Network Analysis of Album Amicorums in the 16th–17th Centuries

The Network of the Hugarica Inscriptions in the Autograph Books Between 1500 and 1700 Based on the Inscriptiones Alborum Amicorum Database

Abstract

The inscriptions, personal greetings of the album amicorums in the 16^th–17^th centuries can be seen as remarkable resources for several research projects: philological, historical or biographical data can be identified; as well as the flow of knowledge can be detected. These, autograph books are the early examples of networking, and the set of these citations and signatures, included in these books, offers the possibility to interpret them as a network-model. In my study I would like to analyse the inscriptions of the autograph books between 1500 and 1700 as such a network that includes the owners and the inscriptors of the albums as nodes and the inscriptions as edges, contacts. This analysis would like to experiment with or test the method of network science and network analysis on an early modern corpus. In this study I will answer the questions how these interdisciplinary methods of network analysis could be adaptable to a culture-historical corpus and whether this method could help to reveal new or hidden philological or biographical nuances.