C&RL News October 2021 420 graphical, codicological, or diplomatic analysis—a level of detail that is not part of either the Dewey or the Library of Congress classifications. Conse- quently, an array of information has been available elsewhere, often in finding aids that stand apart from the main library catalog, such as handwritten inventories, card files, printed catalogs, and individual insti- tutional records. As a result of the 2003 publication of Descriptive cata- loging of ancient, medieval, Renaissance, and early modern manuscripts,3 the “discover- ability of our manuscripts be- gan in 2016 when Melinda Hayes (rare books librarian and cataloguer, Special Collections) began a project to physically examine books created before 1601, and to review approxi- mately 2,500 titles in our USC Libraries Special Collections published before 1701. Showcasing the Hoose Li- brary of Philosophy Collection of Manuscripts and Incunabula thus became possible, and this led, in 2019, to our successful proposal for a Dean’s Challenge Grant The University of Southern California (USC) Libraries’ collection of Illuminated Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, Incunabula, and Rare Books includes 16 unique and invaluable illu- minated medieval manuscripts, as well as 12 other medieval manuscripts (with pen-flourished initials or borders) originating in Eu- rope.1 A substantial number of those manuscripts and rare books were acquired in the early to mid-20th century by Ralph Tyler Flewelling2 who joined USC in fall 1917. He became the first director of the School of Philosophy when it was established in 1929 with the completion of the Seeley Win- tersmith Mudd Memorial Hall of Philosophy building. That growing collection of books, known as the James Harmon Hoose Library of Philosophy Collection, was cataloged ac- cording to the Dewey Decimal Classification. Hoose was the first head of the Philosophy Department, originally housed in the university’s administration building. In the latter part of the 20th century, this rare collection was relocated to the Special Collections Depart- ment in the Doheny Memorial Library. The existence, as well as the scope of these unique historical artifacts, has remained largely unknown by our USC community of scholars and students, as well as by researchers nationwide and worldwide, primarily because pre-modern manuscripts frequently require individual paleo- Danielle Mihram is associate dean of the STEM Library and the Health Sciences Libraries, email: dmihram@ usc.edu, and Melissa L. Miller is head of the Hoose Library of Philosophy, Humanities librarian, and MMLIS assistant professor in the Marshall School of Business, email: millerm@usc.edu, at the University of Southern California © 2021 Danielle Mihram and Melissa L. Miller Danielle Mihram and Melissa L. Miller USC Illuminated Medieval Manuscripts A second polymathic multimodal digital project Currus pharaonis et exercitum eius proiecit in mare Adiutor (1201-1300?). mailto:dmihram%40usc.edu?subject= mailto:dmihram%40usc.edu?subject= mailto:millerm%40usc.edu?subject= October 2021 C&RL News421 (FY 2019-20) and, subsequently, to our creation (in spring 2020) of our Scalar publication, USC Illuminated Medieval Manuscripts,4 our second USC Libraries’ librarian-led Digital Humanities (DH) project, which builds upon the successful model of its predecessor, created in 2017.USC Digital Voltaire5 is a digital multimodal polymathic edition of 31 original autograph letters and four poems written by Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet, 1694-1778) between the years 1742 and 1777.6 An article about this book’s pub- lication appeared in C&RL News in 2017.7 Medieval manuscripts as cultural artifacts Compared to the holdings of other research i n s t i t u t i o n s , the number of our illuminated manuscripts is relatively small. Yet, as is the case for USC Digi- tal Voltaire, we have a second opportunity to create a digital multimodal criti- cal edition, and our polymathic approach gives us the chance to explore the multiple interdisciplin- ary dimensions of these manuscripts. With their unique representation of medieval life and thought, illuminated manuscripts are among the most significant and aesthetically captivating and irreplaceable artifacts (as “time capsules”) to survive from the Middle Ages. Each of these manuscripts was written on either vellum (a fine grade of calf skin) or parchment (goat, or sheep, skin). Each was also carefully handwritten, illustrated, and gilded, requiring a high degree of craftsmanship. The great majority of medieval manuscripts in the Western world are of religious content so that most manuscript leaves and books surviving today are bibles, books of hours, antiphonals, missals, and breviaries, as well as Latin writings from before the common era (BCE). Generally, these works are attributed by the style of the script and rubrication (from the Latin rubrico, “to color red”), which are quite unique to their time and place of origin, and they can readily be so recognized. Thus, surviving works can be attributed with authority both to a correct city or region, and to their period within a date range of a generation or so. By reading these texts and looking at their illustrations, we can learn a great deal about the social, spiritual, and cultural con- ditions of the medieval period. Prayers centered around the cult of the Virgin Mary are examples of m ov i n g l i t e r - ary expressions of