Research and Educational Tools

Open Access Digital Research and Educational Resources

REED has now moved into the electronic era in a dynamic, educationally exciting ways. All our websites are made freely available in order to reach the widest group of users.

Early Modern London Theatres

Launched on 1 February 2011 at Shakespeare's Globe in London, Early Modern London Theatres (EMLoT) is an open-access research database and educational resource that focuses, in its first phase, on eight theatres north of the Thames. EMLoT results from a collaboration between REED, the Department of Digital Humanities (DDH) at King's College London, and the Department of English at the University of Southampton. Co-directors for the first stage of development have been Sally-Beth MacLean, Director of Research, REED, and John McGavin, Professor of English, University of Southampton with John Bradley, Senior Research Analyst, DDH, as technical director. Full details of the content development team and sources of funding are on the website.

EMLoT lets you see what direct use has been made, over the last four centuries, of pre-1642 documents related to professional performance in purpose-built theatres and other permanent structures in the London area. It is not a comprehensive collection of those pre-1642 documents; rather, it charts the copies (or 'transcriptions') which were subsequently made of them. It tells you who used them, and when, and where you can find evidence of that use. It thus gives you access to the varied and long 'after-life' of those documents.

A special feature is the Learning Zone for high school and university teachers and students. The Learning Zone includes three distinct areas, a Tutorial with an interactive timeline, Other Learning Activities, and Related Sites, all combining to provide examples of and guidance in the powerful kind of research this database allows.

Patrons and Performances Web Site

In partnership with the University of Toronto Libraries, the Cartography Office, and the University of Western Ontario, in 2003 REED launched and continues to expand our first interdisciplinary research and educational database, the Patrons and Performances Web Site. The co-directors of the site are Sally-Beth MacLean, Director of Research, REED, and Alan Somerset, Professor Emeritus, UWO. Jason Boyd, Assistant Professor, Ryerson University, is the Associate Director. Full details of the content development team and funding sources are on the website.

The Patrons and Performances Web Site combines essential biographical data for medieval and renaissance patrons of performers with key details for the tours of the performers themselves - their names, numbers, tour stops, performance venues, rewards and expenses, audience, and the documentary sources for these details as given in the 27 collections published in the REED series. This data is enriched by new architectural, image-rich data on early performance spaces and historical GIS mapping. The database has content hitherto unavailable for teaching and can bring to life the careers of medieval and renaissance acting troupes outside the city of London as one of REED's primary contributions to the field of early theatre.

Anglo-Latin Wordbook

The Anglo-Latin Wordbook is a compilation of the Latin vocabulary glossed in the Bristol (1997), Cambridge (1989), Cheshire (2007), Cornwall (1999), Dorset (1999), Ecclesiastical London (2008), Herefordshire (1990), Inns of Court (2010), Kent: Diocese of Canterbury (2002), Lancashire (1991), Lincolnshire (2009), Oxford (2004), Shropshire (1994), Somerset (1996), Sussex (2000), Wales (2005), and Worcestershire (1990) collections. Special attention has been paid to the terminology of drama, music, and pastimes. Abigail Ann Young is the compiler of the Anglo-Latin Wordbook.

All the World's a Stage

All the World's a Stage is an annotated list of links for theatre history and early music, created and maintained by Abigail Ann Young. It contains links to online resources on medieval and early modern theatre, Shakespeare, play texts, early music and dance, palaeography, local history, archives libraries and other repositories and online journals.

Building eREED

With the help of an NEH Digital Humanities Start-up Grant in 2008/9, REED has begun the work of developing a new on-line initiative. eREED publications will make available fully searchable, open access digital editions of forthcoming REED collections. For the results of the first phase of this project, see the Download Scripts page.

Doing Research at REED

Resources of the REED office include important microfilm collections of original documentation used by the REED project as well as an extensive collection of books and articles on palaeography, lexicography, patronage, and topography as well as early drama and music. If you are interested in visiting REED to consult these resources, please write to the Director of Research, Professor Sally-Beth MacLean.

Further information about seeking access to unpublished transcripts held by REED editors is found in the REED Executive motion on Fair Use, passed on 27 May 2004: "All requests to consult unpublished materials (transcriptions and manuscript facsimile reproductions) must be made directly to the REED collection editor as copyright holder, who is free to share his or her work as he or she wishes, rather than to the REED Editorial Office. Before permission to use or cite unpublished materials can be granted, the collection editor and the applicant must complete and sign a Memorandum of Fair Use form, which can be downloaded from the REED website."

Some of our in-house editorial resources are also available online: the REED Handbook for Editors (1980; revised 1990) and guidelines for palaeographic checking, "Guidelines for Checking REED Records Text".

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