Anne de Graville: Editing a Forgotten Female Poet of the Sixteenth Century

Project academic: Elizabeth L’Estrange

Project summary

The student will undertake work for an online edition of the works of Anne de Graville (c. 1490-1540), a poet at the French court in the 1500s. Anne has been forgotten by literary historians, even though she was well-known in her day and wrote two long, pro-feminine, poems for the queen of France, both of which survive in manuscript copies.

Working with me and Joan E. McRae (Middle Tennessee State University), the student will conduct a survey of existing, similar, online resources and assess their advantages and disadvantages. Other tasks may include exploring potential digital platforms, transcribing text, developing bibliographies, and planning the scholarly apparatus of the edition (e.g. links to online sources and images associated with Anne).

There will also be the opportunity to work on the final stages of my monograph on Anne, and to promote the project through the @womenandthebook Twitter account.

What you will do 

• Conduct research into online editions of texts, particularly of medieval texts, to get a sense of their pros and cons, how easy they are to use, what software is employed;
• Contact editors of such texts where possible to ask for their opinions and advice; explore potential platforms (including UoB); conduct market research
• Discuss with me and Dr McRae what we would like to include in an edition of Anne’s works and make suggestions based on research conducted above; consider how the material and paratexts (introductory material etc.) might be presented
• Undertake other tasks depending on skills, including transcribing Anne’s works/converting and correcting PDFs, comparing manuscript copies, contacting libraries, developing an online bibliography (e.g. in Zotero), making a beta-website, compiling image lists
• Promoting the project and women authors and book owners more generally through social media, including the @womenandthebook twitter account, contacting Le Deuxième Texte

Skills required 

The scholarship holder will, preferably, have a working knowledge of the French language (A-level or above). An interest in or experience of studying late medieval and early modern culture will also be an advantage. Knowledge of, or willingness to learn about (independently), online bibliographies, hypertext, digital platforms, and other resources will also be an advantage.

Otherwise, familiarity with managing social media accounts, wordpress or similar programmes, accuracy in compiling documents etc are necessary. There will be a certain amount of room for the scholarship holder to make decisions and follow up lines of interest or enquiry depending on their particular skill set (e.g. transcribing and noting differences between texts, making a beta-version, annotating text, describing manuscripts, checking images). They will also have an interest in 15^th/16^th C French poetry and court culture.

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