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Regional and national audiences have benefited from enhanced perceptions of the linguistic and literary heritage of the West Midlands. Cultural capital has been created by engaging members of the public in the discovery of their linguistic and literary past through their unprecedented access to and understanding of a manuscript written in the dialect of the medieval West Midlands. Increased national interest in the region's cultural heritage has been generated.
Richard Beadle's ongoing research on the text and documentary records of the late medieval York cycle of Mystery Plays has made a crucial impact on performances at the York Festival in 2008, 2010 and 2012. Research since 1993 has issued in new scholarly editions in 2009 and 2013, and these (and his work on Medieval Drama more generally) have conserved and interpreted a vital example of cultural heritage for audiences and inspired new forms of artistic production outside the academy. This work has also contributed to economic prosperity via the creative sector, and to education outside the University of Cambridge.
The Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics Series is central to the University's commitment to the teaching and spread of knowledge of Greek and Latin at a time when these languages are under increasing pressure in schools and HEIs. Hardie, Hunter and Oakley are General Editors of a series of Greek and Latin texts with commentaries aimed at a broad public readership, from the higher levels of school onwards. This series, now numbering 94 volumes in print, has, through its international adoption in schools and colleges, greatly broadened the range of texts which are accessible at all levels and changed the way these texts are read and studied. The series has huge brand recognition as `the Green and Yellows' (or `Green and Golds' in the USA) and has had considerable economic impact within the book market.
Editorial and biographical research on the work of Virginia Woolf, carried out primarily by Susan Sellers, fed directly into the composition of Vanessa and Virginia, a novel by Sellers about Woolf's relationship with her sister. In 2008 Vanessa and Virginia was published by a small independent publisher set up in 2006 in the north-west Highlands of Scotland. It became the press's most commercially successful publication and ensured its early economic viability. The novel was subsequently published in North America and translated into more than a dozen languages. It was also turned into a successful, inter-nationally-staged play. This case study therefore claims several types of impact: (1) exporting the cultural heritage of the UK and stimulating international public interest in Woolf; (2) generating economic prosperity for a small entrepreneurial business in a remote part of Scotland, and for the creative industries (theatre and international publishing) more widely; (3) inspiring and facilitating the work of other cultural practitioners; (4) enriching cultural life in the UK and abroad. The users of this research are: the directors of an independent publishing company; translators and international publishing houses; the director, producer and actors of a touring theatre company; the reading and theatre-going public.
Heinrich Böll (1917-1985) was one of post-war Germany's leading writers and public intellectuals. The Edition of Böll's complete works, prepared by a seven-strong international research team which included Finlay, has had significant impact across a number of areas, including commercial publishing (spin-off publications, marketing opportunities); digital humanities (software and platform development for large-scale critical editions, significantly changing working practices); culture and heritage (in particular in the city of Cologne); the media and the public sphere (public debate on the writer's legacy and the Heinrich-Böll foundation's cultural programme in 30 countries).
The principal, interrelated forms of impact claimed for these two new editions/translations are educational and economic.
The educational impact derives from:
The economic impact (totalling £200,328 to date) has been generated by high annual sales (so far 24,204 copies of Nietzsche and 9,866 copies of Weber sold), with £67,279 generated between 2008 and 2012. These sales figures reflect the widespread adoption of the texts on educational courses across a range of disciplines and in many different countries.
The new versions of Weber's foundational political essays also "enhance public understanding" of key issues in "civil society". The new version of "The Birth of Tragedy" has presented a key part of the "cultural capital" of Europe to a wider international readership.
This case study describes contributions to the public understanding of the King James Bible in the UK and US, achieved through organisation of public exhibitions marking the 400th anniversary of publication, a mobile app, educational and cultural events. `Manifold Greatness', exhibited first at the Bodleian Library, told the story of the commissioning of the KJB and how the many translators working `by committee' achieved its famous `perfection of style'. The exhibition debunked myths about the KJB, educated school and adult audiences, and informed and energised public debate in 2011-13 about the place of the Bible in British and American culture.
The Newton Project transforms public understanding of one of the most significant intellectual figures in history. A pioneering initiative that has set international standards for the digital humanities, it provides an open access online scholarly edition of Sir Isaac Newton's complete writings, making available previously unseen material relating to his ideas about science, mathematics and theology. Under the directorship of Rob Iliffe, the Project has reached a wide variety of benefactors, including secondary schools, broadcasters and the performing arts. Through these creative collaborations, it serves as an outstanding resource for the popularisation of scientific thought.
Professor Nicholas Cronk, has in collaboration with others, created an app which is an enhanced edition of Voltaire's Candide, freely available, for use on tablets. Candide is a timeless and universal text with perennial appeal, and this digital edition renders it accessible to a wide variety of new readers. Cronk has been encouraging engagement with Voltaire's texts through more traditional channels but this latest innovation has won new readers for Voltaire, especially among a young generation often more familiar with new media than with traditional books. The app, with its dual level of annotations, illustrations, manuscript images, commentaries, and the Polyadès recording, has been well received by a wide range of readers, and functions in a curatorial capacity to preserve an important work of French classical literary heritage in a new, sustainable format. The Candide app represents a revolutionary tool for both independent learning, and also for classroom teaching.
Roger Parker's case study involves his critical edition of Donizetti's opera Le Duc d'Albe, which was given its world premiere at Vlaamse Opera (Belgium) with an international cast in May-June 2012. This edition made available to the public, for the first time, what is in effect a new Donizetti opera, never before (even in the composer's lifetime) performed in its original language and in this particular configuration. The impact of the performances is demonstrable in international reviews and in the fact that a commercial recording of the opera is now planned (by Opera Rara of London).