Digital Archive of Medieval Song

This project will develop a digital platform to publish texts, manuscript images, music, and scholarly resources relating to medieval song in late-medieval England. Approximately 3,000 lyrics in English survive in 450 manuscripts from the twelfth to the early sixteenth century, alongside many more in Latin and French. The large majority are anonymous; some are copied with music. Only a fraction of this important repertory has been studied and performed. This Archive aims to make the close and careful study of these songs in original manuscripts accessible to the scholars and public who are interested in the rich history of song in England. In particular, the Archive will use the Mirador image-viewing platform to allow users to explore and compare song manuscripts through the extraordinary potential of the new interoperability network that is beginning to connect all the major libraries of the world. The Archive interface will facilitate research by gathering not only available scholarly resources, but also by enabling new access to them, providing tools to illuminate the creative partnership between words and music in medieval culture. This project has been generously supported by a Yale DHLab Faculty Grant.

Project Team