Historical Studies

This paper describes a collaborative project designed to meet the needs of communities interested in Gə'əz language texts – and other under-resourced manuscript traditions – by developing an easy-to-use open-source tool that converts images of manuscript pages into a transcription using optical character recognition (OCR). Our computational tool incorporates a custom data curation process to address the language-specific facets of Gə'əz coupled with a Convolutional Recurrent Neural Network to perform the transcription. An open-source OCR transcription tool for digitized Gə'əz manuscripts can be used by students and scholars of Ethiopian manuscripts to create a substantial and computer-searchable corpus of transcribed and digitized Gə'əz texts, opening access to vital resources for sustaining the history and living culture of Ethiopia and its people. With suitable ground-truth, our opensource OCR transcription tool can also be retrained to read other under-resourced scripts. The tool we developed can be run without a graphics processing unit (GPU), meaning that it requires much less computing power than most other modern AI systems. It can be run offline from a personal computer, or accessed via a web client and potentially in the web browser of a smartphone. The paper describes our team’s collaborative development of this first open-source tool for Gə'əz manuscript transcription that is both highly accurate and accessible to communities interested in Gə'əz books and the texts they contain. ጥልቅ እውቀትን ለረቂቅ ጽሁፎች ስለመጠቀም ሳሙኤል ግሪግስ፡ ኖተርዳም ዩኒቨርሲቲ፤ ጀሲካ ሎክሀርት፡ቶሮንቶ ዩኒቨርሲቲ፤ አሌክሳንደራ አትያ፡ ቶሮንቶ ዩኒቨርሲቲ፤ ገሊላ ጥላሁን፡ ቶሮንቶ ዩኒቨርሲቲ፤ ሱዛን ኮንክሊን አክባሪ፡ አድቫንስድ ጥናት ኢንስቲትዩት፡ ፕሪንስተን ኒው ጀርሲ፤ ኢዮብ ደሪሎ ሶ.አ.ስ. ለንደን ዩኒቨርሲቲ፤ ጃሮድ ጃኮብስ፡ ዋርነር ፓሲፊክ ኮሌጅ፤ ክሪስቲን ኮን፡ ኖተርዳም ዩኒቨርሲቲ፤ ሚካኤል ጀርቨርስ፡ ቶሮንቶ ዩኒቨርሲቲ፤ ስቲቭ ደላማርተር፡ ጆርጅ ፎክስ ዩኒቨርሲቲ፤ አሌክሳንድራ ግለስፒ፡ ቶሮንቶ ዩኒቨርሲቲ፤ ዋልተር ሸሪር፡ ኖተርዳም ዩኒቨርሲቲ። መግለጫ ይህ ጥናት የሚገልፀው የግዕዝ ቋንቋ ፅሁፍን እና ሌሎች መሰል ትኩረት ያልተሰጣቸውን፣ ባህላዊና እና ጥንታዊ ሥሁፎችን ለመማር ወይም ለጥናት የሚፈልጉ ማህበረሰቦችን ፍላጎት ለማርካት የጥምር የጥናት ቡድናችን ስለቀረፀው ቀላል እና ሁሉም ሊጠቀምበት ስለሚችል መሣሪያ(ዘዴ) ነው።፡ይህ መሣሪያ የብራና ፅሁፍን የመሰሉ ረቂቅ ፅሁፎች የተፃፉባቸውን ገፆች ምሥል በማንሳት እና ፊደላትን ለይቶ በሚገነዘብ ጨረር (optical character recognition (OCR)) በመጠቀም ምሥሉን ወደ መደበኛ ወይም ሁለተኛ ፅሁፍነት የመቀየር ችሎታ ያለው ነው። ይህ ኮምፒዩተር ላይ የተመሰረተ ዘዴ ወይም መሣሪያ የግዕዝ ቋንቋን ልዩ ባህርዮች ለይቶ እንዲያውቅ ሲባል ስለቋንቋው ያገኘውን መረጃ ወይም ዳታ የመንከባከብ እና የማከም ሂደቶችን አልፎ እንደ አንጎል ነርቮች መረብ እሽክርክሪት የሚመስል ኮንቮሉሽናል ሪከረንት ነውራል ኔትዎርክ (Convolutional Recurrent Neural Network) በመያዙ ገጽታዎችን እና ምሥሎችን ወደ ፅሁፍ ይቀይራል። ይህ ለሁሉም ተጠቃሚዎች ክፍት የሆነው ጽሁፍ ለተማሪዎች እንዲሁም ለኢትዮጵያ ጽሁፍ ጥናት ተመራማሪዎች የሚጠቅም ብቃት ያለው እና በቀላሉ በኮምፒዩተር ተፈልጎ ሊገኝ የሚችል ከመሆኑም በተጨማሪ የግዕዝ ጽሁፎቹ የኢትዮጵያን እና የኢትዮጵያን ህዝብ ታሪክና ባህል ግዕዝን በዲጂታል/በኮምፑተር ቀርፆ በማስቀመጥ በቀጣይነት እንዲኖር ያስችላል። አመቺ የሆነ ተጨባጭ ሁኔታ ሲኖር ደግሞ ይህ ለሁሉም ክፍት የሆነ የ OCR የግዕዝን ምስልን ወደ ፅሁፍ የሚቀይር መሣሪያ ወይም ዘዴ ሌሎች ትኩረት ያላገኙ ረቂቅ ፅሁፎችንም እንዲያነብ ተደርጎ ሊሰለጥን ወይም ዲዛይን ሊደረግ ይችላል። ይህ የፈጠርነው መሣሪያ/ዘዴ የተለመደውን ግራፊክስ ፕሮሰሲንግ ዩኒት (GPU) የተባለውን በኮምፕዩተር ምሥሎችን የማንበቢያ እና ማሳለጫ ዘዴ መጠቀም አያስፈልገውም። በዚህም ምክንያት ከሌሎች ዘመናዊ የአርቲፊሻል ኢንተሊጀንስ (AI systems ) ዘዴዎች አንፃር ሲታይ ሃይለኛ የኮምፒዩተር አቅም አይፈልግም። ይህንን መሣሪያ/ዘዴ ያለ ኢንተርኔት ወይም በይነ- መረብ ከግል ኮምፒዩተር፣ በኢንተርኔት እንዲሁም ወደፊት ኢንተርኔት ባለው የእጅ ሥልክን በመጠቀም ማስኬድ ይቻላል። ይህ ጥናት የሚገልጸው በአይነቱ የመጀመሪያ የሆነው እና ለሁሉም ክፍት የሆነ እንዲሁም በተገቢ ሁኔታ ጥራቱን ጠብቆ በጥምር ተመራማሪዎቻችን የበለፀገው መሣሪያ/ዘዴ ለማናቸውም በግዕዝ መጽሀፍቶች እና ውስጣቸው በያዙት ፅሁፎች ላይ ጥናት ለማድረግ ለሚፈልጉ ግለሰቦችም ሆኑ ማህበረሰቦች ሁሉ ጠቃሚ መሆኑን ለማስገንዘብ ነው።

