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STEMMA: Systems of Transmitting Early Modern Manuscript Verse

@stemma.bsky.social

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An ERC-funded project led by Prof. Erin McCarthy and based at the University of Galway. We are building the first large-scale computational model of the circulation of early modern verse in manuscript from 1475-1700. https://stemma.universityofgalway.ie

stemma.universityofgalway.ie

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STEMMA: Systems of Transmitting Early Modern Manuscript Verse @stemma.bsky.social · Aug 7

Some of our participants from the hackathon last month sat down to chat with our friends at @portershed.bsky.social about the project and their work during the hack - keep your eyes peeled for the footage!

But how better to start than to learn more about STEMMA from @erinannmcc.bsky.social herself?

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DARIAH-IE @dariahie.bsky.social · 13d

👀 Today we continue our series of blog posts from DARIAH-IE’s 2025 ECR Bursary awardees with Dr Caitlin Burge, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Galway (STEMMA) buff.ly/XpPSDtz

ECR Bursary Blogs

Voices from the Irish Digital Humanities Community DARIAH-IE ECR Bursary Awardees talk about their research. We’re excited to present this special four-part blog series featuring insights fro…

buff.ly

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STEMMA: Systems of Transmitting Early Modern Manuscript Verse @stemma.bsky.social · 12d

New post on the STEMMA blog by our intrepid intern Cate Milley! stemma.universityofgalway.ie/early-modern...

Guest Post: (Lack of) Disability Representation in Early Modern Literature

Discover how disability was portrayed in Early Modern literature, with a focus on Thomas Randolph’s 1630 poem. Uncover the stigma and cultural views toward disability in this thought-provoking analysi...

stemma.universityofgalway.ie

STEMMA: Systems of Transmitting Early Modern Manuscript Verse @stemma.bsky.social · 12d

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Erin A. McCarthy @erinannmcc.bsky.social · 22d

Join the @stemma.bsky.social team! We've just advertised a two-year postdoc on WP2, "Networking Early Modern Poems." Apply by 30 September; details at link below. #earlymodern #dh #postdoc #jobfairy

www.universityofgalway.ie/human-resour...

011345 - University of Galway

www.universityofgalway.ie

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STEMMA: Systems of Transmitting Early Modern Manuscript Verse @stemma.bsky.social · Sep 5

We're delighted to share a guest post on the STEMMA blog by Jordan Ho, who joined us as an intern this summer. Here, Jordan considers collaboration, co-authorship, and credit, both in the early modern period and today.

stemma.universityofgalway.ie/early-modern...

Guest Post: Rethinking ‘Idea-Capital’ and Co-Authorship as Counter-Canon in Early Modern Manuscript Culture

From the Devonshire Manuscript to Beaumont & Fletcher, early modern literature thrived on collaboration. What can co-authorship teach us about breaking hierarchies in academia today? A guest post from...

stemma.universityofgalway.ie

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Erin A. McCarthy @erinannmcc.bsky.social · Sep 3

I bet this applies to poetry too. Lots to think about for @stemma.bsky.social. I’ll look forward to reading the full paper in the morning!

Santa Fe Institute @sfiscience.bsky.social · Aug 21

It might start as a joke, belief, or rumor, easy to dismiss. But then it twists, builds momentum, and spreads like wildfire. Why do some ideas die out while others go viral?

A new study by researchers from the University of Vermont and the Santa Fe Institute offers answers: santafe.edu/news

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DARIAH-IE @dariahie.bsky.social · Sep 1

🗣️ Beginning Sept 11th we’ll be publishing a blog series on our website from DARIAH-IE’s 2025 ECR Bursary awardees, Rachel McCarthy (UCC - CASCADE), Dr Caitlin Burge (UoG - STEMMA), Vera Yakupova (TCD - CLSINFRA) and Dr Izzy Fox (MU). Find out more here: buff.ly/tNp7PWE

ECR Bursary Blogs

Voices from the Irish Digital Humanities Community DARIAH-IE ECR Bursary Awardees talk about their research. We’re excited to present this special four-part blog series featuring insights fro…

buff.ly

STEMMA: Systems of Transmitting Early Modern Manuscript Verse @stemma.bsky.social · Aug 15

An fun Friday observation from one of our Researchers – this wonderful little CELM entry describes John Evelyn’s “Note of the Books, Prints, Letters, Mapps, [etc.,]” that he lent Samuel Pepys with the important note “to be all returned me againe.” Every book owner has that one friend! 😂

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Society for Renaissance Studies @srsrensoc.bsky.social · Aug 6

CFP: @rebpaf.bsky.social’s “Re-mediating the Early Book: Pasts and Futures” With keynote speakers @wynkenhimself.bsky.social @renskehoff.bsky.social and Aditi Nafde

Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 23-25 June 2026
Deadline: 15 December 2025

All info: www.rensoc.org.uk/event/re-med...

Re-mediating the Early Book: Pasts and Futures (REBPAF) is a Marie Curie Doctoral Training Network coordinated by the University of Galway, which focuses on the ways in which 15th- and 16th-century book producers (scribes, printers, entrepreneurs) negotiated the dynamic relations between the manuscript and the printed book and adapted to the evolving challenges of the market. It also explores the continuing relevance of these cultural and economic negotiations to the modern world.

The network will be hosting an international conference at the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin from 23-25 June 2026. We invite papers or posters on late medieval and early modern book culture, broadly conceived.

