Insights Hidden In Plain Sight
W139
Is there an empirically demonstrable connection between aesthetic paratexts and understanding spiritual information and/or realities? If so, what distinctive cognitive value does engagement with aesthetic paratexts generate?
To address these questions, Professor Allen produced a digital edition and translation of W 139, a 12th -century volume of all four Gospels housed in The Chester Beatty, a museum and library in Dublin.
insights
Paratext
Focusing on editing this manuscript’s paratexts and using the editorial platform of the New Testament Virtual Manuscript Room, Dr. Allen and his team:
- Analyzed features by leveraging existing digital editing tools
- Explored ways to connect manuscript studies and aesthetic cognitivism
- Constructed preliminary hypotheses about the cognitive effects of paratext on readers
- Experimented with using project data to test these hypotheses in a future larger-scale project
hidden
Watch Film
Art Seeking Understanding
According to the philosopher Gordon Graham, “The visual artist […] is not a mere illustrator of texts. Even beautiful work incorporated directly into a sacred text is referred to as ‘illumination’ rather than illustration, signaling perhaps, that its role is to bring additional light and not merely provide exemplars. The role of the visual artist, then, may be said to go beyond recording or depicting, and to be an act of formative imagination in its own right.” (Philosophy, Art, and Religion, 73)
This may well be so, but is there an empirically demonstrable connection between aesthetic paratexts and understanding with reference to what Sir John referred to as spiritual reality and/or spiritual information in particular? And if so, what distinctive cognitive value does engagement with these aesthetic paratexts generate?
In order to address these questions, Dr. Allen is producing a digital edition and translation of W 139, focusing on editing its paratexts, and using the editorial platform of the New Testament Virtual Manuscript Room. This project will focus on refining the process of digital data aggregation, constructing preliminary hypotheses about the cognitive effects of paratexts on readers, and constructing experiments with this data that could test these hypotheses in a future larger-scale project.