Nils-Lennart Johannesson's concept of the Ormulum project was about as comprehensive as a study of a single manuscript can be. Nils-Lennart was funded by the Swedish Science Council to take copies of the entire codex, which is known as MS Junius I, first in microfilm, then high-quality digital photographs. The photographs were printed on A1-size sheets of photographic paper, at more than 8 times the original size. He preferred to work with the prints. For my part, I use the digital versions of the photographs Nils-Lennart took, which are now available for free from the Bodelian Library in Oxford here. I hope to make arrangements to allow users of this site to directly access the manuscript eventually.

This is the third iteration of the Ormulum project website. The first was associated with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, where Nils-Lennart worked before 2000. It was as high-tech as one can imagine for the time. A further website, which Nils-Lennart ran privately, was started shortly afterwards and recently closed. It is however, still to be found thanks to the Wayback Machine.

While the project produced a reasonable amount of original philological research, the first initial goal was to produce a critical edition. This edition is now in the final stages of preparation and I expect to be able to release them soon. A hardback version, probably, like the Holt-White 1878 edition, in two volumes, is nearing the end of its development. Considering the extent of Nils-Lennart's notes on language and source material, there may be a third volume, an extended introduction.

On this site, I expect to have the full transcribed text, including the preface, latin table of contents, homilies and appendices, online within a few weeks. This will be accompanied by the glossary and a general introduction to the manuscript, as well as corpus-readable versions. At first, these will available for download, but I hope to have browseable versions available eventually. -Andrew