Selection. What shapes a book producer’s choices in form or language? How do physical features reflect meaning or ideology? How do design and content choices reveal cultural values—and how are these reimagined in modern editions?
Value. What determines the cultural or monetary value of certain texts over others? How do producers, sellers, and collectors influence these shifting values? How can citation, adaptation, or performance reshape a book’s worth? What is the role of canonicity, and how has it changed? Why and how do we reevaluate texts over time?
Accessibility. How does changing a text’s medium—manuscript, print, or digital—affect its reading? How do material or linguistic changes interact with content? How does greater access reshape how readers interpret texts? What are the ethical issues around accessibility and cultural ownership? Can re-mediation serve as critique or recovery? How can we open historical texts to new audiences?
Survival. Why do some texts survive while others do not? How do past choices shape their transmission today? What meanings are tied to survival, loss, or rediscovery? How do texts respond to fragility? What roles do preservation or adaptation play in ensuring their future?

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STEMMA: Systems of Transmitting Early Modern Manuscript Verse @stemma.bsky.social · Aug 7

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STEMMA: Systems of Transmitting Early Modern Manuscript Verse @stemma.bsky.social · Aug 5

We're still buzzing over our STEMMA hackathon event - can't believe it's been almost a month already! Check out our hackathon event report - including details on our winners and (extra special treat) interviews with our developers!

stemma.universityofgalway.ie/stemma-hacka...

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Norma Owens @normaowens.bsky.social · Jul 9

What a privilege to participate in this innovative research collaboration. Working with these amazing people from such diverse backgrounds has been a truly rewarding experience. @stemma.bsky.social

RTÉ News @news.rte.ie · Jul 8

Researchers are gathering in Galway this week for a 'hackathon' exploring how technology can be used in the study of ancient manuscripts

Galway project using tech to study ancient manuscripts

Researchers are gathering in Galway this week for a 'hackathon' exploring how technology can be used in the study of ancient manuscripts.

www.rte.ie

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Norma Owens @normaowens.bsky.social · Jul 8

Another wonderful #networkanalysis presentation at today's #STEMMAhackathon from Prof. Jing Chen on a co-citation network of early modern Chinese poetry.
@stemma.bsky.social

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STEMMA: Systems of Transmitting Early Modern Manuscript Verse @stemma.bsky.social · Jul 8

Team 8 is isolating the circulation and arrangement of John Donne’s Satires as a trial run for analysing clusters of poetry in the dataset! #ERCFunded #STEMMAhackathon

STEMMA: Systems of Transmitting Early Modern Manuscript Verse @stemma.bsky.social · Jul 8

Team 6 is employing vector embeddings to perform sentiment analysis on manuscript collections! #ERCFunded #STEMMAhackathon

STEMMA: Systems of Transmitting Early Modern Manuscript Verse @stemma.bsky.social · Jul 8

Team 5 is using the poems of Philip Sidney as a case study of poem popularity over time! #ERCfunded #STEMMAhackathon

STEMMA: Systems of Transmitting Early Modern Manuscript Verse @stemma.bsky.social · Jul 8

Team 4 is taking a deep dive on post-1700 content to see whose work gets perpetuated into the century beyond our data set! #ERCfunded #STEMMAhackathon

STEMMA: Systems of Transmitting Early Modern Manuscript Verse @stemma.bsky.social · Jul 8

Team 3 is working on a method to identify poems and poem groups shared between manuscripts to aid in finding patterns and clusters of poems! #ERCfunded #STEMMAhackathon

STEMMA: Systems of Transmitting Early Modern Manuscript Verse @stemma.bsky.social · Jul 8

Team 2 is generating poem stability scores to analyse degrees of variation in the first lines of poems in the STEMMA database! #ERCfunded #STEMMAhackathon

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STEMMA: Systems of Transmitting Early Modern Manuscript Verse @stemma.bsky.social · Jul 8

Here’s a brief showcase of some of the great work going on at the hackathon this week! Team 1 is measuring popularity by calculating the copies of a poem over time alongside its number of unique manuscript locations to find the manuscripts that contain the most popular poems in our data! #ERCfunded

STEMMA: Systems of Transmitting Early Modern Manuscript Verse @stemma.bsky.social · Jul 8

Delighted to be joined remotely by Prof. Jing Chen from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University to talk to us about her fabulous project building a database of classical Chinese poetry to study circulation - STEMMA can relate! #STEMMAhackathon #DH

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STEMMA: Systems of Transmitting Early Modern Manuscript Verse @stemma.bsky.social · Jul 8

We're in the news! STEMMA making headlines 🌐 #STEMMAhackathon #ERCfunded #DH #earlymodern
@erc.europa.eu @researchireland.ie

www.rte.ie/news/connach... @news.rte.ie

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STEMMA: Systems of Transmitting Early Modern Manuscript Verse @stemma.bsky.social · Jul 7

Working on initial prototyping as we near the end of Hackathon Day 1! @researchireland.ie @uniofgalway.bsky.social #STEMMAhackathon #DH

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STEMMA: Systems of Transmitting Early Modern Manuscript Verse @stemma.bsky.social · Jul 7

A wonderful fireside chat to break up the hacking!! @erc.europa.eu @researchireland.ie #digitalhumanities

Dr Caitlin Burge @caitlinburge.bsky.social · Jul 7

Two DH icons at once ❤️ #STEMMAhackathon @erinannmcc.bsky.social @ruthahnert.bsky.social #ERCfunded

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Dr Caitlin Burge @caitlinburge.bsky.social · Jul 7

Two DH icons at once ❤️ #STEMMAhackathon @erinannmcc.bsky.social @ruthahnert.bsky.social #ERCfunded

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