This chapter examines Norman identity and diaspora comparatively, throught texts composed in Sicily and England.

This short confession looks back at the confessional mode of a 2009 article, ‘The Object of Devotion,’ on the impact of religious orientation on my scholarly formation, before turning to a different sort of self-examination: the moment of shame that is at once a source of pain and a generous gift. The inventory offered here concerns not religious orientation but the shame that arises from being wrong. It also casts light on changes that have come to our profession, where racist structures of thought and their administrative and social manifestations have become more visible than before. It’s not that our work environment has changed; rather, the assumptions that were there all along have become visible, and recognizing them – and responding to them – has become imperative. In this way, when I make a confession, and talk about my own shame, it’s in part the product of my own experience, but it is also the product of our common situation. This confession also looks forward to the fruitful outcomes of this experience, including collaborative workshops on indigenous pedagogy, on the role of indigenous story, and on the stories we tell about the land.

Since 2021, Munsee community members have joined historians and library staff from the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) and Princeton University (PU) for an annual language and history symposium on Lenape (Delaware) lands in Princeton, New Jersey, located on the traditional homelands of the Munsee people (or "Lunaapeew"). Informed by symposium conversations, PU faculty, students, and library staff, IAS faculty and researchers, and Munsee community members have been involved in a long-term project to locate, digitize, describe, and make accessible Munsee (or "Lunaape") language materials, currently comprising over two dozen rare manuscripts and printed books, to Munsee community members, the campus community, and the broader public. This article discusses the goals of the project for both Lunaape language teachers and library staff and explores the challenges encountered, including problems using existing standardized terminology and controlled vocabularies for describing library materials, difficulties encountered when working with a wide range of stakeholders, and institutional barriers to making materials freely accessible to community members. While this article is descriptive rather than prescriptive, it offers a series of questions and recommendations to assist academic libraries in developing relationships with Indigenous communities and implementing best practices to nurture such relationships.

This article describes three models for integrating the study of medieval texts within world literature. First, “Mediterraneans” point to sites where diverse cosmopolitan regional centers are connected by a sea. Second, “distant reading” is deployed in tracing literary forms and themes over long periods of time and across cultures within medieval literature. Third, and most extensively, a model based on “moving things” is developed to track the ways in which objects and persons are used in medieval texts to precipitate cultural and social change on a large scale. Following the traveling objects in The Canterbury Tales, The Book of John Mandeville, the Kebra Nagast, and the Travels of Ibn Battuta, the article presents new patterns of conceptualizing literary history.

The Old Books, New Science (OBNS) Lab began using Slack in May 2016 to facilitate the work of a diverse research group at the University of Toronto. Yet the OBNS Slack does not simply facilitate scholarly communication: it also serves as a powerful affective network, bringing together scholars in new and sometimes unexpected configurations. The affective language of emoji is fundamental to the growth of this community. Lab members coin new emoji that are taken up by the community eagerly, many of which are meaningful only within the OBNS environment. It is common to reference Slack emoji in in-person conversation; equally, the OBNS Slack is often home to advising sessions or meetings that in another workplace would take place face-to-face. In this way, the online environment of Slack and the in-person environment of the lab are mutually constitutive. Such usage of Slack may, however, also have a dark side: by celebrating affective community in the workspace, what happens to the distinction between home and office, and consequent erosion of leisure time? We consider whether the affective practices of the OBNS Slack might allow personal and professional boundaries to be blurred in such a way as to prioritize the personal.