I had the chance to join an online group that will meet weekly to translate and discuss a Medieval Latin text. The Gesta Francorum is a Medieval account of the First Crusade.
The online course is hosted/taught by Professor WIlliam Turpine of Swarthmore College and Professor Bruce Venarde of University of Pittsburg. They are attempting to host this "course" on Google Hangouts. The idea is that everyone logs on to view the live broadcast of the hangout with a volunteer group of translators/readers of a set portion of the text. The people watching are called auditors and the people translating and on the video call are called active participants.
Last night was the first installment of the Hangout and it was great. The professors and their tech people had difficulty in figuring out how to not only broadcast on audio/video with the translators,/active participants but also being able to find and incorporate the auditors' comments (via postings or comments) into the live discussion. Watching a group of Medievalists and Latinists trying to move forward into the world of technology was funny at times. We all were struggling to make the system work the way we wanted it to.
We translated most of Liber I (Book I) of the Gesta Grancorum last night. There were some interesting phrasings and following the translation was both straightforward but challenging. I enjoyed the imagery and vocab choices of both the anonymous author and the translators.
All in all, this was a great experience...and one I will be repeating for the Monday evenings through the summer!
