This paper originated from the spring semester I spent as a fellow at Boston College in 2019 and partially accounts for a digitization project that will proceed rather differently from the way it began, even if this will simply confirm the viability of its starting premises. The project aims to create a digital, open-access, English-language, and researchable database of the Jesuit annual catalogs. But why, in particular, the annual catalogs? The reason is their content and the way they display it: information on the identity, domicile, and activity of each and every member of the Society of Jesus kept almost continuously from the late sixteenth century on, through an accurate and efficient system of accounting. The annual catalogs have recently attracted the attention of other researchers, some of whom have attempted to convert their own data into digital boxes and provide them with digital tools. That lifted the project to another level and required that a comparison be made of the different approaches and proposals in order to optimize the potential outcome of broader cooperation among institutes. With regard to the original project, what remains unchanged is the aim of pouring into the database-to-be as much as possible of the Jesuit annual catalogs’ data, translated into English and starting from the order’s restoration. The project also aims to enable some research features that would allow scholars to filter items in space and time and apply simple formulas for sums, averages, and so on.

A Plea for a Jesuit Annual Catalog Database / Madella, Laura. - ELETTRONICO. - 2019 Symposium(2021), pp. 1-18. (Intervento presentato al convegno Engaging Sources: The Tradition and Future of Collecting History in the Society of Jesus. tenutosi a Boston (MA) nel Giugno 2010) [10.51238/ISJS.2019.30].

A Plea for a Jesuit Annual Catalog Database

Madella, Laura
2021-01-01

Abstract

This paper originated from the spring semester I spent as a fellow at Boston College in 2019 and partially accounts for a digitization project that will proceed rather differently from the way it began, even if this will simply confirm the viability of its starting premises. The project aims to create a digital, open-access, English-language, and researchable database of the Jesuit annual catalogs. But why, in particular, the annual catalogs? The reason is their content and the way they display it: information on the identity, domicile, and activity of each and every member of the Society of Jesus kept almost continuously from the late sixteenth century on, through an accurate and efficient system of accounting. The annual catalogs have recently attracted the attention of other researchers, some of whom have attempted to convert their own data into digital boxes and provide them with digital tools. That lifted the project to another level and required that a comparison be made of the different approaches and proposals in order to optimize the potential outcome of broader cooperation among institutes. With regard to the original project, what remains unchanged is the aim of pouring into the database-to-be as much as possible of the Jesuit annual catalogs’ data, translated into English and starting from the order’s restoration. The project also aims to enable some research features that would allow scholars to filter items in space and time and apply simple formulas for sums, averages, and so on.
2021
978-1-947617-09-4
A Plea for a Jesuit Annual Catalog Database / Madella, Laura. - ELETTRONICO. - 2019 Symposium(2021), pp. 1-18. (Intervento presentato al convegno Engaging Sources: The Tradition and Future of Collecting History in the Society of Jesus. tenutosi a Boston (MA) nel Giugno 2010) [10.51238/ISJS.2019.30].
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11381/2911928
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