As we enter the next phase of the Pico Project (now migrating into VHL), a few issues are worth addressing. There are about 35-40 scholars worldwide now willing to participate in the annotation process. Needless to say, for this process to be successful, specific guidelines must be set in place (which we are currently discussing). For instance, a smaller group of scholars, located in Spain, Mexico and Argentina, are planning to work on the first ever translation of Conclusiones CM into Spanish. This brings up the broader question of whether translation (from Latin or Italian into English and Spanish) may become a consistent and relevant feature of VHL. For example, while we initially assumed that annotations to the Latin text would be done in English, we cannot exclude the possibility that scholars may prefer to write annotations in Italian or Spanish (or Latin, or French). On the technical side, Vika suggested that the Forum would be the appropriate medium in which issues rising from translation may be addressed. I look forward to Vika posting her thoughts about this.

Yesterday, Massimo and I met with Paul to talk about where our various projects stand and where we go from here. The following are some highlights of that exciting hour and a half, full of cautious optimism and web browsing, as well as a general recap of the project so far..

The VHL interface is currently located here, on STG’s development server. It is very much a work in progress, and some features may not work at any given moment. But it’s coming along!

Part of Boccaccio’s Esposizioni sopra la Comedia is already online, and the rest is currently being encoded. The current plan is to have the entire text up online by the end of the current semester. The text can be viewed by exposition (example). We are looking for alpha testers of the annotation system! If you are a scholar with relevant expertise and would like to get an account, please email me (vhl-at-wordsend-org) There is no quantity commitment; however, at this point we’re looking for people who can both annotate the text and give us constructive feedback: what is good, what needs work (and what kind of work), what features would be desirable. The content of the annotations is up to the participant scholars. Current project participants: if you can think of possible interested parties, please email me as well.

We also have indexes, notably of people and places in the Esposizioni. If you would like to help us verify the entries, please help yourself! Instructions are on the above-linked pages.

Pico’s Conclusiones Nongentae, also known as the 900 Theses, is coming along. A group of scholars is ready to start annotating it as well. In order to render it more easily cross-referenced with other texts, Paul will merge the Pico database with the VHL database (which contains the Esposizioni annotations). This will not affect the user’s experience.

Massimo showed us a Latin lemmatizer called LemLat, the standalone software version of which looks potentially useful for the Pico text(s). We’re looking into it.

Paul told us about PhiloLogic, a search engine that STG has been studying. It is a powerful piece of software, which copies texts into its electronic brain and does its own thing with them, but allows you to modify the interface to fit into your project. We can potentially ask it to search annotations, if they are located within a file (as opposed to database). Paul is looking into its redundancy with MySQL; if it has unique features that we like, it may be our search engine soon.

The search engine is the largest overall VHL task for the year, technically speaking. What would you, o Researcher, like to be able to search for in our texts? Aside, that is, from simple string searches and already-developed things like word collocations?

One wish list item, which perhaps we’ll get to before the end of the grant, is a comparative Boccaccio/Villani glossary. This would be in addition to a glossary of terms that Boccaccio defines in the Esposizioni.

That’s about it, for the moment. Massimo, Paul: have I missed something?

A quick update on the Pico Project, the third major component of our VHL (along with Boccaccio and Villani). We are now completing the English translation of the bilingual commentary (Latin-Italian) on Pico’s Oratio De Hominis Dignitate, the introductory speech to the Conclusiones Nongentae (or 900 theses). In the meantime, Paul Caton of STG is fine tuning the 900 theses site. As soon as this final tune-up is done, we will begin testing the tools the new site makes available to scholars. Testing will be done initially by members of the Oratio team (Francesco Borghesi, Pier Cesare Bori, Dino Buzzetti, Saverio Marchignoli, Giorgio Melloni, Mike Papio and myself). Once this initial testing is completed, a selected number of Pico scholars will be officially invited to collaborate and/or provide feedback on the tools etc.. One of our immediate priorities is also studying the most efficient way of crossreferencing the existing commentary and notes on the Oratio and the 900 theses. We will need to redesign the home page of the Pico Project, which will now encompass both the Oratio and the Theses, as well as new materials that we also plan to make available (such as a selection of letters from/to Pico, in Latin and translation, care of Francesco Borghesi and various essays as well as a gallery of related images).

Ben Hammersley links to the Pico Project, with the byline “Pico della Mirandola. The Florentine renaissance bad-ass alchemist mofo.”

It’s the next best thing to being slashdotted.