Features of the new version:

• expanded database of fully-analysed scripts
• over 100 new manuscript images included
• new lessons on codicology, including 24 video clips recording the actual making of a manuscript
• dozens of images demonstrating codicological features relating to covers, pastedowns, flyleaves, bosses and clasps, spines, damaged manuscripts, and issues of provenance
• new essays on background and related issues, dealing with the origins of Western handwriting, papyrology, and waxed and wooden tablets

Ductus, from the Latin ducere (to lead), is a digital program designed for the teaching of Latin paleography either locally or via the internet. The program is based on 66 extremely high resolution facsimiles of manuscripts from the period 150-1500 CE. It includes videos depicting a (modern) scribe at work, a 15-session course, and extensive glossaries and support documentation. It is already used by teachers and independent scholars around the world. In 2000 it received 'The Australian Award for Excellence in Tertiary Educational Multimedia'. Ductus is available either for use by individuals or by institutions with a site-licensing arrangement.

Ductus features:

• Individual analyses of over 66 sample manuscript facsimiles, including folios from The Book of Kells.
• Extensive interactive glossaries of terms and bibliographies.
• On-line library of seminal articles.
• Extremely high-resolution manuscript images.
• Videos demonstrating the craft of the medieval scribe.
• A structured 14-session course in paleography and codicology.
• Cross-browser - runs in FireFox, Safari, Opera and Internet Explorer.
• Cross-platform - runs on Windows, Mac and Unix.

Ductus includes an introduction to the history of western European handwriting and detailed interactive analyses of 66 sample scripts chosen from manuscripts in European, North American and Australian collections.

The manuscript images are of very high resolution and a movable magnifying glass makes it easy to study the scripts in minute detail. The transcript for each line can be viewed by passing the mouse over the line number. This feature can be disabled for teaching purposes.

The screen shot above shows the list of manuscripts down the left, with the analysis of the first manuscript to the right.

The program also includes video clips showing how the scripts were most likely written by medieval scribes. The second release has a section devoted to recent developments in the digital analysis of scripts as created by our development group, 'Medieval Multimedia' (medieval manuscripts in the Multi-medium Aevum.

Interactive supporting documentation includes comprehensive glossaries of over 300 terms with illustrations, manuscript types, full transcriptions, a bibliography and an electronic portfolio of associated art work. Below is an example of a Ductus glossary term. (Note: Because this is only an example, the hyperlinks are not active.)

calamus: The reed pen used by scribes in antiquity; it was gradually replaced by the quill made from a feather. A calamus in the middle with a quill on either side.

Ductus is in DVD-ROM format and runs in a web browser (Firefox, Safari, Opera or Internet Explorer), making it suitable for either local or remote use (via the web). Remote users can access high resolution images mounted locally from the DVD-ROM while connected directly to the home site during a session.

This year the introductory paleography course is offered via the net using Ductus. The course is available to anyone anywhere in the world, regardless of the size of the class. Please contact Bernard Muir to arrange to participate in this digital experience of paleography.

Purchasing Ductus - Individual copies, site-licensing and studying Ductus online.