The making of a new database of Czech medieval texts in translation
Réka Forrai reflects on a visit from Charles University. The visit took place on October 1-2 at CML in Odense.
In the fall of 2019 (1-2 October) CML had the pleasure of hosting a visit from Charles University, Prague. As part of a big project entitled Creativity and adaptability as conditions for the success of Europe in an interrelated world (KREAS https://kreas.ff.cuni.cz/index.php/en/project-overview/) our Czech colleagues - Jan Čermák, Ondřej Tichý, Andrea Svobodová, Michal Kovář, Václav Žůrek and Lucie Doležalová - are working on a portal of medieval Czech sources in English translations. This database would allow medievalists who are not specialists in the Czech material and the language to gain access to a rich patrimony of texts, for purposes of comparative study, teaching, etc. The Prague team tested the trial version on CML’s researchers as possible readers and users of such a portal. The presentation had been useful for all, and the discussion evolved in two different directions: a technical one, as several members of both research groups are engaged with digital humanities and a theoretical one, since for the researchers of CML’s Canon and Library strand this one was a fascinating attempt at constructing a virtual library out of a medieval textual canon.