IRHT – Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes

Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes (IRHT-CNRS)

CNRS UPR 841

Director

François Bougard

Website

https://www.irht.cnrs.fr

The Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes (IRHT), a unit of the CNRS, is located at Campus Condorcet, in Orléans and Paris. It is an internationally renowned centre of expertise which carries out fundamental research on medieval manuscript documents (on papyrus, parchment, paper, ostraca...) and on texts written on these media in the main cultural languages of the Mediterranean region, from Antiquity to the Renaissance.

The examination of the documentary sources leads to the production of indexes and catalogues. Major research programmes are conducted at the IRHT on medieval libraries in France, pre-modern Muslim law, Byzantine libraries, best-selling works of medieval Romanesque literature, the practice of commentary on the Sentences of Pierre Lombard in European universities, Europa humanistica, Latin translations of vernacular works, digital palaeography, etc. They call upon numerous French and international partnerships.

Responsible for the reproduction of manuscripts of the municipal and university libraries in France for the Ministries of Culture and Higher Education, the IRHT took the digital turn very early on and has since developed numerous databases and innovative tools. It is today very much involved in machine learning for automated pattern and character recognition and in electronic publishing.

Related resources and tools

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ARCA		The digital library of the IRHT (formerly BVMM) and index of manuscripts shelfmarks, incunabula and early printed books held in libraries throughout the world, particularly in France (formerly Medium). The digital library has been enriched by numerous digitisation campaigns funded by Biblissima, which has also contributed to the cleaning and enrichment of its index of shelfmarks.
Arkindex		A complete document processing platform developed by Teklia. It offers optical character recognition software (printed or handwritten) to extract text, analyze the content, then classify and index data according to your own setup.
Bibale		Bibale describes the history of the transmission of manuscripts and printed books and the texts they contain through the study of ancient and modern collections and their owners.
Bibliothèques médievales de France (BMF)		Index of catalogues, inventories and various lists of medieval manuscripts (8th-18th centuries).
BUDÉ		The BUDÉ database gathers information on the transmission of ancient and medieval works through manuscripts and ancient printed books for a period covering the end of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, understood in a broad sense (up to the middle of the 17th century) and varying according to the country. Much of this information comes from the manual files of the Humanism section at the Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes.
Burgundia Scripta Merovingica (BSM)		The BSM project is establishing a reasoned corpus of written traces on all media (excluding coins) produced in the High Middle Ages by and for the territory that constitutes Merovingian Burgundy, in order to be able to relate the different types of media and the texts copied onto them.
Charles V and Charles VI and their books		Reconstruction of the libraries of Charles V and Charles VI: digitisation and editing of medieval inventories and collection of data on manuscripts and transmitted texts. Digitisations in particular on Gallica, descriptions of manuscripts in BAM, electronic edition of inventories planned in the Thecae collection.
Chartres and its medieval libraries		Digitisation and cataloguing in the CCFr of medieval manuscripts held by the Médiathèque de Chartres, with the aim of reconstituting the medieval libraries of Saint-Père and the cathedral. Electronic edition of ancient inventories on ThecaeLab.
Collecta, archive numérique de la collection Gaignières (1642-1715)		Collecta aims at virtually reconstructing the collection of François-Roger de Gaignières (1642-1715), which was dispersed between different repositories (Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Bodleian Library in Oxford). It is based on the complete inventory of 5,569 items (manuscripts, portfolios of drawings and engravings, prints, paintings and objects) drawn up in 1711, during the antiquarian's lifetime.
Comparatio		Comparatio focusses on the liturgical chants found in medieval Latin manuscripts. It includes not only the text of the liturgical chants, but also the music, transcribed from manuscripts of diverse origins (France, Germany, Italy and Central Europe). This musical database aims to aid in identifying the origin of liturgical manuscripts through the study and comparison both of different versions of antiphons and responsories as well as of their textual variants.
Correspondence during the Renaissance		This correspondence brings to light a great deal of information about the exchange of books between scholars and book collectors. The corpus will be expanded through the study of the most important collections of correspondence, starting with Pellicier, Peiresc, Pierre Daniel, Les Chifflet, Jacques Auguste de Thou, Charles de l’Écluse, Jacques Dalechamps, Pinelli.
Dom Bernard de Montfaucon's Bibliotheca bibliothecarum manuscriptorum nova…		This digital edition will be based on the handwritten notes that were compiled for the collected inventories of manuscript libraries published in 1739. These notes, which are written in different hands, are part of the collections formerly held by the Maurists and contain a great deal of information that is not included in the original printed edition.
E-ktobe		E-ktobe is a database on Syriac manuscripts which provides information on their physical characteristics, colophons and text, as well as manuscript annotations. It contains a great deal of information on people, places and dates concerning the making of Syriac manuscripts.
