Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Texts and Language Project

Early manuscripts of Old English and Anglo-Saxon culture from 1500s and 1700s are being digitized for increased access and study.

The Department of Special Collections, Waldo Library of Western Michigan University is developing a digital library testbed project which is called the Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Texts and Learning (CASTL) It involves digitizing the earliest appearances of Old English in print.

Western Michigan University Libraries already hold original copies of these early books from the Testimonie of Antiquitie (1587) to Elizabeth Elstob's Rudiments of Grammar for the English Saxon Tongue (1715). Often these early printed texts represent original manuscript copies of a text now lost. They represent the origins and evolution of the study of Old English and Anglo-Saxon history and culture to students and scholars. This project is being developed in conjunction with additional universitys’ specialized research institute, and teaching and research department.

This project will digitize these early works cover-to-cover to provide high resolution images of the texts and annotations contained in the books. The presentation of digitized images and the creation of scholarly introductions will be the first phase of the project. The second phase brings searchablity in an online user interface. Collaborators on the project are Purdue University and the University of Michigan. As more information and sample digitizations are available, a link will be available here.