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Vercelli Book Script
Dr. Gregory Heyworth:
Really what the Lazarus project is about, is about bringing to life a text. The really
exciting thing is that I think we’re with this technology still in it’s infancy and
we are on the brink of being able to recover a whole host of texts that have been written
off or are simply entirely unknown. In other words we are about to change the cannon, the
cannon of western literature and if we get to Japan and China perhaps we can do the same
for eastern literature. So I think of it as a renaissance of the past.
Lizzy Wicks:
We have been working on the Vercelli book, which is so neat to be able to work on that.
Were going to be imaging, we’ve imaged about 70 folios so far and were going to be imaging
like 70 more and in the next ones that we’re imaging is the poem the dream of the rood
which I had actually read in high school in my English class, so it’s going to be even
more…it’s just going to be so amazing to be able to touch the actual document that
I was just reading on a piece of paper in high school and it really impacted my life
when I read the poem just in my English class so I can imagine how it’s going to be actually
seeing it in real life.
Eleanor Anthony:
The Map of Mundi, it’s thought to be a 9th century map of the world and previous to actually
seeing it I didn’t quite understand what that meant because it’s not just a geographical
representation of the world it incorporates cultural knowledge of the different areas
and really tracks the spread of culture between countries and so it’s really a fascinating
find and to see it with a naked eye, so much of the detail is lost and Mr. Boydston has
had real success with the UV lightning using UV filters and it has just brought out a lot
of pictures. Visually it’s extremely exciting to look at just because it’s so…you’ve
got all of these graphic representations.
Meredith Oliver:
It’s a dream; it really is a dream. I can’t believe that I’ve had the opportunity to
come here and be apart of imaging these old documents, bringing them to life, never thought
in a million years I would be able to do this. And it also just made me think about the future,
like what does this mean for me, why am I here? Obviously there’s a reason behind
that and so it’ll be interesting to see how this one opportunity will begin to blossom
into something great.
Leigh Anne Zook:
Working with theses documents it’s unreal, these are just priceless like artifacts and
just thinking about how few people have actually seen these and the ones that have are field
experts this is what their careers are, there lives are dedicated too. And me as a undergraduate
student, a sophomore having access to these things being able to touch them actually,
work with them, it’s just an absolutely wonderful experience.
Ken Boydston:
So it’s really great having Greg whose knowledge of what were looking at is so profound and
then to work with the students and see the students catch the vision and understand a
bit about what we’re doing.
Eleanor Anthony:
I mean it’s unbelievable because you come in and your immediately faced with this 10th
century document and your touching it, your moving it, your imaging it, interacting with
it. And to be able to see it with a naked eye versus under all of the different spectral
lighting that we’re using, I mean the results are amazing and we haven’t even begun starting
the full layering process of the images and you can see dramatic differences, so it’s
really just thrilling.