Early Modern Dissertations in French Libraries: The EMDFL Dataset

Heßbrüggen-Walter, Stefan

Abstract

EMDFL contains aggregated metadata of up to 55 178 early modern dissertations in French libraries published between 1564 and 1800. It is the first attempt to capture metadata for early modern dissertations in a given region regardless of their country of origin. The data were retrieved from the union catalogue of French university libraries (SUDOC) and the general catalogue of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF), harmonized and reconciled. The process is documented in Python notebooks which are included in the dataset. The present paper includes reflections on challenges in using generalist categories for catalogization when dealing with early modern prints, because these categories are less refined and not always applied uniformly by cataloguers. Therefore, the overall data quality is lower than in the case of specialist bibliographies of early modern prints, e. g. the Verzeichnis deutscher Drucke. Nevertheless, the data facilitate fresh insights into the circulation of dissertation prints across Europe, allowing for data-guided analyses of knowledge exchange on a European scale.