The Nature of the Bean: A Digital Preservation of Early Modern Errata

An exploration of printing errors, reader corrections, and the digitization of selected pages from James Harrington's The Commonwealth of Oceana

Early modern book production relied on processes so imperfect that James Harrington described the 1656 print edition of his book as a rough draft. Errata lists encouraged early modern readers to shape a text's final form, and handwritten corrections in surviving copies indicate that many did so. This digital exhibit explores the errata of James Harrington's The Commonwealth of Oceana, tracing instances of reader intervention from handwritten corrections to digital preservation.

Oceana, Title Page Recto

Title page from Jame's Harrington's The Commonwealth of Oceana (1656) scanned for digital preservation.

Oceana - Marginal correction on p.198

Handwritten correction by the reader changing "bean" to "beast" as directed by the volume's errata table.

Oceana - Broken spine, open

Oceana resting open on foam bolsters in the reading room of Archives & Special Collections, showing the book's broken binding and fragile condition. 

Digitizing The Commonwealth of Oceana (3)

Oceana on the Zeutschel overhead scanner in the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities during the digitization process. 

Explore the Exhibit

This exhibit explores the material and textual life of The Common-Wealth of Oceana (1656), from seventeenth-century printing errors to modern digital preservation. The sections below trace the book's history, the role of errata in early modern print, and the process of digitizing and presenting the work online.

The Book 

Learn about James Harrington's The Common-Wealth of Oceana and the fragile seventeenth-century copy in Special Collections.

Errata

Learn about the history and use of errata lists in early modern printing. 

Readers

See how early readers corrected mistakes in the text, leaving handwritten traces of their interaction with the book.

Digitization

Follow the process of scanning the book and transforming it into a digital exhibit.

Gallery

Browse digitized pages from Oceana, including examples of printing errors and reader corrections.

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