Translating Middle English Recipes
Translating Middle English Recipes
The recipe I transcribed dealt with treating certain illnesses. Specifically, it connects ailments to the astrological signs of Gemini and Cancer. The page had parts of medical advice but majority of it was based on the patient’s zodiac sign. This was very confusing to me on why they would be using astrology to give out healing advice. The two are completely disconnected. I also found myself confused of the ingredients listed in the recipe. I was unsure if they were the names of plants, substances, etc. that I wasn’t able to confidently identify them. These struggles I encountered showed me that when this was written the world was completely different.
Learning to transcribe Middle English was a challenge, and not what I expected. I have read Shakespeare and a good amount of older literature before, but I realized quickly that encountering those texts in print is different than looking at an actual manuscript. Printed editions modernize spelling, letters, and make the overall text more understandable. A manuscript does none of that. I found myself pausing, comparing my reading with classmates, and doing research to find individual words.
Encoding the transcription with XML markup makes the text legible and available for people who don’t always have access. Someone using a screen reader, a student beginning to learn Middle English, or a researcher searching across hundreds of transcription pages each one of them can benefit from XML transcriptions. This helps encoding transform the recipe from an old manuscript page into a current document that can be read by anyone.
Pamela Smith writes about how communication captured knowledge. Encoding a text with XML tags mirrors that process. Just as a medieval scribe had to find language for knowledge for what they were writing, an encoder has to find categories for meaning and the context alongside it. And just as that scribal translation allowed knowledge to travel across time, XML encoding allows the text to travel across platforms, disabilities, languages, and knowledge levels, keeping learning alive and continuing to pass it on.
You can view my transcription below and see the actual manuscript + other transcriptions here
inm to newe houses. and howsynge. & to bye londe
& to erye & to sowe. and forto make all right
fulnesse. the tyme is good to eschue & fle to
touche the thorte with yren tool. Take heed
I bydde the hertly.
<head>Geminis hoot and moiste.</head>
Whan that the mone is in Geminis
that is a signe comonn hoot and moist. Sangweynn
of kynde of that erthe. In good signe it is than
to lerne sotel science. & crafte. as to write
other to rede. either to studie thynges that
longen to regall lordes crounynges In that
signe is forto eschew to be late blood of thyn
Armes & of thyne hondes. for that signe
geminis makith armes and bondes.
<head>Cancer cold and moist.</head>
Whan the mone is in Cancer. that
is a signe & a token of a Crabbe. that is