2020 Essays

The Manuscript Seen from Afar: A Computational Approach to Ms. Fr. 640

Godbarge, Clément

Using the abundant data made available by the Making and Knowing Project, this essay examines some of the rhetorical features of Ms. Fr. 640, with a focus on dispositio. It argues that, when applied to a single document, careful visualization of statistical data can promote a “synthetic” approach to texts. Applied to Ms. Fr. 640, these computational methods provide readers with tools to assess relations between the manuscript’s constitutive parts and its cohesion as a whole. In doing so, this essay contributes to broadening the scope of computer-assisted hermeneutics in data-rich editions.