The 1.0 version of Parker on the Web, an interactive, Web-based workspace designed to support research and teaching associated with the manuscripts in the world-famous Parker Library at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, will launch on October 1, 2009. A beta version of the site is currently available, albeit with fewer manuscripts and slightly different functionality from version 1.0.
What Parker on the Web Will Offer
As of the launch date, users will have access to:
- High-resolution copies of every imageable page of the Library's remarkable collection of 559 manuscripts spanning from the sixth to the sixteenth centuries;
- A fully tagged version of M. R. James' well-known catalog (A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Corpus Christi College Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1912) updated and expanded by a project team at work since 2005; and
- Bibliographic entries for more than 6,000 secondary works and more than 18,000 citations linking those works to individual manuscripts.
Parker on the Web will also offer access to digital copies of some editions and secondary works. The site relies on a combination of commercial, open source, and custom built technologies to support image viewing and information retrieval. Users can easily zoom, pan and rotate the high-resolution images, and can examine the scale and color bars used when each image was captured. The application supports keyword and sophisticated fielded searching on the amplified manuscript descriptions, "abstracts" of each manuscript created by the project team, and the bibliography.
Support for the Parker on the Web Project
Parker on the Web is the product of more than five years' work by Corpus Christi College, the Cambridge University Library and the Stanford University Libraries, generously supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. Included under the "Tutorials" and "About" links, Parker on the Web also contains background information about the project and five short tutorials that explain how the site is used.
holding a beautiful bound Latin Bible opened to show
the text of Micah 6:8: 'I will show you, o man, what is
good; and what the Lord requires of you, but to do
justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with
your God.' (CCCC MS 582)
About Matthew Parker and the Parker Library
Matthew Parker (1504 -75) was a powerful figure of the English Reformation who was largely responsible for the Church of England as a national institution. Parker's talents were sought after by both Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. He served as a chaplain to Anne Boleyn and proved himself a capable administrator, becoming Master of Corpus Christi College (1544-53), Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, and Archbishop of Canterbury (1559 -75).
A benefactor to the University of Cambridge, Parker's greatest tangible legacy is his library of manuscripts and early printed books entrusted to Corpus Christi College in 1574. He was an avid book collector, salvaging medieval manuscripts dispersed at the dissolution of the monasteries. He was particularly keen on preserving materials relating to Anglo-Saxon England, motivated by his search for evidence of an ancient English-speaking church independent of Rome. To ensure the safekeeping of his collection, Parker included a clause with his donation to Corpus Christi College. It required an annual inspection of the completeness of the collection. Should there be more than twelve items missing, the entire collection would revert to Gonville and Caius College. In the case of a similar event in the new location, the collection would be moved to Trinity Hall and then back to Corpus Christi College. There was no need ever to invoke this clause.
The extraordinary collection of documents that resulted from Parker's efforts has been continuously housed at Corpus Christi College since 1574. It includes items that span more than a thousand years, from the St. Augustine Gospels (sixth century) to sixteenth century records of the English reformation. The Parker Library's holdings of Old English texts accounts for nearly a quarter of all extant manuscripts in Anglo-Saxon, including the earliest copy of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (c. 890), the Old English Bede and King Alfred's translation of Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care. Other subjects represented are music, medieval travelogues and maps, bestiaries, royal ceremonies, historical chronicles and Bibles. The Parker Library's magnificent collection of English illuminated manuscripts provides invaluable resources to scholars in a variety of disciplines -- including art, music, science, literature, politics and religion.
