragments elsewhere in the world and potentially track their journey with “the potential to learn more about trade routes, historic mining sites, and the regional use of pigments and ingredients”.{{cite web|last1=Aloi|first1=Daniel|title=Out of the blue: Medieval fragments yield surprises|url=http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2017/07/out-blue-medieval-fragments-yield-surprises|website=Cornell Chronicle|accessdate=22 September 2017}} Other fragments have been identified as "recycled" into covers or bindings for later documents, a practice which was prevalent in the 15th to 17th century.{{cite web|title=Recycling von Pergament Handschriften - Puzzle in der Stiftsbibliothek|url=https://www.srf.ch/news/regional/ostschweiz/handschriften-puzzle-in-der-stiftsbibliothek|website=Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF)|date=30 August 2017 |accessdate=22 September 2017}} The system is also useful in documenting and digitally preserving partial manuscripts which have been damaged by neglect or fire as in the Cotton library fire of 1731, or by deliberate destruction as occurred in the reformation in Scandinavia. In more recent times, in the 1950s and 1960s medieval manuscripts were frequently deliberately divided in order to attract a higher return on resale values and have subsequently become lost to researchers: Fragmentarium hopes to reunite them. Flüeler has estimated that around 90% of extant fragments are currently "lost" in archives.{{cite web|last1=Knellwolf|first1=Bruno|title=Schnipseljagd mit Big Data|url=http://www.luzernerzeitung.ch/nachrichten/panorama/schnipseljagd-mit-big-data;art9645,1094273|website=Luzerner Zeitung|date=September 2017 |accessdate=22 September 2017}}

In 2018 Fragmentarium published Fragmentology, described as a journal for the study of medieval manuscript fragments.{{cite journal |title=Fragmentology |date=December 2018 |volume=1 |doi=10.24446/2nbp |url=http://fragmentology.ms/issues/1-2018/ |accessdate=15 January 2019|doi-access=free }}

Access to the library is free of charge.{{cite web|title=Digital Library|url=http://www.fragmentarium.unifr.ch/about/digital-library|website=Fragmentarium|accessdate=25 September 2017}}

Participants and donors

As of 2019 the following institutions are partner participants in Fragmentarium:

Abbey library of Saint Gall
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana
Bibliothèque nationale de France
Bodleian Library in association with St Edmund Hall, Oxford University
The British Library
Center for History and Palaeography of the National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation
Harvard University
Herzog August Library
Martin Schøyen Collection, Oslo
Medieval Academy of America
Österreichische Nationalbibliothek
Stanford University Libraries
Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig
Università degli Studi di Cassino
Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig
University of Pennsylvania Libraries{{cite web|title=Fragmentarium - An international scholarly network that enables libraries, collectors, researchers and students to upload medieval manuscript fragments and to describe, transcribe and assemble them online.|url=http://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/newsletter/archive/issue-18.html#fragmentarium|website=E-Codices|accessdate=18 September 2017}}
Yale University Library

Fragmentarium was financially supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Zeno-Karl-Schindler Foundation.{{cite web|title=Donors|url=http://www.fragmentarium.unifr.ch|website=Fragmentarium|accessdate=13 October 2017}}

File:St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen, Cod. Sang. 1397 V – Psalterium Gallicanum.jpg|Psalterium Gallicanum medieval manuscript fragment used as book binding

File:Fragment lat. 351, Charter from Leipzig, Universitätsbibliothek.jpg|Single leaf parchment fragment dated 1467-1500 CE from Leipzig with annotation by Johannes Falkenhayn

File:Necrologium monasterii Altzelle – Reconstruction Parchment.jpg|Necrologium monasterii Altzelle reconstructed parchment dated 1186-1250 CE

File:Paulinus Mediolanensis, Vita Ambrosii – Fragment.jpg|Paulinus Mediolanensis, Vita Ambrosii fragment Le VI 12, Binding A

File:Salvianus, Ad ecclesiam parchment fragment.jpg|Salvianus, Ad ecclesiam parchment fragment, 2 leaves (trimmed) dated 901-925 CE, Fulda