[open-humanities] FW: Announcing the launch of REED Online

[James Cummings]

FYI

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ANNOUNCING THE LAUNCH OF REED ONLINE

The Records of Early English Drama (REED) project is delighted to 
announce the launch of /REED Online/ 
(http://ereed.library.utoronto.ca), its new open-access website. 
The site features REED's first digital edition of dramatic 
records for the county of Staffordshire, encoded in TEI. Easily 
searched with a number of useful filters, online records appear 
conveniently on the same page as their translations, document 
descriptions, and any glosses or related endnotes. GIS mapping 
based on the /Patrons and Performances/ map of historic county 
boundaries and main roads illuminates significant details 
further. For students and those new to records research, search 
tips, an introduction to the research process, and an anatomy of 
a sample record provide a welcoming guide.

The /Staffordshire/ records, edited by J.A.B. Somerset, are found 
in scattered collections, but they yield fascinating glimpses of 
early social and economic history through accounts of public 
performances, social occasions, royal welcomes, folk customs, and 
professional entertainments. A few examples highlight the 
richness of the collection, which includes two royal visits – by 
Queen Elizabeth in 1576 and, more extensively, King James I in 
1615. The records of Tutbury, whose castle was a major 
administrative centre for the household of John of Gaunt, show us 
from 1380 a flourishing Minstrel Court while the accounts of 
Burton Manor, home to Thomas, Lord Paget reveal an Elizabethan 
household filled with music, playing, and revels. By contrast, 
Newcastle under Lyme sources record evidence of implacable hatred 
of players, levying large fines upon persons who allowed playing, 
and firing the town constable for turning a blind eye. For those 
interested in tracking the itineraries of professional troupes 
across the kingdom, new details of performance troupes visiting 
Stafford and Walsall as well as the private residences of 
Beaudesert, Blithfield, and Burton will be important.

/Staffordshire/ is REED's pilot digital publication, with more 
collections forthcoming on the same website to enable easy 
cross-collection searching. As REED begins planning for the 
production of the next collection for the county of Berkshire, 
the integration of /Patrons and Performances/ data, and the 
further development of /REED Online/, it welcomes all comments 
and suggestions from users. Please send any feedback to REED’s 
project manager, Carolyn Black, at ca.black at utoronto.ca.

REED gives special thanks to the Social Sciences and Humanities 
Research Council of Canada for a Connection grant that has made 
possible development of our digital publishing framework for 
/REED Online/.


-- 
Dr James Cummings,James.Cummings at it.ox.ac.uk  
Academic IT Services, University of Oxford