MORE MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF DATA IN THE ARCHIVES—HOUSEHOLD INVENTORIES.

MORE MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF DATA IN THE ARCHIVES—HOUSEHOLD INVENTORIES. Here is another article about the enormous amounts of data in archives that have not yet been investigated (link via Instapundit). Gal Beckerman at Boston.com tells how a graduate student named Sheilagh Ogilvie discovered in the 1980’s that there were “reams” of household inventories dating from the 17th century in the archives of German villages. The lists were made at marriages and deaths. Ogilvie is now heading up a team which is doing a computerized study of lists going back to 1602—thousands of them in just two German towns. Beckerman has a wonderful detail which captures the excitement for a scholar experiencing how long it had been since these lists had been looked at: “The sand used by scribes to blot the ink just after writing would often fall out onto her lap.”