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Talks and Events

The Covid-19 outbreak of 2020 prohibited the AGU Digital Access Project to host in-person events. In order to continue our outreach efforts, we used funding from the AGU Humanities Research Insitute and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) to begin a podcast series under the title of Speaking of Shakespeare. These conversations are with specialists not just in Shakespeare studies, but also digital humanities specialists working in early modern studies. Below are samples of recent talks. The full list of recent Speaking of Shakespeare talks is on YouTube and on a variety of podcast services that can be accessed on or from Buzzsprout.

With regard to the religious theme of our mission, in June of 2022, we interviewed Stephen Greenblatt of Harvard University about his book, The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve.
The full talk is at: Speaking of Shakespeare

Recently, we spoke with John Wall of North Carolina State University about the Virtual St Paul's Cathedral Project, a digital reconstruction of St. Paul's cathedral in early modern London:
 
The entire episode is at: Speaking of Shakespeare

In October of 2022, we hosted Christopher Highley of Ohio State University. This is a short clip from his talk that focuses on digital Maps of Early Modern London : 
The entire episode is at: Speaking of Shakespeare

In April of 2021, we spoke with David McInnis of Lost Plays Database, a widely-known and ongoing digital project hosted by the Folger:
In May of 2021, we spoke with Brett Greatley-Hirsch of Digital Renaissance Editions, coordinator in other high-impact projects:
In January of 2021, we also hosted a talk with Pip Willcox, Head of Research at the National Archives, U.K.
In February of 2021, we hosted Professor Hirohisa Igarashi of Toyo University in Tokyo. Professor Igarashi is a Shakespeare educator and scholar. He has recently finished a translation of Peter Blayney's work on Shakespeare's First Folio, a project that was conducted while Blayney was a Folger scholar.

Past Events
The AGU Digital Project hosted an opening event on October 19th, 2019, for university faculty, staff, and alumni at Aoyama Gakuin University. 

Before the event, the project staff also staged an exhibition of the original rare Bibles that we have digitized thus far at the Shiryo Center in Majima Hall (more...)

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Project Team

Our project team in Tokyo began our work in conjunction with the Digital Access team at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. The project has enjoyed the gracious assistance of the staff at the Aoyama Gakuin Shiryo (Archives) Center. We are also closely aligned with the Aoyama Gakuin Christian Activities Center at our university, which supports a non-discriminatory and ecumenical approach to religious worship.    The technical effort we are using to transition rare books into open-access digital editions is not unlike the work of early printers in the 15th and 16th centuries, who used moveable type to reproduce and distribute works that were only in manuscript form. In our age, we are faced with the challenge of making these early editions accessible to all, an effort that requires hours of hands-on work and great care. Team Members Thomas Dabbs, Co-Director Professor Dabbs serves on the faculty of English and American Literature at AGU, where he teaches Shakespeare

The Project and Our Continuing Mission

The AGU Digital Access Project provides online access to special collections held by Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo, with a focus on digitizing rare bibles and other religious editions within our library system. This project was begun in 2018 with support from the Aoyama Vision Initiative in conjunction with the Folger library 's digital access team in Washington, D.C. We also collaborated with the Aoyama Gakuin Religious Center and with the help and kind cooperation of the university Shiryo (Archives) Center, which curates many of these books. Though our progress was halted for a period by the Covid 19 pandemic, we are now moving forward with generous support from the Aoyama Gakuin University Information Media Center and the University’s Institute of the Humanities.   Biblia Latina (1478) The Aoyama Gakuin Archives along with the university library system hold many items of historical significance, including rare print editions of religious works in Latin, Japanese, Englis

Biblia Latina (1478)

The AGU digital access team has digitized the 15th-century  Bible Hieronymi , or  Biblia Latina,  from the Aoyama Archive. This edition is an early print version of Jerome's Vulgate. A full list of references to this edition and holdings may be viewed at the British Library's Incunabula Short Title Catalogue .  Professor Shinichi Takeuchi of the AGU Department of English has studied this edition. Below is a translation of his commentary on this work: " From the mid-15th century, when Gutenberg began utilizing mechanical movable type, to the time when printing became prevalent at the turn of the 16th century, this is a special period in the history of the book. Books printed during this early period of moveable type are called incunabula . This is a crucial period that saw a transition from hand-transcription to a new era of reproducing texts with mechanical movable type presses. Within just half a century, upwards to potentially 40,000 titles and 12 million copies of