A Great Hobby for Readers: Transcribing Rare Manuscripts

Chicago’s Newberry Library is looking for volunteers to transcribe and translate a series of rare religious manuscripts written between the 15th and 19th centuries.

The manuscripts, titled The Book of Magical Charms, The Commonplace Book and Cases of Conscience Concerning Witchcraft, are part of the Newberry’s multidisciplinary project “Religious Change, 1450–1700,” which explores how the printed word changed religious interpretation in Europe and the Americas.

Anyone can visit http://publications.newberry.org/dig/rc-transcribe/index  in order to transcribe and translate the texts without having to visit the library.

For a story about this project, go to http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/newberry-library-transcribing-manuscripts?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=atlas-page .