Database of English Manuscript Drama
A Searchable, Descriptive Catalogue of English Play Manuscripts, 1558-1642
What
DEManD is a free, dynamic, content-rich online descriptive catalogue and inter-institutional finding-aid for English play manuscripts and manuscript fragments from the Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline periods. Entries in DEManD can be searched and cross-tabulated across multiple fields detailing aspects of the play or the manuscript. DEManD also serves as a reference tool, providing citations to relevant scholarship and editions for each manuscript and links to holding institution catalogues, online editions, digital facsimiles, and other resources.
How
How DEManD Works
Each extant manuscript or manuscript fragment of a professional play, academic play, masque, closet drama, civic/local/court entertainment, or other dramatic text from the period appears as a unique record in the database. Each of these records includes detailed information in separate fields that can be searched individually or across multiple fields. These fields include (but are not limited to):
Holding library
Library call number
Foliation
Binding (current)
Binding (original)
Dimensions
Manuscript contents
Link to library catalogue entry
Link to digital facsimile
Link to online edition
Play title (manuscript)
Play title (modern)
Play author(s)
Genre (manuscript)
Genre (Annals)
Play type
Performance date(s)
Manuscript date
License date
Master of the Revels Office Book entry
Printing date(s)
Publisher(s)
Printer(s)
Print format(s)
First Stationers’ Register date
Original playing company
Original venue
Manuscript playing company
Manuscript venue
Manuscript type
Evidence of authorial revision (currente calamo)
Evidence of authorial revision (subsequent)
Evidence of scribal revision
Evidence of theatrical censorship
Evidence of theatrical revision
Identified hand(s)
Unidentified hand(s), type
Watermark(s)
Paratexts
Actor’s name(s) in text
Previous owner(s)
Significant scholarship
Modern editions
Detailed description and commentary
The database is being built using Heurist Academic Knowledge Management System, an open source collaborative web database software published by the University of Sydney.
Who
The people making DEManD
General Editor: Dr. Matteo Pangallo, Virginia Commonwealth University
Research Assistant: Caitlin Margaret Wilson, Virginia Commonwealth University
Advisory Board
Prof. Laura Estill, St. Francis Xavier University
Dr. Brett Greatley-Hirsch, University of Leeds
Prof. Grace Ioppolo, University of Reading
Prof. M. J. Kidnie, Western University
Dr. Ivan Lupić, Stanford University
Prof. Tara L. Lyons, Illinois State University
Prof. Sally-Beth MacLean, University of Toronto
Dr. James Purkis, Western University
Prof. Joseph Stevenson, Abilene Christian University
Dr. Misha Teramura, University of Toronto
Dr. Jesús Tronch, Universitat de València
Prof. Paul Werstine, University of Western Ontario
Prof. William Proctor Williams, Northern Illinois University (emeritus)
Dr. Heather Wolfe, Folger Shakespeare Library
Prof. Henry Woudhuysen, Lincoln College, Oxford University
Scholars whose research expertise includes early modern manuscript drama and who would like to join the Advisory Board are invited to email mapangallo@vcu.edu to express their interest in assisting the project.
When
The first group of records (1558-1603) are currently approaching completion and will become available in the near future. Later groups (1603-1625 and 1625-1642) will be published in subsequent years. As a dynamic database, published entries will be updated periodically to reflect new scholarship and discoveries.