CRITICAL ISSUES

I. After centuries of study, scholars finally have a way to access the manusripts on vellum in a way that doesn't compromise the materials themselves. Even the twentieth century invention of microfilm and microfiche, while preserving priceless texts, was inadequate because while scholars normally restircted from accessing primary sources could work with the texts, copying techniqes ensured that flaws and inconsistencies were also often imperceptively copied as well. Now, in the midst of the age of information, a technology has emerged that can do justice to manuscripts on vellumin a way that sometimes surpases work on the actual manuscripts themselves.

In light of these advancements, what are the implications for the future of paleography?

Does having texts such as The Canterbury Tales and Beowulf available online eliminate the need for scholars to continue to produce hard copy transcriptions?

II. The recent proliferation of websites dedicated to mounting whole books online has caused a wave of panic to wash over more traditional booklovers who fear the end of the book as we know it. This is a direct result of the tendency to view the knowledge dissemination via the internet as "revolutionary" and new. If, however, one approaces this new technology as a continuation of the old, then the possibilites become endless. Just as the transition from papyrus to vellum, from vellum to paper, and from paper to print did not eliminate the knowledge contained in these older forms in order to replace it with radically new forms of knowledge, the internet will change the way we approach knowledge and perhaps even change the knowledge itself, but it will not do so by eliminating the book. Instead it will do so by using this older form as a guide and a starting point. Like the first publishers who produced both elaborate manuscripts and inexpensive pamphlets using different materials for different audiences, modern day authors can exploit the possibilites of the world wide web while continuing to produce books in a tradition that has changed very little in the centuries since its invention.