core human emotions, while the frequency of scribal invo- cations (within marginalia) to Saints Sebastian, Apollonia, and Margaret inform us about the “chronic problem of plague, the annoyance of toothache, and the dangers of childbirth.”8 USC Illuminated Medieval Manuscripts The original goal of the USC Illuminated Me- dieval Manuscripts project was to focus on four manuscripts9 that offered a variation of com- plexity, and to digitize them for inclusion in our Digital Library.10 By using the current technol- ogy and tools available, we aimed to determine the initial digitization preferences for each unique manuscript, and then create (in Scalar) a detailed polymathic multimodal Catalogue Raisonné for all manuscripts, in order to develop best practices and prototypes. In collaboration with the USC Book of hours, use of Rome, Northern France, and/or Bruges (be- tween 1460 and 1470). C&RL News October 2021 422 Dornsife Center for the Premodern World and the USC Dornsife Classics Department, we dis- cussed research and editorial preferences for each of our unique manuscripts, to pave the way for its discovery and its eventual research and learning po- tential.11 Three goals for the project emerged from these discussions. First, we wanted to both highlight our Special Collections’ primary and secondary sources within a specific area, and to continue incorporating such resources into interdisciplinary research and curricular activities. Our second goal was to make available a model of inter- disciplinary collaboration, one that provides multiple levels of discovery so as to open new research perspec- tives on both Medieval Europe and antiquity, as evidenced by our collec- tion of manuscripts that is quite diverse, including both religious and secular manuscripts, dating from the 13th through 15th centuries. Lastly, we sought to cre- ate a community of practice and develop strategic alli- ances by bringing together scholars and students from different fields in the hu- manities—including (as a start) faculty and students in disciplines such as history, philosophy, religion, art history, music, classics, manu- script culture, and medieval literature—to reflect upon the role that the medieval period historical sources can play in contemporary humanistic and social sciences debates and engage students in multiple literacies and evolving multimodal forms of expression. Strategic changes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic In early spring 2020, we were informed that, due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, our Digital Li- brary would not be able to work on our project, and access to our Special Collections Department was placed “on hold.” Consequently, our modified course of action was to photograph pages of one of our initially selected manuscripts Cicero’s De officiis, a manuscript fre- quently used by Fred Clark of the Classics department in his courses,12 and select three manuscripts that had been digitized prior to 2019: a leaf from a breviary (Currus pharaonis et exercitum eius proiecit in mare Adiutor . . .), with Latin text and music notation13 for use by the nuns in the Church of St. Pierre at Langres, France (more specifically, for vespers for the fourth Sunday of Lent), and two books of hours, one from Bruges14 and one from Louvain15 to support the Center for the Premodern World’s inaugural lecture series launched in February 2020, as a collaborative ini- tiative between the Libraries and the Center.16 Looking ahead As we look forward to resuming the digitiza- tion of our manuscripts, our strategic approach includes revealing and documenting each manuscript’s particulari- ties and idiosyncrasies, such as original binding, parchment, or vellum; gold and gold leaf; bril- liant colors and com- position of the illustra- tions; the mise-en-page (the French expression meaning “putting on the page,” i.e., the layout of the page, including text and images); the ductus (the specific handwriting of the scribe), scribal practices; and provenance. We also hope to explore each manuscript as an archaeological artifact by using technological tools to gradually “excavate” the complex lay- ers that make up each manuscript. We plan to select advanced imaging techniques, including 3-D, RTI (Reflectance Transformation Imag- ing), hyperspectral and multispectral imaging to analyze, for example, elements in inks, variations depending on preparation and the quality of the vellum or parchment, or to recover erased texts Book of hours, use of Rome, Northern France and/or Bruges (between 1460 and 1470). October 2021 C&RL News423 (Palimpsests) that are otherwise illegible and, in some cases, nearly invisible to the naked eye.17 Such an approach, consonant with the broad range of technical and analytical approaches currently employed by scholars for the scientific analysis of manuscripts, fosters the exploration of innovative approaches to cross-disciplinary research as well as opportunities to forge new col- laborations. Our hope is that, as we move forward with our project, a fruitful dialogue and exchange of ideas from experts in different fields will advance the study, care, and preservation of our collections’ irreplaceable testimonials of our cultural past.18 Notes 1. See in our Research Guide, Medieval Studies and Research, the page titled: “Medi- eval Manuscripts at USC,” https://libguides.usc. e d u / M e d R e n M S S a n d R a r e M a t S t u d i e s /atUSCbyauthor. 