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

Project description

Advanced algorithms to study Jewish mediaeval texts

Jewish people have a rich literary culture connected by various Hebrew, Aramaic, and Judeo-Arabic texts. These manuscripts have endured centuries of persecution, migration, and censorship. The digitisation of manuscripts and advancements in AI offer unprecedented opportunities for researching manuscript culture. The ERC-funded MIDRASH project establishes a new interdisciplinary method for studying mediaeval literary manuscripts written in Hebrew script. Its goal is to explore a vast collection of biblical manuscripts, Midrash (a type of commentary on the Bible from late antiquity), mediaeval commentaries on the Bible and Mishnah, as well as liturgical manuscripts. To achieve this, the project employs advanced algorithms to discern the historical significance of the texts through multilingual intertextualities, palaeographical techniques, and computational linguistics.

Objective

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.

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.

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; and (4) liturgical manuscripts. Only a small fraction have been transcribed, let alone studied. 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. 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.

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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HORIZON-ERC-SYG - HORIZON ERC Synergy Grants

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2022-SYG

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Host institution

ECOLE PRATIQUE DES HAUTES ETUDES
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 4 404 837,50
Address
RUE FERRUS 4-14
75014 Paris
France

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Region
Ile-de-France Ile-de-France Paris
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 4 404 837,50

Beneficiaries (5)

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