Digital Medieval Studies—Crusaders and Computers

The study of the religious, cultural, and political movements now known as the Crusades is one of the most well-established subfields in Medieval Studies. In the past few decades, scholars of the Crusades increasingly have employed computer-based methods to analyze their sources, organize their research, and disseminate its results to the wider world. Yet while the benefits of this approach have become clear and prompted new discoveries, the well-worn methodologies that long defined Crusade Studies do not always align with them. In this volume, a diverse group of researchers, teachers, and curators chronicle how digital scholarship has allowed them to better understand, explain, and illustrate the complex world of the Crusades as an historical phenomenon as well as a focus of present-day interest and appropriation.

Laura K. Morreale is an Independent Scholar whose research addresses the social, cultural, and material history of late medieval Italy and the Mediterranean world. She has served as Chair of the Medieval Academy of America’s Committee on Digital Humanities, and as Review Editor of Digital Scholarship for Speculum.

Sean Gilsdorf is Lecturer on Medieval Studies and Administrative Director of the Medieval Studies program at Harvard University. His research and teaching address the religious and political history of early medieval Europe, manuscript studies, and digital humanities.