Digitizing Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture

Book excerpt: Digital technologies are changing the way in which we can understand and analyse history and its associated artefacts. The aim of this book is to encapsulate the potential that digital technologies pose for medieval material culture, providing examples of leading projects worldwide which are enabling new forms of research in this area. The text aims to provide a broad overview of the type of tools now used by historians--such as text encoding, digitization, and visualization--and juxtaposing these with core concerns from historians investigating particular research questions. It draws together a key body of research in this area, demonstrating how digital tools and techniques can aid in changing our understanding of the past.