The Spectator Project: the eighteenth century mind in the twenty‐first century machine

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the paper is to show how The Spectator Project was developed as a digital environment for the study of The Tatler (1709‐1711), The Spectator (1711‐14), and the eighteenth‐century periodical in general.

Design/methodology/approach

The project demonstrates the use of different file formats concluding that the DjVu file format is superior to other formats for the purposes of this project.

Findings

The research finds that format, style, and even the content of The Tatler and The Spectator were closely imitated in some periodicals in Europe and the Americas.

Practical implications

The Spectator Project allows users to compare periodicals from this era available on the same site. This environment presents page images and the corresponding text, which allows users not only to view the actual pages, but also to use search and concordance tools.

Originality/value

Numerous scholarly web projects make their material simply and widely available but this project will also link relevant material and provide an interpretive editorial apparatus based on the special capabilities of the digital environment.

Citation

Hancock, B. (2005), "The Spectator Project: the eighteenth century mind in the twenty‐first century machine", The Electronic Library, Vol. 23 No. 2, pp. 173-180. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470510592861