Training Area
Introduction
Taking part in Transcribeestoria is a fun and fulfilling way to make a valuable contribution to the scholarship and dissemination of research on the most important medieval chronicle in Castilian whilst also finding out about medieval history, manuscript culture, palaeography (medieval writing) and improving your digital literacy. Working from high-quality images of the original manuscript, you will participate in our research by transcribing using our brand new online transcription platform.
Once a fortnight for ten weeks a new transcription passage from the Estoria de Espanna will be released. Accompanying these will be a series of blog posts covering the content of the passage, as well as other topics of interest, such as linguistic features, contextual explanations, and much more. You will also be able to take part in debates and discussions about medieval manuscripts and history on our blog. All of this is part of the learning experience and we strongly encourage you to engage as much as you are able.
The main task to take part in the project is pretty straightforward - type what you see in the manuscript! But to do this, first you will need to practise reading the medieval handwriting and find out how the transcription platform works.
To show you the ropes, we are providing four short training modules. You can work through these at your own pace, and you can return to them whenever you need to. Each module is available as a video and as a written document, and both are available in English and in Spanish. These are designed to tell you everything you need to know to start transcribing, but of course, for anything you are unsure of, you can get in touch with us via email or chat, through Facebook or Twitter, or through our website.
Shortcut list for easy reference
Module One. Discovering the manuscript and its writing
This module shows you the manuscript that we are going to transcribe and the main features of its materiality and writing.
Module Two: First steps
In this second module you will take the first steps in the transcription tool and it shows you how to mark the basic elements: line and column breaks, rubrics and decorated initials.
Module Three: Transcribing the manuscript: abbreviations
In this third module you will start reading the manuscript by comparing the image with the base transcription available on the platform, and you will learn how to mark the abbreviated signs.
Module Four: Transcribe Estoria: advanced features
This last module shows you how use some advanced features of the transcription took, such as the addition of marginalia, scribal changes, deficiency or damage passages.
These training videos were produced by Ricardo Pichel (visuals) and James Leahy (audio) of the University of Birmingham College of Arts and Law e-learning technology team. The scripts were written by Polly Duxfield and Ricardo Pichel, and were narrated by Polly Duxfield and Aengus Ward.
Practice transcribing
If you have signed up, you can practice what you have learned in the above training information we have a transcription which you can use to practise on so you can get get use to the transcription tool etcDel conseio que ouieron los de carthago como fiziessen contra los romanos 2
Del conseio que ouieron los de carthago como fiziessen contra los romanos 1