Full dataset from the Magister Dixit Collection (handwritten lecture notes of the Old University of Leuven) offered as open data for digital humanities and other creative engagement.
Read here a brief introduction of KU Leuven Libraries on GitHub.
The Magister Dixit Collection currently contains 552 manuscripts of lecture notes of the Old University of Leuven (1425-1797). The manuscripts, which are kept in different libraries, were fully digitised and virtually collected as part of the Magister Dixit project.
The collection is an extraordinary source for the history of the Old University of Leuven, offering a vivid picture of the University organization, its curricula and subjects.
Most of the manuscripts that have been preserved come from the Faculty of Arts, corresponding to the first academic degree, necessary to get access to the “high” faculties such as Medicine, Theology or Law. The Faculty of Arts was divided into four Pedagogies (the Castle, the Lily, the Pig, the Falcon), whose affiliation determined the student life at the time. Moreover, the lecture notes include information about the individuals, students, professors and professionals who worked or collaborated with the University (engravers, printers, illustrators).
The digitisation project so far (i.e; April 2020) involved the manuscripts kept at KU Leuven Libraries, UCL, KBR, Museum M Leuven, Abdij van Berne Heeswijk, as well as other private collectors. The collection is still growing.
The Magister Dixit Collection Dataset is a repository of descriptive metadata representing all 552 manuscripts of the current virtual collection. The digitized collection can be explored through the LIMO Libraries’ Curated Collections discovery interface, within the thematic collection Lecture notes from the Old University of Leuven, or alternatively, through the Lectio page Magister Dixit Collection.
The repository is designated as a free resource for digital humanities research, for scholars, students and teachers. It is intended for creative reuse, data visualisation and algorithmic processing.
The dataset is fully based on the library catalogue metadata. It holds the descriptive metadata as well as URL links to the digital representation in the Teneo viewer. The data, which were provided by the Alma digital preservation environment of KU Leuven Libraries, was previously cleaned, transformed and refined with the OpenRefine application software.
For a correct download click on the Magister_Dixit_Collection_Dataset.csv. On some web browsers, you need to right-click on 'Raw' and select 'Download linked file as'. For other web browsers, including Chrome, click on 'Raw' and then go to File > Save Page As... The CSV file can also be downloaded from Zenodo. The recommended setup for a proper display of the CSV file can be adjusted in the Excel data import popup window: 'Character set' to 'Unicode (UTF-8)', the separator option 'Comma' should be selected and the 'Column type' of Column A (Record ID) should be changed from General to 'Text'.
The CSV file (Magister_Dixit_Collection_Dataset.csv) contains 552 records in rows and 27 columns with the following metadata:
| Column | Content type | Instance | Description/MARC 21 reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Record ID | 9985450340101488 | Unique key = record id in original cataloging system |
| 2 | URL Limo | https://limo.libis.be/primo-explore/search?query=any,contains,9985450340101488&tab=all_content_tab&search_scope=ALL_CONTENT&vid=KULeuven | Direct url to record in Limo |
| 3 | Date type | m | Encoded indication of type of date, https://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/bd008a.html |
| 4 | Date 1 | 1613 | Date of creation |
| 5 | Date 2 | 1616 | Date of end |
| 6 | Country | xx | https://www.loc.gov/marc/countries/countries_code.html |
| 7 | Language | lat | primary language of publication, https://www.loc.gov/marc/languages/ |
| 8 | Main title | 00$aScripta de sacramentis | Field 246 13: $a main title of the publication https://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/bd245.html |
| 9 | Varying title(s) | https://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/bd246.html#:~:text=Varying%20forms%20of%20the%20title,further%20identification%20of%20the%20item. | |
| 10 | Physical extent | 00$a278, 10* f.$bill. | Field 300: $a Description of physical object, varying parameters depending on the nature of the objects, https://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/bd300.html |
| 11 | Binding | 00$aParchment binding ; manuscript title in black ink "[...] Scripta de sacramentis Viggers" ; remnants of ties | https://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/bd563.html |
| 12 | Content type | \$atext$2rdacontent | RDA field |
| 13 | Media type | \$aunmediated$2rdamedia | RDA field |
| 14 | Carrier type | \$avolume$2rdacarrier | RDA field |
| 15 | Description of graphic material | \$ePaper | Material and colors of graphic material, https://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/bd340.html |
| 16 | General notes | \$aTitle created by cataloguer ::: \$aF. 0r : Ad usum fratris Leonardi Bosch | https://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/bd500.html |
