MS-17 Help

Generalities


Site Map

The Site Map is available at all times in the extreme top right of the screen. The Site Map also contains a detailed table of contents of the entire manuscript, with links to an analysis of the volume's codicological structure. In addition to offering information on the structure of the manuscript, this section of the Site Map will help you navigate directly to certain portions of the manuscript.

The Main Menu

At the top of every page, you will see a navigation bar with five pull-down menus: Home, The Manuscript, Background Essays, The Project, and Search. Home takes you to the home page. The Manuscript contains a number of supporting documents, such as a summary Description of MS 17, a Glossary of computus terms, the Bibliography, a Biographical Register of personages mentioned frequently in the commentaries, and a list of Related Manuscripts. There are links from the commentaries (discussed below) to these supporting documents. The Background Essays are more discursive discussions of the physical structure, history, paleography etc. of the manuscript. The Project will lead you to technical information about the site, links and credits. Finally, the Search menu (discussed below) allows you to search the entire site, or a portion thereof, for a key word or a search term.

The Calendar and the Cloister: Oxford, St John's College MS 17 requires Internet Explorer 6 or better to take full advantage of the features of the site.

Site Tips

  • Within a commentary, clicking on a link to a Background Essay or to a supporting document such as the register of Related Manuscripts, will bring up that document in a separate pop-up window. The equivalent "master" documents, which you can find in the The Manuscript or Background Essays menus, provide hyperlinked versions of these documents.
  • Mousing over items in the 'Items on Folio' menu offers a way of locating elements of interest in a folio (via highlight boxes), and offers quick access to the associated commentary. To retain the highlight box while viewing a commentary or transcription, chose the item from the Commentary or Transcription menu.
  • Use the 'back' link in the Text Window navigation bar (next to the 'Items in Folio' menu item) to navigate within a particular folio.
  • If a menu fails to drop down, try refreshing your screen.

Navigating the Manuscript

There are two ways to view the manuscript: sequentially page by page, or by selecting a particular section. To move sequentially through the manuscript, either click "Enter" on the Home Page, or choose "View Manuscript" from The Manuscript menu. This will take you to the beginning of the manuscript. To go to a specific section or folio, use the Site Map. See also the discussion of the Navigation Buttons below. The following elements are available while you are navigating the manuscript.

Enlarge Image Button

The Enlarge Image button opens a window containing an image which is approximately three and a half times the size of the image on the main screen.

Help

The Help button gives you access to this file.

The Text Window

The Text Window is located on the left side of the screen. It contains the commentaries and transcriptions available for the folio page visible on the right. The top of the text window contains four drop down menus, discussed below.

Overview menu

The manuscript has been divided into 14 sections, based on its contents (e.g. Medicine I, Computus Related Materials, etc). Each section is furnished with an Overview which lists the contents of the section and provides a context for the material. If you are paging through the manuscript, the default text in the Text Window will be the relevant Overview.

Transcriptions menu

The Transcriptions menu provides access to transcriptions of the current folio where these have been created.

Commentaries menu

The Commentaries menu provides access to detailed commentaries on particular sections of the current folio page. For example, on fol. 1v, the Commentaries menu shows four items: two texts on Humours and two on Bloodletting. If you click on Humours 1, you will see the commentary in the Text Window; the right hand Image Window will show fol. 1v, with the Humours 1 text highlighted.

Items on Folio menu

The Items on Folio menu provides a visual key to the elements of a folio for which commentaries or transcriptions are available. Mouse over the name of the element and the element will be highlighted in the folio image on the right.

The Image Window

The Image window is located on the right side of the screen. It contains a reduced size image of a single folio from MS-17. Navigation buttons at the top of the image let you page forward and back through the manuscript. An image magnifier is provided, or you can use the Enlarge Image button described above.

Navigation buttons

Navigation buttons enable you to move back and forward through the digital surrogate of the manuscript. To move forward one page use > . To move backward one page use <. To move the beginning of the manuscript use <<. To move to the end of the manuscript use >>. To move to a particular folio, use the Site Map to jump forward to the relevant section, and then the navigation buttons, as needed.

Magnify on | off

Magnify on and Magnify off turn on and off respectively the built in image magnifier. The image magnifer allows the user to inspect portions of the folio image in detail without leaving the current web page. Click 'on'. The image magnifier will appear in the top left hand corner of the image. Hold down the left mouse button and drag the image magnifier over the point of interest.

Searching the Manuscript

  • Keyword Search
  • Special Term Search

Keyword Search

Keyword Search will search for an exact match of the word or phrase you enter.

Special Term Search

Special Term Search provides a list of instances in the manuscript where the term appears either explicitly or implicitly. You can limit your search of special terms to particular types of documents (e.g. search only in commentaries, or search only in background essays, etc.).