Welcome to Transcribe Bentham!

By Louise Seaward, on 6 December 2017

Jeremy Bentham

‘Many hands make light work. Many hands together make merry work‘, 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a double award-winning collaborative initiative which is crowdsourcing the transcription of Bentham’s previously unpublished manuscripts.

Anyone can start transcribing at our Transcription Desk.  Your transcripts will contribute to the production of Bentham’s Collected Works and preserve Bentham’s writings into the future.

Find out more about Transcribe Bentham in the sidebar menu on the left, or scroll down to read the latest news from the Transcribe Bentham blog.  Happy transcribing!

Transcription Update – 20 December 2019

By Chris Riley, on 20 December 2019

Welcome everyone to the latest statistics update for December 2019.

Here are the full statistics for the initiative (as of 20 December).

22,740 manuscript pages have now been transcribed or partially-transcribed. Of these transcripts, 21,951 (96%) have been checked and approved by TB staff.

Since 29 November, volunteers have worked on 103 manuscript pages. This means that an average of 25.75 pages have been transcribed each week.

Visit the Benthamometer for more information on how much has been transcribed from each box of Bentham’s papers.

Transcription Update – 22 November 2019

By Chris Riley, on 22 November 2019

Welcome everyone to the latest statistics update for November 2019.

Here are the full statistics for the initiative (as of 22 November).

22,637 manuscript pages have now been transcribed or partially-transcribed. Of these transcripts, 21,877 (96%) have been checked and approved by TB staff.

Since 31 October, volunteers have worked on 124 manuscript pages. This means that an average of 31 pages have been transcribed each week.

Visit the Benthamometer for more information on how much has been transcribed from each box of Bentham’s papers.

Transcription Update – 31 October 2019

By Chris Riley, on 31 October 2019

Welcome everyone to the latest statistics update for October 2019.

Here are the full statistics for the initiative (as of 31 October).

22,541 manuscript pages have now been transcribed or partially-transcribed. Of these transcripts, 21,715 (96%) have been checked and approved by TB staff.

Over the past five weeks, volunteers have worked on 119 manuscript pages. This means that an average of 41.5 pages have been transcribed each week.

Visit the Benthamometer for more information on how much has been transcribed from each box of Bentham’s papers.

Transcription Update – 30 September 2019

By Chris Riley, on 1 October 2019

Welcome everyone to the latest statistics update for September 2019.

Here are the full statistics for the initiative (as of 30 September).

22,422 manuscript pages have now been transcribed or partially-transcribed. Of these transcripts, 21,527 (96%) have been checked and approved by TB staff.

Over the past four weeks, volunteers have worked on 166 manuscript pages. This means that an average of 41.5 pages have been transcribed each week.

Visit the Benthamometer for more information on how much has been transcribed from each box of Bentham’s papers.

Preliminary download of Jeremy Bentham, Writings on Political Economy, Volume IV: Circulating Annuities and other writings on National Debt

By Chris Riley, on 25 September 2019

The Bentham Project is delighted to announce that a preliminary version of Jeremy Bentham, Writings on Political Economy, Volume IV: Circulating Annuities and other writings on National Debt, edited by Michael Quinn, is now available for free perusal and download from University College London’s digital repository.

All but one of the works presented in this volume were written between September 1798 and August 1801, and all but the first concern Bentham’s Annuity Note plan for the issue of an interest-bearing paper currency by government which might become the standard medium for holding government annuities.

For the first five parts of the text, and a very brief editorial introduction, please visit the following link. The remaining eleven text files will be made available via the same source in the next three weeks.

The online version lacks a full editorial introduction, and name and subject indices, which must await the publication of the volume in due course.

Dr Quinn would like to express his sincere gratitude to all of the Transcribe Bentham volunteers whose transcripts of material from Boxes 1–3 of the Bentham Papers were invaluable in the preparation of the text—they are thanked by name (or by username) on p. 9 of ‘Ed Int & Prelims’.