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  • Digital Renaissance Editions
  • Brett D. Hirsch (bio)

Few scholars, students, and members of the public have ready access to the rare book and manuscript collections of the world's elite research libraries [End Page 136] and museums. Fewer still have digital access to these collections through expensive commercial database subscriptions. To study, teach, or perform a play requires access to its text; but access alone to the original—whether in facsimile, transcription, or in situ—is not enough: to make centuries-old plays intelligible to modern readers requires the dedicated work of expert scholars to establish authoritative texts and provide necessary annotations and commentary. While over eight hundred English plays survive from the early modern period, the vast majority remain inaccessible to modern readers. Many did not appeal to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century sensibilities or conform to antiquated notions of modesty, while literary critics dismissed others as unpoetic without consideration of their value as theater or as social documents. As a result, there are few, if any, modern editions of these plays.

Shakespeare's works account for less than five percent of the surviving early English plays, and yet modern editions abound, catering to a dizzying variety of readers in multiple languages and media formats. As only one out of some two hundred, Shakespeare represents less than one percent of the dramatists (amateur and professional) active during this period. The drama of Shakespeare's immediate predecessors, contemporaries, and successors remains undervalued, under-taught, underperformed, unread, and unknown. It is time to stand up for the ninety-nine percent.

This is the call-to-arms of Digital Renaissance Editions, a project to publish multimedia scholarly editions of early English drama and make them freely available online to a worldwide audience for reading, teaching, and performance. To complement and enrich the editions, the project also includes a Performance Database comprising a growing collection of multimedia performance materials related to early English drama as well as a Critical Companion comprising freshly commissioned peer-reviewed essays on topics relevant to the study of the plays and their contexts. In so doing, the project aims to facilitate greater global access to and appreciation of early English drama and its historical, cultural, and theatrical contexts.

To achieve these ambitious goals, Digital Renaissance Editions relies upon the expertise of dedicated international scholars, theater professionals, and software developers working with the highest standards of scholarship and usability in mind. An ongoing partnership with the critically acclaimed Internet Shakespeare Editions plays a crucial role, as the projects share the same publishing platform, virtual infrastructure, and future vision.

The project publishes editions of early English plays by dramatists other than Shakespeare—some for the first time—prepared specifically for the [End Page 137] electronic medium by a team of international scholars and editors. Editions typically include photo-facsimiles (in color, where available) and diplomatic transcriptions of early textual witnesses (whether print or manuscript) as well as modern-spelling texts with full critical apparatus (e.g., annotations, commentary, collations of textual variants and historical editions). Editions also include critical and textual introductions, supplementary and supporting materials in various media, and support for integration with other digital projects, such as DEEP: Database of Early English Playbooks, Lexicons of Early Modern English, Lost Plays Database, and the Map of Early Modern London. The Critical Companion of essays on topics relevant for a deeper understanding of the drama and its various contexts complements the editions, covering a range of topics in depth and including multimedia content (where appropriate) to serve the needs of scholars and students alike. The Performance Database similarly provides a global record of current and historical performances of early English drama, with multimedia performance materials offering a dynamic view of the interpretation of the plays in different times, cultures, media, and spaces. All content is subject to rigorous peer review to ensure scholarly quality.

Distinguished editorial and advisory boards oversee the academic development of Digital Renaissance Editions, with members from institutions in Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. A coordinating editor (Brett D. Hirsch) and three general textual editors (Eleanor Lowe, Sarah Neville, and Will Sharpe) lead the editorial group, whose members include Michael...

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