Estimating the Loss of Medieval Literature with an Unseen Species Model from Ecodiversity

Mike Kestemont; F.B. Karsdorp

Estimating the Loss of Medieval Literature with an Unseen Species Model from Ecodiversity

Meertens Instituut - Nederlandse Etnologie

Onderzoeksoutput: Hoofdstuk in boek/boekdeel › Bijdrage aan conferentie proceedings › Wetenschappelijk › peer review

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The century-long loss of documents is one of the major impediments to the study of historic literature. Here we focus on Middle Dutch chivalric epics (ca. 1200-1450), a genre for which little archival records exist that shed light on the survival rates of works and documents. We cast the quantitative estimation of these survival rates as a variant of the unseen species problem from ecodiversity. We apply an established non-parametric method ( Chao1 ) and compare it to a number of common alternatives on simulated data. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results for conventional philology: our numbers suggest that the losses sustained on the level of works may be more dramatic than previously imagined, whereas those at the document-level align surprisingly well with existing estimates in book history, although these were based on completely different data sources.

Originele taal-2	Engels
Titel	Proceedings of the Workshop on Computational Humanities Research (CHR 2020)
Redacteuren	Folgert Karsdorp, Barbara McGillivray, Adina Nerghes, Melvin Wevers
Pagina's	44-55
Aantal pagina's	11
Volume	2723
Status	Gepubliceerd - okt. 2020

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abstract = "The century-long loss of documents is one of the major impediments to the study of historic literature. Here we focus on Middle Dutch chivalric epics (ca. 1200-1450), a genre for which little archival records exist that shed light on the survival rates of works and documents. We cast the quantitative estimation of these survival rates as a variant of the unseen species problem from ecodiversity. We apply an established non-parametric method ( Chao1 ) and compare it to a number of common alternatives on simulated data. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results for conventional philology: our numbers suggest that the losses sustained on the level of works may be more dramatic than previously imagined, whereas those at the document-level align surprisingly well with existing estimates in book history, although these were based on completely different data sources.",

keywords = "medieval literature, book history, unknown species problem, Middle Dutch, ecodiversity",

author = "Mike Kestemont and F.B. Karsdorp",

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Estimating the Loss of Medieval Literature with an Unseen Species Model from Ecodiversity. / Kestemont, Mike; Karsdorp, F.B.

Proceedings of the Workshop on Computational Humanities Research (CHR 2020). redactie / Folgert Karsdorp; Barbara McGillivray; Adina Nerghes; Melvin Wevers. Vol. 2723 2020. blz. 44-55.

Onderzoeksoutput: Hoofdstuk in boek/boekdeel › Bijdrage aan conferentie proceedings › Wetenschappelijk › peer review

TY - CHAP

T1 - Estimating the Loss of Medieval Literature with an Unseen Species Model from Ecodiversity

AU - Kestemont, Mike

AU - Karsdorp, F.B.

PY - 2020/10

Y1 - 2020/10

N2 - The century-long loss of documents is one of the major impediments to the study of historic literature. Here we focus on Middle Dutch chivalric epics (ca. 1200-1450), a genre for which little archival records exist that shed light on the survival rates of works and documents. We cast the quantitative estimation of these survival rates as a variant of the unseen species problem from ecodiversity. We apply an established non-parametric method ( Chao1 ) and compare it to a number of common alternatives on simulated data. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results for conventional philology: our numbers suggest that the losses sustained on the level of works may be more dramatic than previously imagined, whereas those at the document-level align surprisingly well with existing estimates in book history, although these were based on completely different data sources.

AB - The century-long loss of documents is one of the major impediments to the study of historic literature. Here we focus on Middle Dutch chivalric epics (ca. 1200-1450), a genre for which little archival records exist that shed light on the survival rates of works and documents. We cast the quantitative estimation of these survival rates as a variant of the unseen species problem from ecodiversity. We apply an established non-parametric method ( Chao1 ) and compare it to a number of common alternatives on simulated data. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results for conventional philology: our numbers suggest that the losses sustained on the level of works may be more dramatic than previously imagined, whereas those at the document-level align surprisingly well with existing estimates in book history, although these were based on completely different data sources.

KW - medieval literature

KW - book history

KW - unknown species problem

KW - Middle Dutch

KW - ecodiversity

M3 - Contribution to conference proceedings

VL - 2723

SP - 44

EP - 55

BT - Proceedings of the Workshop on Computational Humanities Research (CHR 2020)

A2 - Karsdorp, Folgert

A2 - McGillivray, Barbara

A2 - Nerghes, Adina

A2 - Wevers, Melvin

ER -

Estimating the Loss of Medieval Literature with an Unseen Species Model from Ecodiversity

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