Two significant research grants from the Academy of Finland
The Academy of Finland has awarded a highly competitive grant to two members of the National Library community.
Detail of a Medieval music manuscript, collections of the National Library of Finland
In addition to the high scientific quality of the research plan, the Research Council for Culture and Society pays special attention to projects that combine high quality with strong academic and societal impact and scientific renewal.
The funding was granted to the following projects:
- Traditio ja muuntelu. Keskiajan liturginen laulu Turun hiippakunnassa (Tradition and variation. Medieval chant in the Diocese of Turku), a project run by Senior Researcher Jaakko Tahkokallio received a grant for €464,680.
- The consortium project Digitaaliset menetelmät kotimaisen kirjallisuushistorian uudistajana (DHL-FI) (Digital methods reforming Finnish literary history) received a total funding of €839,631. The consortium is led by Associate Professor Leo Lahti from the University of Turku, and project members include Docent Kati Launis from the University of Turku and Information Systems Specialist Osma Suominen from the National Library of Finland, whose share of the funding is €230,559.
Jaakko Tahkokallio is delighted by the decision of the Academy: ”It’s wonderful that we can really restart the musicological research into our extensive Medieval materials. We now have every possibility to connect a musicological perspective to literary and general historical research traditions.”
According to Osma Suominen: “The National Library has offered its resources to literary researchers for a long time, but with the DHL-FI project the cooperation will reach an entirely new level. The research project uses both extensive bibliographical databases and digitised literature. We have now incorporated a feedback system, which means that observations regarding any omissions or errors in the library data will be amended in the original library databases. This ensures that the best possible knowledge of literary history will be retained for future use.”
Project descriptions
Traditio ja muuntelu. Keskiajan liturginen laulu Turun hiippakunnassa (Tradition and variation. Medieval chant in the Diocese of Turku)
A uniquely representative sample of original sources of Medieval chants have been retained from the Diocese of Turku. However, no systematic study into the chant culture of the Diocese has been conducted. The project seeks to determine what the official tradition of chanting was at the Diocese, how it developed over the course of the Medieval period, and how it influenced the way church services were conducted after the Reformation. The project also studies the local variations of chants. Did Medieval Finland have local chanting traditions, and if so, where did they come from? The project is also basic research of original sources, which will facilitate the use of the chant manuscripts in other historical research. The better the content of the manuscripts is understood, the more new information about broader historical questions can be gleaned from them, such as when and from which directions Christianity arrived in the different parts of what we now call Finland.
Digitaaliset menetelmät kotimaisen kirjallisuushistorian uudistajana (Digital methods reforming Finnish literary history)
The project studies the development of Finnish literary history in the 19th century, and the renewal of research methods in literary history. The goal of the project is to significantly expand the prevailing understanding of Finnish literary history using new digital resources and methods. As a cooperation between the National Library of Finland and the University of Turku, the project intends to compile a coherent survey of background information of literary fiction in Finnish and Swedish from the 19th century, as well as draft a digital workflow specifically designed for using this dataset for research purposes. The project will generate new methods, resources and new understanding of the literary history of Finland, which will serve both the academic community and the general public.