Reading Between 16th-Century Lines

Archaeology of Reading demonstrates the relevance of technology to the humanities — and vice versa

Earle Havens, the Nancy H. Hall Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts, is leading the Archaeology of Reading, a four-year project to transcribe, digitize, and make searchable marginal notes made by two prolific 16th-century annotators. The project, sponsored by a number of individuals and foundations, is as noteworthy for the insights it can yield into life of the time period as its approach to bringing together unique research materials.

“This kind of research demonstrates just how relevant technology is to the humanities and how relevant the humanities are to technology,” Havens says.