European lexical corpus Glossaria		Enrichment and enhancement of the European Latin Lexical Corpus by the Du Cange Committee, which also offers innovative tools for historical lexicography.
Extractor		Project for a tool to isolate all the decorative elements in a given manuscript and then compare these elements from one manuscript to another.
FabuLab		FabuLab is looking at ways of finely indexing the texts and images of Isopet 1-Avionnet, a collection of esopic fables dating from the late 13th - early 14th centuries, and at the reading paths that they will enable to be developed, by bringing the corpus's data and metadata into dialogue with the entities and repositories of Biblissima+.
Filigranes pour tous		Research project on watermarks on paper in the medieval and modern West and on the processes of their optical shape recognition. The goal is to create a smartphone application that allows you to take a photo of a watermark, download it and obtain its description, through an image-identification system.
Gloss-e		Glossae Scripturae Sacrae-electronicae, a portal dedicated to the study of biblical gloss and commentary in the Middle Ages. The core component of the project is a digital edition of the Glossa ordinaria based on the Editio Princeps, an incunable printed in Strasbourg between 1480 and 1481.
Horae Pictavenses		A project on the origins and provenance of books of hours from Poitou, studied in text and image. The project focuses on the metadata of digitised images and their dissemination using interoperable protocols and formats (IIIF, XML-TEI, JP2).
Humanist Hands		This corpus of humanist autograph manuscripts will be digitised, with a particular emphasis on Libri amicorum (books of friends) that contain numerous handwriting samples. They will then be used in the development and configuration of an image comparison tool to identify the scribes and annotators of old books.
Index of Greek Manuscripts Inventories		The Greek section of the Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes lists the inventories of Greek libraries dating from before the fall of Constantinople, an area that is much less well known than Latin. The data is published in the Bibale database.
Initiale		Maintained by the "Section des manuscrits enluminés" at the IRHT since 1990, this online catalogue lists the illuminated manuscripts held in French public collections (except those of the Bibliothèque nationale de France).
Inventories and Catalogues of Ecclesiastical Libraries (1789-1797)		Description and digitization of inventories and catalogues of ecclesiastical libraries (1789-1797) in the Virtual Inventory Room of the Archives nationales (shelfmarks : F/17/1168-F/17/1179/B).
Iter Liturgicum Italicum		Repertory of over 31,000 Italian liturgical manuscripts, compiled by Giacomo Baroffio, published and enriched by the IRHT.
Jonas		This online database was launched in 2002 and aims to build up an index of medieval texts and manuscripts in Occitan and the langues d’oïl, in addition to providing a tool for the in-depth study of hagiographical manuscripts.
La Sorbonne et ses archives (projet ECRU)		Electronic edition of acts, letters and other types of texts concerning the former University of Paris, published between the 17th and 20th centuries, in particular in the Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis by H. Denifle and E. Châtelain.
Légendiers latins		The purpose of the Légendiers latins database is to list all medieval and modern manuscripts witnesses of Latin hagiographic texts identified by the Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina (BHL) and its Supplement.
Les Farnèse et leurs livres		Laying the foundations for a virtual reconstruction of the Farnese Library, the most important library in sixteenth-century Rome, the project includes the electronic publication of sixteenth and seventeenth-century inventories and prepares the digital cataloguing of 154 manuscripts of Latin classics held by the National Library of Naples.
Matriculae		Matriculae is an IRHT prosopographical database containing thousands of biographical and bibliographical details of members of religious congregations or societies who may have played a role in the cultural and intellectual life of their time (mainly from the 16th to the 18th century). It is hosted by the Bibale database.
Minims and Oratorians		The Order of the Minims and the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri each built up impressive libraries. The systematic analysis of the Minims' archives aids in understanding the evolution of their libraries and the circulation of texts in their historical context. As regards the Oratorians, a teaching congregation, research will focus on their libraries in Paris and elsewhere in France.
Multispectral imaging for reading palimpsests and erased documents		Recommendations for French and international institutions wishing to set up a multispectral imaging process for their collections, in order to make the results interoperable and reusable: shooting protocols, computer post-processing, digital conservation and dissemination.
Persons authority file of the IRHT		Authority data of all the persons in the IRHT databases, as well as some other databases with which the IRHT collaborates. Hosted by the Bibale database, it is intended to feed the common tool data.biblissima.
Pinakes		This database provides information on the manuscript tradition of pre-sixteenth century Greek texts. The project began in 1971 at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies in Toronto; in 1993 the Greek section at the IRHT took over its management and continues to enrich it with new data to this day.
Private libraries and book circulation under the Ancien Régime		Corpus of inventories and catalogues of ecclesiastical libraries of the Ancien Régime (14th-18th centuries) digitised and described in the Archives nationales' online catalogue.
Qitsur Shorashim		Digital edition of the Qitsur shorashim, an anonymous dictionary of Biblical Hebrew roots that circulated in humanist circles, in order to assess its role in the teaching of Hebrew within Jewish and Christian communities.
