Big Data and Manuscript Studies: An Introduction with Some Reflections on Methods

Abstract: This introduction considers the approaches to, reasons for, and impacts of using “big data” methods to study medieval manuscripts. This introduction to “big data” and manuscript studies offers a brief history of the field and its terms before laying out some of the benefits, challenges, and drawbacks of large-scale work. Looking at lots of books presents an intellectual clash: the desire to know more about what we are looking at and the desire to see everything often runs up against the knowledge (and the fear) that we cannot know everything. We argue that undertaking large-scale work necessitates reflecting not only on reasons for counting, analyzing, and studying manuscripts at scale, but also on how we count and why. Methods always matter, and reflecting critically on methods matters even more when there are still foundational questions to be answered about medieval manuscripts.