CODECS
CODECS: Online Database and e-Resources for Celtic Studies is published online by the Dutch non-profit organisation A. G. van Hamel Foundation for Celtic Studies (in Dutch: Stichting A. G. van Hamel voor Keltische Studies), whose main website is located at www.vanhamel.nl/stichting. The project is directed and managed by Dennis Groenewegen. The selgā catalogue, which is the most active and substantial component of CODECS, is set up as a collaborative platform for students and scholars working with the materials. A current list of registered editors can be found here. Individuals and research groups who have contributed to selgā will be acknowledged here, if they so prefer.
Acknowledgments
We would like to publicly thank anyone who supplied corrections or offered us working material, including Jacqueline Borsje, Sarah Corrigan, Beatrix Färber, Maxim Fomin, Gisbert Hemprich, Stephen Hewitt, Rijcklof Hofman, Kaarina Hollo, Britta Irslinger, Bart Jaski, Karel Jongeling, Julie Le Blanc, Feargal Ó Béarra, Tom O'Donovan, Judith Schoen, Nike Stam, David Stifter, Nicole Volmering and Ranke de Vries. Please accept our apologies if we forgot to include your name and do send us an e-mail so that this oversight can be addressed.
Technical help
For the bibliographic system in use on this website, much instructive advice and help was offered to us by the team of the Lexicon Leponticum project (LexLep). A special thanks goes out to Martin Braun. LexLep is "an interactive online etymological dictionary of Lepontic" and quite possibly the first research project in Celtic studies to take advantage of the possibilities of MediaWiki software.
We would also like to thank MediaWiki developer Yaron Koren, not only for bringing us wonderfully useful extensions like Semantic Forms, but also for multiple occasions on which he has given us personal assistance and advice.
Image credits
The background image that is usually shown at the top of the page, above the menu, is largely taken from a portrait of St John the Evangelist in an eighth-century gospel-book thought to be the product of an Irish scribe (St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 51, p. 208). Its source is the collection of images donated by the well-known Swiss virtual library e-codices at Flickr.com. The direct URL is https://www.flickr.com/photos/e-codices/8347044895, where it is made available under the Creative Commons 2.0 license. Its counterpart at e-codices, along with a fuller description and bibliography, is to be found at http://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/csg/0051/208.
The two figures to the right are, of course, modern additions to the original. Both are artistic reproductions based on relatively well-known exemplars. Those of the poet and harp-player are based on a woodcut in The image of Irelande by John Derricke (1581). That of the scribe, seated in his study and leaning over a manuscript with a quill pen in his right hand and a pen-knife in the other, is modelled on a fine coloured drawing seen on folio 29r of a manuscript which is now held in the National Library of Ireland under the shelfmark 700. It dates from the 13th century and holds an illustrated version of the Topographia Hiberniae (1186–1187) by the Cambro-Norman churchman Gerald of Wales.
General
It must also be acknowledged that when this database was first launched, it was inspired by, and much indebted to, previous related work. For the study of medieval Irish literature, this includes:
- Scéla: Catalogue of medieval Irish narratives & literary enumerations, compiled by Štĕpán Kosík. As the title indicates, this is a catalogue of medieval Irish narratives as well as titles for which no text is extant today. Kosík has made good use of the tale-lists edited and discussed by Proinsias Mac Cana in his Learned tales of medieval Ireland, and d'Arbois de Jubainville's Essai d'un catalogue de la littérature épique de l'Irlande, while many other sources were consulted as well.
- Manuscript Sources to Old and Middle Irish Tales (MsOmit), compiled by Johan Corthals (Hamburg University). The first version was published in 1998, with new updates following in 2004, 2007 and 2010. Since 2007, the website is available through CELT.(1)n. 1 The corresponding entry in our bibliography is: Johan Corthals, Manuscript sources to Old and Middle Irish tales (MsOmit) (2010).
- The Cycles of the Kings (currently offline), created by Dr. Dan M. Wiley (Southern Illinois University), then at Hastings College (Nebraska).
Funding
The project does not currently benefit from any outside funding. Organisations or individuals who would like to offer financial support to the project are more than welcome to get in touch. You can contact us at selga@vanhamel.nl.