2. Ralph Tyler Flewelling (1871-1960) was an American Idealist philosopher whose writings and teaching established USC as one of the strongholds of Personalism. See Wallace Nethery, Dr. Flewel- ling, and the Hoose Library: Life and letters of a man and an institution (Los Angeles: University of Southern California, 1976). 3. Gregory A. Pass, Descriptive Cataloging of Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, and Early Modern Manuscripts (Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 2003). 4. Danielle Mihram and Melissa Miller, eds., USC Illuminated Medieval Manuscripts (Los An- geles: University of Southern California, 2020), https://scalar.usc.edu/works/usc-illuminated -medieval-manuscripts/index (accessed February 10, 2021.) See also our Research Guide, “Me- dieval Studies and Research,” https://libguides. usc.edu/MedRenMSSandRareMatStudies, which complements this publication (accessed February 10, 2021). 5. Danielle Mihram et al, USC Digital Vol- taire (Los Angeles: University of Southern Califor- nia, 2017), https://scalar.usc.edu/works/voltaire /index (accessed February 10, 2021). 6. All of these letters and poems are part of the Hoose Library of Philosophy Collections. 7. Danielle Mihram, “The University of Southern California Voltaire Letters: A polymathic multimodal digital project,” College & Research Libraries News 78, no. 11: 592 (Dec. 2017). 8. See https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews /article/view/16834/18429. 9. Digital Library, http://digitallibrary.usc. edu/. 10. Charles E. Pierce, “Preface,” in Roger S.Wieck, Painted Prayers–The Book of Hours in Medieval and Renaissance Art (New York: George Braziller, 1997, p. 7.). 11. Giles of Rome, Liber sententiarium, cum duobus tabulis (13th century); Cicero, De Officiis (15th century); Petrus de Palude, Com- mentary upon Peter Lombard’s ‘Quatuorum libri sententiarium’ (15th century); William of Ock- ham, Scriptum aureum inceptoris Willielmi Oc- cham supra praedicabilia et praedicamenta, with the quodlibets of Walter Burley (14th century). 12. For a listing of our project team, see: “Project Developers,” https://scalar.usc.edu /works/usc-illuminated-medieval-manuscripts /project-developers. 13. See “USC’s Cicero Digitalandum,” by Frederic Clark (USC Classics), response by David Ulin (USC and LA Times) DecamerOnline, Day 4–May 20, 2020, https://dornsife.usc.edu/labs /decameronline/day-four/. 14. Catholic Church, Book of hours, use of Rome, Northern France and/or Bruges (1460- 1470), Special Collections: Z105.5 1460 .C378, Digital Library Link, http://digitallibrary.usc.edu /cdm/ref/collection/p15799coll58/id/48885. 15. Catholic Church, Book of hours, use of Netherlands, Groot Begijnhof van Leuven and/or Ghent (between 1445 and 1460), Special Collections: Z105.5 1450 .C378, Digital Library Link: http:// digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject /collection/p15799coll58/id/49243/rec/7. 16. See “An Invited Lecture by Dr. Greg Clark,” https://scalar.usc.edu/works/usc-illuminated -medieval-manuscripts/greg-clark-lecture (accessed February 10, 2021). 17. See, for example, “The Sinai Palimpsests Project,” http://sinaipalimpsests.org/technologies. 18. Paola Ricardi, “Manuscripts in the Mak- ing: Art and Science,” Heritage Science 7, article no. 60 (2019), (Open Access) https://heritagesciencejournal. springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40494-019 -0302-x. https://libguides.usc.edu/MedRenMSSandRareMatStudies/atUSCbyauthor https://libguides.usc.edu/MedRenMSSandRareMatStudies/atUSCbyauthor https://libguides.usc.edu/MedRenMSSandRareMatStudies/atUSCbyauthor https://scalar.usc.edu/works/usc-illuminated-medieval-manuscripts/index https://scalar.usc.edu/works/usc-illuminated-medieval-manuscripts/index https://libguides.usc.edu/MedRenMSSandRareMatStudies https://libguides.usc.edu/MedRenMSSandRareMatStudies https://scalar.usc.edu/works/voltaire /index https://scalar.usc.edu/works/voltaire /index https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews /article/view/16834/18429 https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews /article/view/16834/18429 http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/ http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/ https://scalar.usc.edu/works/usc-illuminated-medieval-manuscripts/project-developers https://scalar.usc.edu/works/usc-illuminated-medieval-manuscripts/project-developers https://scalar.usc.edu/works/usc-illuminated-medieval-manuscripts/project-developers https://dornsife.usc.edu/labs /decameronline/day-four/ https://dornsife.usc.edu/labs /decameronline/day-four/ http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15799coll58/id/48885 http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15799coll58/id/48885 http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll58/id/49243/rec/7 http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll58/id/49243/rec/7 http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll58/id/49243/rec/7 https://scalar.usc.edu/works/usc-illuminated-medieval-manuscripts/greg-clark-lecture https://scalar.usc.edu/works/usc-illuminated-medieval-manuscripts/greg-clark-lecture http://sinaipalimpsests.org/technologies https://heritagesciencejournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40494-019-0302-x https://heritagesciencejournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40494-019-0302-x https://heritagesciencejournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40494-019-0302-x