A Review of Bridget Whearty's Digital Codicology: Medieval Books and Modern Labor (2022)

Digital Codicology: Medieval Books and Modern Labor (2022) by Bridget Whearty is a crucial work for scholars engaging with digitized materials. Advocating for a digital codicology that treats digital materials as objects worthy of study in their own right, Whearty addresses the many concerns surrounding digital manuscripts and promotes a more active, informed use of these resources. She highlights the often invisible human labor behind digitization, providing a detailed history and autoethnographic insights that challenge the perception of digital manuscripts as mere stand-ins for physical texts. Through personal experiences and institutional analysis, Whearty delves into the complexities of interoperability and the labor-intensive processes behind digitization and metadata curation. Her book emphasizes the emotional and intellectual engagement digital manuscripts can provoke, advocating for broad digitization and recognizing the dynamic nature of digital projects. Ultimately, Digital Codicology calls for greater transparency, collaboration, and a redefined understanding of digital manuscripts as integral primary sources in modern scholarship.