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The Cardiff Corvey Project was initially founded
to help develop the unique resources which constitute the Corvey
Microfiche Edition. It is located within the Centre for Editorial and Intertextual
Research (CEIR) at Cardiff University, and currently forms
the main focus of development within the Centre, although CEIR
does have a broader compass than Romantic Studies. The
Corvey Microfiche Edition is complemented by a number of microform
archives, as well as the rich collection of books housed in
the Salisbury Library, which contains a significant number of
Romantic era texts of Welsh interest.
Those working within the Project can hope not
only to gain knowledge of the traditional scholarly skills,
but also acquire experience in the application of Information
Technology in academic research. It has been our policy
from the establishment of this programme that the commitment
gained from substantial academic training in bibliography and
textual criticism should be supplemented by familiarity with
the latest technological advances.
The Cardiff Corvey
Project, directed by Professor
Peter Garside, currently has three full-time Research
Associates and a number of postgraduate researchers attached
to its programme, examining various aspects of Romantic literature.
Ongoing details of this research will be posted regularly in
the form of articles and reports.
DATABASE
OF FICTION, 1800–1829
Developed since 1997, the first phase is complete,
and includes information on gender, authorship, impression numbers,
translations, etc., enabling detailed statistical analyses of
the period to be made. The initial award of a small research
grant made it possible to begin a pilot study in February 2000,
which would concentrate on aspects of the production and reception
of fiction in the Romantic period.
 The second
stage of our Database of Fiction 1800–29 project focused
on the acquisition of contemporary materials which will provide
a more comprehensive context for the primary bibliographical
data already available. With the aim of providing a representative
and sizeable account of the production, circulation, and reception
of early-nineteenth-century British fiction, this phase involved
the processing of anecdotal comments, circulating-library catalogues,
information on dramatisations, newspaper announcements, publishing
documents, reviews, and subscription lists.
In May 2001, a further
grant of over £240,000 was awarded by the Arts
and Humanities Research Board (AHRB) to extend the database
beyond the pilot project, with the ultimate aim of mounting
the resource on the Internet, in the form of a freely accessible
website. Concluding in late 2004, this project created a comprehensive
record of contemporary fiction as it was produced, circulated,
and received in Britain during the period 1800–29. The
team attached to the project consists of Dr Jacqueline Belanger,
Professor Peter Garside (director), Dr Anthony Mandal, Dr Sharon
Ragaz, and Professor David Skilton.
Further details about
the project are available by on the following link: More
about Database, 1800–29 Project.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
OF FICTION, 1830–1836
In February 2001, a British Academy Large
Research Grant of over £18,000 was awarded to CEIR, to
support a pilot project entitled ‘The English Novel, 1830–36:
A Bibliographical Survey of Prose Fiction Published in the British
Isles', under the direction of Professor Peter Garside.
Complementing
the recently published English Novel,
1770–1829: A Bibliographical Survey of Prose Fiction Published
in the British Isles, ed. Peter Garside, James Raven,
and Rainer Schöwerling, 2 vols (Oxford: OUP, 2000), this
project represents a further step towards building a comprehensive
record of Romantic-era British fiction.
In collaboration with
the Projekt Corvey team (Verena
Ebbes, Angela Koch, Rainer Schöwerling) at Paderborn University
(Germany), Peter Garside and Anthony Mandal have worked together
to provide this freely accessible resource via a dedicated website
within Cardiff Corvey.
The bibliography of
approximately 750 titles is available by clicking on the following
link: Bibliography, 1830–36.
DIGITISATION
OF TEXTS
Since February 1998, a pilot project has been running to analyse
the feasibility of converting rare/unique literary works into
edited, searchable texts. The project is now entering its
second phase, which involves the addition of secondary materials.
As a consequence of our scanning project, preparations are underway
for a series of facsimile texts on CD-ROM developed in association
with Belser Wissenschaftlicher Dienst, the publishers of the
original Corvey Microfiche Edition. The texts chosen are likely
to feature rare (possibly unique) novels taken from the Romantic
era.
The
first stage of this pilot—
which was run to test the feasibility of such an endeavour—
has been completed: this consisted of converting the basic texts
into an appropriate electronic format, and mounting them onto
CD-ROM with the appropriate viewing software.
The
second stage, currently under consideration,
consists of adding secondary materials to the online texts,
such as introductions, biographies, bibliographies, notes, glossaries,
etc.
We
are also investigating the feasibility of creating electronic
facsimiles of texts on CD-ROM, which would also enable
such complex searches to be carried out. As a consequence
of our scanning project, preparations are underway for a series
of fully searchable electronic editions
and are likely to feature rare (possibly unique) novels
taken from the Romantic era.
Further
details about the project, as well as a full
sample text—available in versions appropriate for
internet-browsing and downloading—are available by on the
following link: More about
the Digitisation Project.
OTHER
PROJECTS
Automatic
collation of variant editions through electronic tools:
we are currently investigating the usefulness of collating variant
editions of texts (in this case, James Hogg’s Private Memoirs
and Confessions of a Justified Sinner). This involves
converting print editions into editable text and then processing
them in pairs with dedicated software. The procedure will
highlight any differences in the textual matter of the paired
files, allowing the speedy location of variants. Initial
tests, comparing the results of this automatic collation with
traditional line-by-line comparisons, demonstrate that all variations
are successfully isolated by this process.
Last modified
2 September, 2005
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This document is maintained by Anthony Mandal (Mandal@cf.ac.uk).
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