ABSTRACT
Parker 2.0 illustrates how digital imaging has revolutionized access to manuscripts. Parker 2.0 is an emblem of a world in which art is available everywhere at any time. This chapter uses Parker 2.0 to explore how digital images are changing the ways in which one sees medieval manuscripts. The overall shape of Parker’s library, as revealed by Parker 2.0, suggests that Parker had distinctive personal views on the nature of libraries and the way in which knowledge should be organized. The way in which Parker 2.0 enables us to browse Archbishop Parker’s manuscripts opens up unexpected cultural narratives which disrupt the traditional view of Parker as a fount of Old English studies. It is by encouraging us to look beyond the celebrities and to have conversations with more humble and reticent manuscripts that Parker 2.0 makes its most important contribution towards creating new ways of seeing the Middle Ages.
