Tips for Transcribing Castleton Today

From Lady Castleton's book, Folger Shakespeare Library, V.a.600.
From Lady Castleton’s book, Folger Shakespeare Library, V.a.600.

We’re so pleased that you’ve decided to join us today. Here are some top tips for transcribing today.

Just go log on at transcribe.folger.edu with whatever user name you want to use. The Castleton manuscript has its own folder, so it will appear on the first screen. Just click on Castleton and you’ll be in!

Trying to figure out where to start? Begin with pages that have 0 people in the “started” columns, then move to those with 1 or 2 if there are none with zeros.

Do you want to focus on food or medicine? The beginning pages have a high concentration of medicinal recipes; the ones toward the back are culinary.

Are you beginner, intermediate, or expert? If you’re a beginner, the first part and last part of the manuscript are in a nice, easy hand. The following pages, however, are more difficult and dense, if you are looking for a challenge: 91-92, 107-108, 109-110, 111-112, 171-172, 173-174 and 175-76.

Pages to avoid? Page images 179-228 are blank; no need to go to them. The following will be specially reserved for Sprint events: please do them only if you are participating in that event: 132, 40-41 at 11am and 1pm ET respectively.

What if you find an upside down page…? If you get a page that appears upside down, Dromio has a Rotate button, near Zoom, at the top left hand corner.

We’ll be tweeting more tips and answering questions throughout the day at @EMRecipesOnline, using Twitter hashtag  #Transcribathon and posting on our Facebook page.


OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
lisasmith (November 9, 2016). Tips for Transcribing Castleton Today. emroc. Retrieved February 18, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/o89r


About lisasmith

Lecturer in Digital History, University of Essex. Writes on gender, health, and the household in early modern England and France (ca. 1600-1800). Primary investigator for the Sir Hans Sloane Correspondence Online Project. Collaborator for the Early Modern Recipes Online Collective, founding co-editor of The Recipes Project, and blogger at Wonders and Marvels and Shakespeare's World. Tweets as @historybeagle. On Zooniverse as @LWSmith.

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