By Tim Causer, on 27 March 2013
‘Many hands make light work. Many hands together make merry work‘
So wrote the philosopher and reformer, Jeremy Bentham (1748 – 1832) in 1793. In this spirit, we cordially welcome you to Transcribe Bentham, a double award-winning collaborative transcription initiative, which is digitising and making available digital images of Bentham’s unpublished manuscripts through a platform known as the ‘Transcription Desk‘. There, you can access the material and—just as importantly—transcribe the material, to help the work of UCL’s Bentham Project, and further improve access to, and searchability of, this enormously important collection of historical and philosophical material.
This is an exciting opportunity to make a genuine difference to research and scholarship by contributing to the production of the new edition of The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham, and to help create for posterity a vast digital repository of Bentham’s writings. We warmly invite you to take part in this endeavour: no special skills are required, you do not require approval to participate, and every contribution—no matter how small—is of great value to Transcribe Bentham.
Please consult the Transcribe Bentham FAQ for more details on taking part.
You can also read more about Jeremy Bentham, his thought and his importance, and consult resources on deciphering historical handwriting.
Find out more about the consortium behind Transcribe Bentham, and talks and publications by the project team.
By Tim Causer, on 17 May 2013
Welcome along to the Transcribe Bentham progress update for the period 11 to 17 May 2013, during which time further good progress has been made by volunteer transcribers. 8,526 words of Bentham text have been transcribed this week, along with 3,469 words of TEI mark-up.
5,585 manuscripts have now been transcribed or partially-transcribed, which is an increase of 16 on last week’s total. Of these transcripts, 5,303 (94.9%!) are complete and locked. We are achingly close to reaching a completion rate of 95%.
The more detailed state of progress is as follows
One interesting find from the last week was JB/107/117/001, entitled ‘Expressing an image by colours’ (or ‘painting’, for the non-Benthamic among us). In this manuscript, Bentham offers tips on how various objects should be represented by artists, including how lighting, distance, opacity and so on (or ‘Opticks’) have to be taken into account. Particular attention is paid to where the ‘image to be expressed is of animated matter’, and that the artist must account for anatomy, movement, and the ability to discriminate ‘the effect produced upon the body by the general character of the mind of the individual’. The manuscript concludes by suggesting that a painter ‘should be a naturalist & a phisiologist [sic]‘. Thanks to Jonathan Targett for transcribing this one!
Thank you, as always, to everyone who has given their time and effort to Transcribe Bentham over the past seven days. It remains greatly appreciated by us all.
By Kris Grint, on 10 May 2013
Welcome to the 10 May edition of the Transcribe Bentham progress update, which details the transcription work carried out by our volunteer transcribers over the past 7 days. During this time 2,690 words have been transcribed, along with 1,009 words of TEI markup.
5,565 manuscripts have now been transcribed or partially-transcribed, which is an increase of 16 on last week’s total. Of these transcripts, 5,280 (94%) are complete and locked. A completion rate of 95% still eludes us – maybe next week!
The more detailed state of progress is as follows
A quick reminder that Box 41, containing material pertaining to Bentham’s massive, unfinished Constitutional Code, is now ready and waiting to be transcribed.
A few of our boxes are teetering on the brink of completion, and we would be very grateful if anyone might consider finishing off boxes 96 or 115! A full list of untranscribed manuscripts is available here.
As always, many thanks to everyone who has contributed to Transcribe Bentham over the last seven days. Your work is invaluable to us at the Bentham Project and very much appreciated.
By Tim Causer, on 3 May 2013
Welcome to the progress update for the period 27 April to 3 May 2013, during which time great further progress has been made by volunteer transcribers: 9,828 words have been transcribed over the past seven days, including TEI mark-up.
5,549 manuscripts have now been transcribed or partially-transcribed, which is an increase of 25 on last week’s total. Of these transcripts, 5,267 (94%) are complete and locked. We are now on the cusp of being able to say that 95% of all submitted transcripts
The more detailed state of progress is as follows
Box 107 was again the most heavily transcribed set of material during the last week. We are also glad to report that more material is also now available to transcribe: Box 41, containing material pertaining to Bentham’s massive, unfinished Constitutional Code.
Finds this week include Bentham discussing his scheme for counterfeit-proof banknotes (thanks to Joy Lloyd).
Earlier this week, the Bentham Project published electronically the preliminary text of the third volume of Bentham’s Not Paul, but Jesus, which has never been available before. In this work, Bentham discusses sexual morality, and argues that asceticism had been condemned by Jesus, whereas St Paul had taught and encouraged it. Bentham further argues that the reason why so many sexual practices were condemned or subject to harsh criminal penalties was owing to the teachings of Paul. This is an extremely important work, and has been edited by Philip Schofield, Catherine Pease-Watkin, and Michael Quinn, and has been encoded using a TEI schema developed by Kris Grint.
As always, we are extremely grateful to everyone who has taken part in Transcribe Bentham over the last seven days. It is very much appreciated by us all.
By Tim Causer, on 1 May 2013
We are pleased to say that another batch of new material, this time dating from 1823 to Bentham’s death in 1832, is now available to transcribe. Box 41 contains material relating to Bentham’s massive, unfinished Constitutional Code, the major work of his final years. The Code was addressed to ‘all nations and all governments professing liberal opinions’, as in the course of drafting it, Bentham had been encouraged that the Code might be adopted in Portugal, Greece, and a number of South American nations.
We hope that you find this material of interest, and enjoy attempting to decipher it! Do let us know if you have any queries.
By Tim Causer, on 26 April 2013
Welcome along to the progress update for the period 20 to 26 April 2013, during which time further steady progress has been made by TB volunteers: 8,556 words have been transcribed during the past seven days (including TEI XML).
5,524 manuscripts have now been transcribed or partially-transcribed, which is an increase of 28 on last week’s total. Of these transcripts, 5,238 are now complete and locked, up by 25 on this time last week.
The more detailed state of progress is as follows
- Box 2: 402 manuscripts transcribed of 753 (53%)
- Box 27: 350 of 350 (100%)
- Box 35: 280 of 439 (63%)
- Box 50: 135 of 198 (67%)
- Box 51: 358 of 940 (38%)
- Box 62: 53 of 565 (9%)
- Box 70: 259 of 350 (74%)
- Box 71: 663 of 663 (100%)
- Box 72: 608 of 664 (91%)
- Box 73: 151 of 151 (100%)
- Box 79: 198 of 199 (99%)
- Box 95: 120 of 147 (81%)
- Box 96: 526 of 539 (97%)
- Box 97: 54 of 296 (18%)
- Box 98: 213 of 499 (42%)
- Box 100: 149 of 422 (33%)
- Box 107: 299 of 538 (55%)
- Box 115: 275 of 307 (89%)
- Box 116: 393 of 864 (45%)
- Box 139: 38 of 38 (100%)
- Overall: 61% of the 8,925 manuscripts currently uploaded to the website have been transcribed thus far.
We are, as always, extremely grateful to everyone who has contributed to Transcribe Bentham during the last week. It is greatly appreciated by us all.
