Clavis Canonum:About

General

Clavis canonum is a database that was built by Linda Fowler-Magerl. It is essentially a canon-by-canon description of Latin canon law collections based on one manuscript (or a printed edition) of the respective collection. For every canon, the database provides its position in the collection, the incipit, explicit, rubric, inscription, and some other basic information. The corresponding handbook briefly describes the collections, their content and structure, their manuscript transmission, and so on.

History

The work was begun in the 1970s and after several earlier versions, Fowler-Magerl in 2005 published the database and a handbook in the MGH Hilfsmittel series. This version of the database was made available online in ca. 2010 on the MGH website. Since 2017 it is being revised under the direction of Clemens Radl (MGH Munich), Christof Rolker (U Bamberg), and Danica Summerlin (U Sheffield). In 2021, the Clavis Wiki went online, containing the latest version of the Clavis handbook.

Current Wikification and Datafication of the Content

The current revision and expansion of the Clavis canonum handbook and database aims at providing up-to-date information on canon law collections and their manuscripts based on Fowler-Magerl great work in a digital format. We are adding new collections to the database, have revised the frontend of the database, and continue to update the descriptions of the collections. To make this a collaborative and digital entreprise, we have set up the Clavis Wiki which contains individual pages for the collections and, increasingly, their manuscripts. To make information machine-readable, both collections and manuscripts are datafied; this is most visible in the infoboxes which contain structured data and provide identifiers (WikiData, GND, ...) for collections, manuscripts, and libraries. Much content was lifted directly from the printed handbook (for the collections) and Lotte Kéry's manual (for the manuscriptS), but gradually this is added to and reworked by registered users of this Wiki. The Clavis Wiki is an invitation-only and real name-only wiki; unlike other wikis like Wikipedia, only invited users can contribute, and only under their real names. This way we guarantee that all contributions come from scholars working in the field of medieval canon law; the page history allows to attribute every change to any article on this wiki to its author. If you are interested in joining this group of expert users, please contact Christof Rolker.