What is the CTS?
The Centre for Textual Studies (CTS) at De Montfort University is devoted to scholarly research in the fields of textual studies and history of the book, and to the emerging technologies that support them. These fields include bibliographies, textual criticism, scholarly editing, genetic criticism, adaptation studies, the sociology of bibliography and texts, book history and periodical studies. The CTS encourages research that strengthens the ties among these related fields and that draws on advanced electronic technologies for research and presentation.
The historical range of texts in which the CTS has expertise starts with medieval manuscripts (for example poems by Geoffrey Chaucer), continues through the early printed book period (incunabula by William Caxton, the quartos and Folios of Shakespeare) into the steam press and hot-metal periods (the 18th-20th centuries) and ends with the latest digital editions.
The CTS provides technical, methodological, theoretical, practical and administrative support for projects that it undertakes. It assists researchers seeking funding for such projects, and supplies instruction in technical information related to the design and implementation of electronic scholarly research sites in literary and historical disciplines. We also run events, on our own and in affiliation with other institutions. The links above take you to various parts of this site that showcase what the CTS does, and links below give the usual essential info including how to contact us.
The CTS and the Digital Humanities
Textual Studies is a Humanities discipline and alongside traditional scholarship in the cultures and technologies of the transmission of writing by manuscript and print reproduction, the CTS specializes in research and teaching on digital cultures and technologies. This work on digital text is part of the wider, emerging discipline of Digital Humanities, as described below by CTS Director, Professor Gabriel Egan.
History of the CTS
The Centre for Textual Studies (CTS) was established in 2006 as the successor to the Centre for Technology and the Arts (CTA), which focused on electronic editions and music technology under the direction of Professors Peter Robinson and Andy Hugill, respectively. At that point Professor Robinson moved to the Institute for Textual Studies and Electronic Editing (ITSEE) at the University of Birmingham--a research centre now affiliated to the CTS--and Professor Hugill and music technology research moved on to De Montfort's Music, Technology and Innovation Research Centre and then the Institute of Creative Technologies (IOCT). In August 2012 Professor Hugill's research in new textual areas brough him back to the CTS . The 'Past and Present Projects' page of this website lists and gives details about the past projects (and the current ones) undertaken at the CTS.