Roman de la Rose Digital Library
Encyclopedia
The Roman de la Rose Digital Library (Rose DL) is a joint project of the Sheridan Libraries of the Johns Hopkins University
and the Bibliothèque nationale de France
. The goal of the Rose DL is to create an online library of all manuscripts containing the 13th-century poem Roman de la Rose
. The library currently displays digital surrogates of more than 140 Roman de la Rose manuscripts, and the collection continues to grow. The entire collection is freely available to the public for scholarly research and personal use.
in Baltimore, the Morgan Library
in New York, the J. Paul Getty Museum
in Los Angeles, and the Bodleian Library
in Oxford.
In 2007, the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Rose DL began a partnership to digitize all the Rose manuscripts held in Paris and in municipal and university libraries in France for the site. With funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
, this joint project makes available about half of the roughly 300 Rose manuscripts known to be extant.
It is often difficult to find the same narrative section in multiple manuscripts since they differ in line length, number of columns, and number of lines on a leaf. To get around this, the Rose DL includes a narrative sections tool that approximates the start and finish of each section. These are usually accurate to within two columns.
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
and the Bibliothèque nationale de France
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...
. The goal of the Rose DL is to create an online library of all manuscripts containing the 13th-century poem Roman de la Rose
Roman de la Rose
The Roman de la rose, , is a medieval French poem styled as an allegorical dream vision. It is a notable instance of courtly literature. The work's stated purpose is to both entertain and to teach others about the Art of Love. At various times in the poem, the "Rose" of the title is seen as the...
. The library currently displays digital surrogates of more than 140 Roman de la Rose manuscripts, and the collection continues to grow. The entire collection is freely available to the public for scholarly research and personal use.
History
This project first began in 1996 when Stephen G. Nichols, James M. Beall Professor of French and Chair of the Romance Languages and Literatures Department at Johns Hopkins University, approached staff at the Milton S. Eisenhower Library about digitizing Roman de la Rose manuscripts for teaching purposes. After receiving funding from Ameritech Library Services, the Getty Grant Program, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Eisenhower Library created the prototype Roman de la Rose: Digital Surrogates of Medieval Manuscripts, which came to include six Rose manuscripts from various libraries in the US and UK. The original library contained manuscripts from the Walters Art MuseumWalters Art Museum
The Walters Art Museum, located in Baltimore, Maryland's Mount Vernon neighborhood, is a public art museum founded in 1934. The museum's collection was amassed substantially by two men, William Thompson Walters , who began serious collecting when he moved to Paris at the outbreak of the American...
in Baltimore, the Morgan Library
Morgan Library
The Morgan Library & Museum is a museum and research library in New York City, USA. It was founded to house the private library of J. P. Morgan in 1906, which included, besides the manuscripts and printed books, some of them in rare bindings, his collection of prints and drawings...
in New York, the J. Paul Getty Museum
J. Paul Getty Museum
The J. Paul Getty Museum, a program of the J. Paul Getty Trust, is an art museum. It has two locations, one at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, and one at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California...
in Los Angeles, and the Bodleian Library
Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...
in Oxford.
In 2007, the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Rose DL began a partnership to digitize all the Rose manuscripts held in Paris and in municipal and university libraries in France for the site. With funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City and Princeton, New Jersey in the United States, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, endowed with wealth accumulated by the late Andrew W. Mellon of the Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the product of the 1969...
, this joint project makes available about half of the roughly 300 Rose manuscripts known to be extant.
Features
All page images in the digital library may be viewed in a page turner application or in an image browsing format. Researchers may pan on a page or zoom down to a high degree of magnification. In addition to the images themselves, the Rose DL provides metadata that supports the research process. Many of the manuscripts have detailed manuscript descriptions that provide information about the history of the manuscript and about its physical characteristics such as binding, quire structure, material, and decoration. Full transcriptions exist for a few manuscripts and illustration descriptions are available for many.It is often difficult to find the same narrative section in multiple manuscripts since they differ in line length, number of columns, and number of lines on a leaf. To get around this, the Rose DL includes a narrative sections tool that approximates the start and finish of each section. These are usually accurate to within two columns.