BIMA 2.1
Biblial Masorah Database 2.0
The Corpus Masoreticum project aims to use advanced methods of Digital Humanities to show and analyse what kind of Masorah and Bible text traditions are found in Ashkenazi Bibles. For this purpose, BIMA 2.1 has been developed. It is a collaborative digital and open source work environment, database, and user interface. BIMA 2.1 allows editors to transcribe, translate, and analyse Masorah in a workspace, in which image and text are immediately visually linked by means of coloured text paths directly drawn on the surface of the high-quality images of manuscripts pages. BIMA 2.1 displays the manuscripts via IIIF-protocol.
The user interface of BIMA 2.1 consists of three main elements: (1) The digital image of the folio on the left-hand side; (2) The different context boxes on the right-hand side for inserting and defining different textual and meta-textual elements, such as the biblical text and its catchwords for the masoretic notes, the various types of Masora, such as Masora Magna and Parva; (3) the edition of the Masora itself with the help of svg-unicode text paths that appear both graphically on the manuscripts and in the relevant context boxes, sometimes accompanied by its translation into English and a commentary on the masoretic phenomenon.
»For the first time, diplomatic digital editions will not only provide the reader with the edited material in linear form, but also have the edition connected to its form and layout. The relationship between the micrographic image and its philological content becomes visible and interpretable. This will allow further research on the question of how knowledge was gathered and distributed, hidden and encoded even.«
Clemens Liedtke, CM Research Associate
Selected Features of BIMA 2.1: Hebrew Philology and DH
Editing Masorah directly on the manuscripts
Unicode Hebrew Text
Selectable display of the texts' reading direction
Different context boxes for various metatextual elements
Automatic search tool for the Biblical text
Tools for textual criticism
Import of digitalized manuscripts via IIIF