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Computing in the Humanities...
Joyce Winslow
jwins@oregon.uoregon.edu
Spenser online? Works by this 16th century author--together with texts by Milton,
Shakespeare, and a host of others dating from 1477-1799--are now available via
21st century technology, thanks to the painstaking efforts of Richard Bear.
Bear had a passion for textual design from his earliest years. Before coming
to the UO he worked as a commercial pressman, doing foil stamping, embossing,
and die cutting, and operated a small printing business on the side.
Now Documents Supervisor in the Knight Library, Bear has since turned to digital
technology to provide readable web editions of early English works to the general
public. Renascence Editions, the site he created at http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/ren.htm,
evolved from earlier experiments in reproducing the works of Edmund Spenser
online.
The Renascence site has grown rapidly in the four years since its inception.
It has won over a dozen awards , including citations from Great Books,
Times Pick, Webivore, LookSmart (editor's choice), and
IrishKnowledge.com.
If you're looking for an old-spelling reading experience with early modern typographic
conventions, check out Renascence Editions. You won't be disappointed.