Rabelais and its books		The FOnds Rabelais et ses Sources En ligne project (Rabelais's Collection and its Sources Online) has several aims: reconstructing Rabelais's library, editing a small corpus of his correspondence, and digitising books that Rabelais once owned and annotated. The manuscript of his Cinquième livre will also be made available online.
RegeCart - Regesta of cartularies		The RegeCart database gives access to onomastic indexes drawn from 571 cartularies, chronicle-cartularies and bullaries (primarily from the provinces of Rheims and Sens) that were studied by the IRHT's Diplomatic section between 1942 and 1970. It also includes reproductions of the analyses of the individual acts in each cartulary and codicological descriptions of the cartularies.
Relicantus / Wala		Relicantus is a database describing the fragments of notated liturgical books in the archives and libraries of France, developed at the IRHT. It is linked to the Wala project for indexing, comparing and mapping variants in the manuscript evidence of Gregorian chant. The data is not yet public.
Reliures (IRHT)		The Reliures database developed by the IRHT aims to catalogue all medieval and sixteenth-century bindings, as well as modern armorial bindings, held in French public libraries (excluding the BnF and the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève). It is hosted by the Bibale database.
Reliures.bnf.fr		Database of digitised bindings at the BnF, presenting a selection of bindings that are representative of the history of bookbinding in France. When launched in April 2013, it listed approximately 200 bindings, including many emblematic "treasures" from the collections of the Réserve des livres rares at the BnF (16th to 18th centuries).
Richelieu and its books		Edition électronique des inventaires anciens des livres du cardinal de Richelieu dans la collection Thecae (édition-test sur ThecaeLab) pour une reconstitution de sa riche bibliothèque de manuscrits et d’imprimés.
Saint-Amand and its books		Digitisation of medieval manuscripts from the Valenciennes library, in particular from the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Amand. Electronic edition of the large 12th century inventory on ThecaeLab.
Saint-Bertin and its books		Edition, analysis and digitization of the catalogs of the abbey of Saint-Bertin, as well as 577 medieval and 16th century manuscripts coming from its library, and today held at the libraries of Saint-Omer and Boulogne-sur-Mer. The digitized manuscripts and printed books are accessible on the digital library of the Communauté d'Agglomération du Pays de Saint-Omer" (CAPSO).
Saint-Martin de Sées and its books		Identification, digitisation, cataloguing and promotion of the medieval manuscripts of Saint-Martin de Sées; electronic edition on ThecaeLab of the library's ancient inventories.
Sanderus electronicus		Electronic edition of the Bibliotheca belgica manuscripta, a collection of early inventories of Belgium and France published by A. Sanders in 1641-1644; to be published in the Thecae collection, edition currently on ThecaeLab.
Sermones.net		Corpus of digital editions of sermons. The CIHAM has developed its expertise in oral traditions that have later been set down in writing through the digital edition of Jacobus de Voragine's sermons.
SION-Digit sfarim		SION-Digit-Sfarim, in partnership with the Gironde and Venice archives, aims to locate, catalogue, digitise, transcribe and make use of a representative corpus of notarial deeds from the period 1500-1700 relating to the lives, possessions, transfers and transactions of Jews between Venice, Amsterdam and Bordeaux.
SourcEncyMe		The SourcEncyMe project (Sources des Encyclopédies Médiévales) focusses on the history and transmission of Greek, Arabic and Latin texts on philosophy, science, theology and history, which were included in Latin encyclopaedic compilations from the 13th century onwards.
Telma		Telma (Traitement électronique des manuscrits et des archives) provides the scientific community with access to corpora of primary sources and the finding aids necessary to manipulate and study them. It contains two kinds of corpora: resource indexes and critical editions of manuscript sources, which may or may not be linked to digital images of the documents.
The Sainte-Geneviève Library and its manuscripts (MAGE)		Digitisation and promotion of medieval manuscripts preserved at Sainte-Geneviève Abbey before the French Revolution.
The Sorbonne and its books		The data gathered from this corpus of old inventories and preserved manuscripts makes it possible to reconstruct the different collections that were once held at the Library of the Sorbonne College and trace their history. The data will be added to the Bibale database and the inventories will be published online as a digital critical edition.
Thecae		Digital collection of critical editions of early inventories of manuscripts and printed books, published by the Presses universitaires de Caen (PUC). Editions are published in Thecae only when they are stable and can be cited permanently.
Toulouse: Library of the Dominicans		Project to digitise and catalogue all the medieval manuscripts and incunabula from the ancient library of the Dominicans of Toulouse, and to publish the archives describing the library. The data is accessible in Rosalis, the digital library of Toulouse.
Toulouse : la bibliothèque des Augustins		Identification of all manuscripts and printed documents of Augustinian provenance, updating of the scientific notes for the manuscripts concerned in the CCFr, publication of the two old inventories with identifications, digitisation of 25 manuscripts and one inventory that are not yet digitised.
Virtual Library of Clairvaux		The Clairvaux Virtual Library allows to consult the surviving manuscripts of the Clairvaux library as it was in 1472, fully digitised in colour. It also offers self-study articles and dossiers. Electronic edition of old inventories on ThecaeLab.