The Atlas of Early Printing: An Electronic Presentation of Historical Information
Investigator:
Gregory J. Prickman
Special Collections
University of Iowa Libraries
Co-Investigator:
None
Awarded: $9,950
What do you intend to do?
This project will create an electronic atlas depicting the spread of printing throughout Europe in the first fifty years following the invention of the printing press (1450-1501). The atlas will be viewable online through an easy-to-use website that will show a user the towns where printing had been established in each year of the fifty-year period, while displaying information regarding the first printer and the first book printed in each town. These maps will be transformed into a more detailed atlas when images are simultaneously displayed containing other cultural factors locations of paper mills, universities, and monasteries; common trading routes, market towns, and transportation networks; and political conflicts creating a customizable view of historical information. The goal of the project is to produce a streamlined, user-friendly, web-based resource that depicts these complex relationships in a manner that makes the subject matter and time period accessible to undergraduates. The Atlas of Early Printing will also establish a model for the visual display of cultural events that can be replicated for other historical time periods and topics.
How will it improve student learning?
The atlas will immediately provide a new tool for classes that study the history of the book and late-medieval Europe. The University of Iowa Center for the Book has courses that cover this time period, such as 108:182 The Book in the Middle Ages and 108:183 The Transition from Manuscript to Print. The Center s director, Matthew Brown, has expressed considerable interest, writing, "Greg s proposal...will have an immediately utility in courses offered by the UI Center for the Book, while creatively marrying the past and future of the book, in a project that will foster original, interdisciplinary learning." Glenn Ehrstine in the German department has also written a letter of support, stating, "I would eagerly incorporate Mr. Prickman's digital Atlas of Early Printing in both my undergraduate and graduate teaching. My current syllabus for German Cultural History (13:105) devotes a full day to Johannes Gutenberg and his invention, and I could also make use of the atlas for my discussions of the early novel and Reformation broadsides in my graduate seminar on Early German Literature (13:371). I wholeheartedly support his project." In addition, departments such as History, English, and Spanish also offer courses that could take advantage of this project. The spread of printing provides a focus to begin building the atlas, but it could expand to cover other topics and time periods as classroom needs arise. Student learning will be enhanced by transforming static information from many separate sources into a dynamic presentation that can be adapted to satisfy student curiosity or instructional requirements. Maps depict information in ways that make discovery possible, as relationships appear between factors that might seem otherwise unconnected. There is the potential for a web-based atlas to provide greater access to this information for many different constituencies: students in the classroom, scholars at other institutions, and patrons in an exhibit gallery.
What do you need?
I will work with Library staff in the Map Collection and Digital Library Services departments to develop this project. The Atlas of Early Printing will be built on data entered into the ArcView system. For each town in Europe, coordinates will be established in the system, and data (date, printer, book, etc.) will then be attached to the points. The system will output images for each year that will subsequently be incorporated into the display interface, which will likely utilize Flash. The University already provides a license to the ArcView system. I will need student workers to input data collected from print sources into the database driving ArcView. I will then need student workers to assist with implementing and testing the online display. Once the database has been created, the potential exists to use more sophisticated software to serve fully-customizable maps over the internet in real-time.
What is your rough estimate of costs?
Total cost: $9,950
Hourly employees: 3 people for 2 semesters (10hrs/week; $8-$10/hr) = $9,200
Training for Macromedia Flash, and potential software upgrades = $750
