Migrations of Textual and Scribal Traditions via Large-Scale Computational Analysis of Medieval Manuscripts in Hebrew Script

Introduction

MIDRASH aims to construct a groundbreaking interdisciplinary methodology for a global approach to the study of the treasure trove of medieval literary manuscripts in Hebrew script. Jews produced and consumed a prodigious cornucopia of texts in Hebrew, Aramaic, Judeo-Arabic, and other vernacular languages, intertextually closely related like a mille-feuille. The manuscripts constitute the unique remains of medieval Jewish literary culture, having survived - and witnessing to - centuries of migrations, persecutions, and censorship.

Current Context

With the recent digitization of the extant manuscripts and with contemporary advances in computer vision, natural language processing, and machine learning, the time is ripe for broad new studies into this manuscript culture. We can now study questions regarding their materiality, textuality, transmission, and historical contexts on an unprecedented scale or heretofore beyond reach.

Proposed Study

MIDRASH proposes a pioneering study of the extensive corpora of:

1. Biblical manuscripts
2. Midrash (late antique exegetical and homiletical commentary on the Bible)
3. Medieval commentaries of the Bible and Mishnah
4. Liturgical manuscripts

Only a small fraction have been transcribed, let alone studied.

Methodology

State-of-the-art and bespoke algorithms will be applied to resolve issues of reading order, code-switching, and transcription errors. Once mechanically transcribed, known and unknown works will be identified and reconstructed, and multilingual intertextualities discerned.

Techniques and Applications

The latest fine-grained paleographical techniques and trained neural networks will be brought to bear on questions of provenance and transmission. Philological methods and computational linguistics will be applied to questions of textual fluidity and evolution to further our knowledge of the production and transmission of Hebrew manuscripts and texts, their authors, scribes, and readers, and enhance their role as the pivotal aspect of European and Mediterranean intellectual history.