| 17 | Details | 0$aTractatus sine dictata commentaria in primam partem secundae angelici doctoris$gf. 0r-278v ::: 0$a* Praefatio$gf. 1r ::: 0$a* Nota tractatus de beatitudine$gf. 1r-39v ::: 0$a* Tractatus secundus$gf. 40r-77r ::: 0$a* Tractatus de libero arbitrio$gf. 77r-119r ::: 0$a* Tractatus de conscientia$gf. 119r-157v ::: 0$a* Tractatus de peccatis$gf. 158r-278v ::: 0$aTractatus de scramentis [incomplete?]$g1r-10v | https://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/bd505.html |
| 18 | Genre/form | \6$aManuscripts ::: \6$aLecture notes | https://www.loc.gov/marc/archive/2009-2010/concise/bibliographic/bd655.html |
| 19 | Illustrations | \$af. 1/3r :$bengraved titlepage$cMetaphysica, Physica, with signs of the Lily, the Falcon, the Castle and the Pig ::: \$af. 1/30v : pasted on$bengraving(s)$cportrait of a lady ::: \$af. 1/121v : pasted on$bengraving(s)$cportrait of a veiled lady with book ::: \$af. 1/128r : pasted on$bengraving(s)$cMusica ::: \$af. 2/1r :$bengraved titlepage$cMetaphysica, Physica, with signs of the Lily, the Falcon, the Castle and the Pig ::: \$af. 2/1r : page with$bornamental initials | https://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/bd008b.html |
| 20 | Contributors | 1$aMalderus, Joannes$cbishop of Antwerp$d1563-1633$4pfs ::: 1$aMercier, Jean$d? - 1570$4pfs ::: 1$aViggers, Joannes$4pfs ::: 1$aVanden Dael, Paulus$4stu ::: 1$aBosch, Leonardus$4stu ::: 1$aCuyckius, Leonardus$4stu ::: 1$aWierix, Jeronimus$d1553-1619$4egr ::: 1$ade Mallery, Charles$d1571-after 1635$gFlemish engraver, active in Antwerpen and Paris$4egr | 700: ‘Personal names’ and its sub-fields https://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/bd700.html |
| 21 | Place of production 1 | \$dLeuven (Louvain) | Field 952: $d place, $e name of Pedagogy (in Dutch) https://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/bd264.html |
| 22 | Place of production 2 | Field 952: $f name of Pedagogy in English and Latin | |
| 23 | ODIS URL | Link of Pedagogy to ODIS database | |
| 24 | URL | http://resolver.libis.be/IE5052929/representation | Direct url to image viewer |
| 25 | IE | IE5052929 | |
| 26 | Label | Abdij van Berne Heeswijk Ms. F11 | Physical object location |
| 27 | Collection | BERNE HEESWIJK | Library collection |
The Discovery Interface Limo also includes three extra fields: ‘Shelf location’, ‘Provenance’, and ‘Acquisition details’ which are not present in this dataset.
Note:
- The symbol (:::) is used to separate values in multivalued cells.
When referring to or using the data repository in research publications and documentation, consider citing the dataset with its digital object identifier (DOI) that is minted in Zenodo 
Cite the repository as: KU Leuven Libraries, Digitisation Department. (2020). Magister Dixit Collection [Dataset]. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3973116.
The Magister Dixit Collection repository is licensed under a Public Domain Mark (PDM). PDM operates as a label indicating that the dataset is no longer restricted by copyright and can be freely used by everyone. KU Leuven Libraries follows an open images policy that allows its public domain digitised heritage collections to be freely copied, modified, distributed and reused, only by mentioning “KU Leuven. Magister Dixit Collection” without asking for further permission. For a detailed view of the library’s legal compliances read here.
The GitHub repository of KU Leuven Libraries follows the CNCF Code of Conduct, as a way to be overt in our openness, welcoming all people to contribute, and pledging in return to value them. In order to make our open communities welcoming, diverse and inclusive, we are encouraging the adaptation of the Contributor Covenant as a means to express and codify those values. Any unacceptable behavior as trolling, insulting/derogatory comments, personal or political attacks will not be tolerated. The Contributor Covenant is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License.
- Nele Gabriëls: Digitisation Department (project supervisor)
- Bruno Vandermeulen: Digitisation Department (project advisor)
- Nicole Bostyn: Metadata Services and Acquisitions
- Diederik Lanoye: Metadata Services and Acquisitions
Advanced Master of Digital Humanities (MSc), KU Leuven
- Martina Verna: Intern, KU Leuven Digitisation Department, thesis project
The Magister Dixit Collection dataset has been used to create the Magister Dixit Metadata Exploration project. The repository includes a modified version of the CSV file and a sample Magister Dixit Jupyter Notebook to be used for further data exploration.
Have you used this dataset in a creative way? Please share it with us so we can add it here and showcase more examples of creative reuse of digital cultural heritage!
This project follows the all-contributors specification. KU Leuven Libraries recognises contributions and engagement for its open data repository through emoji key✨, in a way to reward every contribution, not only code. Contributions of any kind like questions, ideas, link to videos, translations and many more will be automatically acknowledged through the @all-contributors bot 🤖.