The Digitisation of Irish Manuscripts: Beyond and Beneath the Visible Image

Abstract

This paper outlines the indebtedness of current digital capture, processing and display of Gaelic manuscripts to scholarly innovators and pioneers of the nineteenth century. It then reviews highlights of the deep-digitization project, Irish Script on Screen (<http://www.isos.dias.ie>), which was launched in 1999 and continues today. It is shown how current developments in spectroscopy and multi-spectral imaging allow us to complement and build upon traditional digital techniques and display.