DUCS Talk Summary: Prof Peter Heslin on “From Magnetic Tape to the Cloud: a Short History of Latin and Greek Texts in the Digital Era”
In the last decades, the technological progress and the invention of the Web have immensely increased accessibility to educational resources, raising hopes for a democratisation of culture. Many might not know that Classics has played a fundamental role in this development. Indeed, Classics was one of the earliest subjects to catalyse the development of IT and has been remarkably shaped by it.
In the opening Academic Talk of the Classics Society, Professor Peter Heslin has addressed this very contemporary topic, exploring how modern technologies have supported the study of Latin and Ancient Greek. As a case of study, he presented his own software application, Diogenes, and illustrated how this software can actively advance our studies of Classics and make it accessible to everyone.
In this spirit of making Classics accessible to all, Professor Heslin modelled his talk on an interdisciplinary approach, stressing the intersections between computer programming and Classics. Throughout, the talk was aimed to be accessible both to classicists and non-classicists.
The first part of the talk consisted of a short history of humanities computing.
The first-ever computer for classical texts was called Ibycus. It was a so called ”mini-computer“ (albeit by today’s standards ginormous in size), dating back to the 1970s. It may come as a surprise that Classics was digitalised so early. This fact is thanks to a lucky coincidence: one of the founders of the Hewlett-Packard corporation had a grandson who was doing a PhD in Classics (who ever said that Classics wasn’t useful!). A critical note that we will strike throughout the talk relates to copyright. Ibycus was created before any conventions for digitalisation were set, including licences — who, at the time, would have been able to copy and access the texts? Should anyone own them? This would have a defining role in versions to come.
When Prof Heslin arrived at Durham Classics Department, he found the second version of Ibycus: a very old computer from the ’80s designed to process Latin and Greek texts. A CD-ROM contained all the texts (he thought back to when he was a student and everyone would look at the “shiny disk” in awe). Within a decade from Ibycus, the advancement in technology was already incredibly rapid. This development, however, did not match the accessibility to such texts. Nor were they completely perfect.
As a graduate student, Prof Heslin used Pandora, a piece of software for Macs. However, he noticed some glitches and problems with missing information. Realising that the program was unreliable, he proactively decided to fix it. Starting out simply as a hobby, it would then turn into a twenty-year project.
This brings us to Diogenes, the software application of which Professor Heslin himself developed.
The name comes from his sympathy and appreciation of the eponymous philosopher. The homepage of the application also contains a famous quote from Diogenes: he went around in the Athenian Agora with a torch in the middle of the day and when people, thinking he was mad, asked him what he was doing, he replied: “I am looking for an anthropos”. As Diogenes was looking for an anthropos, the platform can help its users find the occurrence and analytics of the word anthropos — and indeed all of them in the Greek corpus.
Diogenes works with two databases to include the widest range possible of texts. What makes it so useful is that it is specifically designed to be easy to use for people with little knowledge of technology. Most importantly, it is a completely free and open resource, in order to make Classics accessible to all. A proof of this is that a significant number of users comes from developing countries. While researching the provenance of the platform’s downloads for a case study for the REF, Prof Heslin noticed that his application is widely used in Latin America. This is significant, because in Latin America having access to Classical textbooks is not taken for granted and often Diogenes is the only way to view them.
The application has a series of features, including some new ones available with version 4.0 of the software, which was released a month ago.
First, each word of the text has a link to the Oxford Dictionary and some also to the TLL(Thesaurus Linguae Latinae), a tool listing all the usages and idioms of a Latin word. The application directly takes the reader to the correct page on the dictionary; alternatively, a satisfactory definition is given in the application itself. This tool also allows the user to find the occurrence of the same word in different texts.
With the new software update, it is possible to research the occurrence of a group of words as well as a single one. For example, during the talk Professor Heslin searched for “arm”, “vir” and “can” (deliberately without the endings to obtain fuller results). The first example to come up was, of course, Virgil’s opening of the Aeneid: “Arma virumque cano” (Of the arms and the man I sing). However, scrolling the list further down we found out that in Aeneidbook 9 (777) the lyre player Craterus “arma virum pugnasque canebat” (was singing the arms, the man and the battle). These are new features which will be indispensable not just for students from underprivileged countries, but for everyone today. By providing an invaluable and easy-to-use tool that delves into the statistics and analytics of texts, everyone can engage with skills that are increasingly defining the way forward for the subject.
In conclusion, Prof Heslin commented on the bright future of digital humanities. Unlike others, he believes that modern technologies could never substitute in toto the “traditional” way of studying ancient languages. It has to be noticed, most prominently, that in the digitalisation of texts the apparatus criticus is lost. However, they are resources which can help our interaction with original texts and finding new questions to ask. Professor Heslin noted that it is important to understand how to make the software do what you want it to do, and not be passively manipulated by technology. To these ends, he is working on introducing a new MSc in Digital Humanities at Durham, which will nourish Durham Classics’ proud embracing and developing of the innovative and cutting edge. With Professor Heslin’s program, we are pushing forward the possibilities for the study of Classics.
Ultimately, his major project for the future of Diogenes involves the conversion of all the online texts to XML format. This would make the application obsolete, enabling everyone to download the texts from the internet for free.
His biggest, messianic project consists of working with Artificial Intelligence in order to create software capable of processing the handwriting of manuscripts itself. This would make it possible to include marginalia and apparatus criticus within the texts — which has been notably missing. What is more, everyone could have access to the original version of the manuscripts and start their analysis of a text from the very beginning, without the filter of earlier editors who may have been wrong or had their own assumption.
Professor Heslin envisages the program taking photos of all the manuscripts and feeding them into a computer suitable to process handwriting. It would then be possible to add all the editors’ texts in order to create an apparatus criticus.
Professor Heslin’s talk was invaluably insightful, giving students resources to expand their outlooks and engage with the forefront of technology and Classics. We wish him the best in accomplishing his projects, and to continue his mission, which is the driving principle behind our Classics Society and considered of utmost importance: making Classics accessible to everybody!
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