About the project
This digital exhibition was collectively elaborated in the course of the ERC ALFA project (CoG 723085, PI Matthieu Husson) with inputs of various kinds from many members. We have spent hours together selecting the manuscripts, shaping the overall architecture and principle of the exhibition, debating each of the few hundred attention points in the manuscripts, discussing the public interface and all the different texts that constitute this exhibition. We hope that it will be a pleasant learning tool for teachers, students, and anyone curious about medieval astronomy and scientific manuscripts.
The team
Albouy Ségolène
CNRS | Observatoire de Paris
Digital project manager
Ségolène Albouy has been part of the Paris Observatory team since April 2019. She is now in charge of the digital team, supervising the development of projects for automatic transcription, computation libraries with astronomical table and other tools to assist researchers in their work.
Andriani Eleonora
CNRS | Institut de recherche et d'histoire des textes
Scientific director
Eleonora Andriani is the scientific director of the project PATHS (Philological Approaches for Texts in the History of the Astral Sciences ; Access ERC Starting 2023 – ANR). Formerly a post-doctoral fellow of ALFA (2020–2022), she contributed to the project with her expertise in deciphering and editing medieval Latin astronomical and astrological texts. Her main research interest concerns Latin texts in the domain of the astral sciences produced between the 13th and the third quarter of the 15th century.
Gay Lorenza
Bonhams Books & Manuscripts department
Cataloguer
As an art historian, Dr Lorenza Gay holds a PhD from the Warburg Institute in London, where her research focussed on the depiction of pagan gods in 14th- and 15th-century French illuminated manuscripts. She received a Masters degree in Art History, Curatorship and Renaissance Culture from the Warburg Institute in collaboration with the National Gallery, London, and Masters in Art History and a Bachelors in History, both from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan.
Gessner Samuel
FCUL | Centro de História das Ciências
Scientific collaborator
Samuel Gessner is an assistant researcher at the Center for History of Science and Technology (CIUHCT) and an invited professor at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science of the Universidade de Lisboa. His research focuses on the diverse mathematical cultures in medieval and early modern Europe. He examines how they interacted by studying the role of mathematical and astronomical instruments as conceived by both theoreticians and practitioners.
Husson Matthieu
CNRS | Observatoire de Paris
Principal Investigator
Matthieu Husson is PI of EIDA. Scientifically, he contributes to the project with his expertise of astronomical sources in Latin. He is taking also part in the the conception of the data model and contributes diagrams data sets especially around Theorica planetarum texts.
Jacobson Nicholas
CNRS | Observatoire de Paris
Scientific collaborator
Nicholas Jacobson is a postdoctoral researcher of ALFA since March 2019. He is contributing to DISHAS with his knowledge of astronomical sources in Latin.
Le Bois Jil
Sorbonne Université
Internship Student
Jil Le Bois is an undergraduate student in Physics and History. She joined the ALFA team as an intern in June 2023, and contributed to the architecture of the website and helped optimize user experience. She is interested in history of astronomy.
Mazoué Anaïs
CNRS | Observatoire de Paris
Intership Student
Anaïs Mazoué took part in the ALFA project as an intern and worked on the website of the digital exhibition. Among her missions were the choice of the tools to be used within the exhibition and the training of the team in these tools. She also worked on the navigation and design of the website.
Muraveva Lada
EPHE, Labex Hastec
PhD Student
Lada Muraveva has been part of the ALFA team in 2020-2021. Her objective during the internship was the detailed study of the manuscripts selected for the digital exhibition in order to produce a Wikipedia article on each of the manuscripts. She is currently doing a PhD in the History of medicine at École Pratique des Hautes Études.
Norindr Jade
École nationale des chartes
Internship Student
Jade Norindr has been part of the EiDA team since April 2023. As a DH intern, she contributes to the development of the platform by setting up an API to automate image annotation. She is interested in computer vision applied to art history.
Serra Sophie
CNRS | Observatoire de Paris
Postdoctoral researcher
Sophie Serra has been a postdoctoral researcher in the ERC Project ALFA from 2021 to 2023. Within this project, she worked on the late 13th century and first generation 14th century Parisian astronomers, previous to the wide adoption of Alfonsine Astronomy across Europe, with a history of science, history of institutions and history of philosophy approach. She holds a PhD in History of Philosophy (Paris Sorbonne Université, 2015) with a dissertation on an joint interpretation of Nicole Oresme’s scientific and political projects throughout his career. She also is an associate researcher at SPHere (UMR 7219).
Topalian Galla
CNRS | Observatoire de Paris
Digital project manager
Galla Topalian has managed the DISHAS digital project and team from 2017 to 2020. As lead developer, she took part in every parts of the project, from the conceptual modeling of astronomical data to the integration of the most advanced tools to the platform, such as DIPS. She also insured the consistency of every pieces of development carried out by the members of the digital team.
Institutions that keep the manuscripts
