This brief introduction to prosopography was given as part of Ségolène Tarte's talk on sociality in Social Machines, using archetypal narratives to characterise the stories within and around them. The talks were given at the SOCIAM project's All Hands Meeting, 10 February 2015, at the University of Southampton.

1. Prosopography
—a very brief introduction
Pip Willcox
Curator of Digital Special Collections
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
@pipwillcox
SOCIAM All Hands Meeting
University of Southampton
10 February 2015

2. Bodleian Libraries
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Biography
http://books.simonandschuster.com/Steve-Jobs/Walter-Isaacson/9781451648546

3. Bodleian Libraries
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Biography
http://books.simonandschuster.com/Steve-Jobs/Walter-Isaacson/9781451648546
http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/editions/the-devil-a-biography/9780099465560
http://knopfdoubleday.com/book/114359/god-a-biography/

4. Bodleian Libraries
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Biography
http://books.simonandschuster.com/Steve-Jobs/Walter-Isaacson/9781451648546
http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/editions/the-devil-a-biography/9780099465560
http://knopfdoubleday.com/book/114359/god-a-biography/
http://www.vintage-books.co.uk/books/0099422581/peter-ackroyd/london-the-biography/
http://www.booksonlinebrighton.com/ci_23.html

5. Bodleian Libraries
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Biography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_Nepos#mediaviewer/File:Cornelio_Nepote.jpg
(Raoli—http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7012/6504839449_825aeb4450_b.jpg Public
Domain)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutarch#mediaviewer/File:Plutarch.gif
(Tomisti—Public Domain)

6. Bodleian Libraries
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Biographies
http://www.oxforddnb.com/

7. Bodleian Libraries
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Biographies
http://www.oxforddnb.com/
http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/35/101035163
“Murray, Sir James Augustus Henry (1837–1915),” R. W. Burchfield in Oxford Dictionary
of National Biography, eee ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison (Oxford: OUP,
2004); online ed., ed. Lawrence Goldman, May 2007, http://ezproxy-
prd.bodleian.ox.ac.uk:2167/view/article/35163 (accessed February 10, 2015).

8. Bodleian Libraries
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Biographies
http://sixdegreesoffrancisbacon.com/
http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?page_id=1270—Scott Weingart’s network
visualization of corresondents in Cultures of Knowledge’s Early Modern Letters Online

9. Bodleian Libraries
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Prosopography
http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/153010
"prosopography, n.". OED Online. December 2014. Oxford University
Press. http://ezproxy-prd.bodleian.ox.ac.uk:2355/view/Entry/153010?
redirectedFrom=prosopography (accessed February 10, 2015).
ancient Greek πρόσωπον face, person (see prosopon n.)
+ post-classical Latin -graphia
2. A study or description of an individual's life, career,
etc.; esp. a collection of such studies focusing on the
public careers and relationships of a group in a
particular place and period; a collective biography.

10. Bodleian Libraries
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Prosopography
• A method, not an end
• Collating data
• At scale

11. Bodleian Libraries
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Prosopography
Verboven, Koenraad, Myriam Carlier, and Jan Dumolyn. 2007. “A Short
Manual to the Art of Prosopography.” In Prosopography Approaches and
Applications. A Handbook, 35–70. Unit for Prosopographical Research
(Linacre College).
http://prosopography.modhist.ox.ac.uk/images/01%20Verboven%20pdf.pdf
“Prosopography integrates more or less large
numbers of descriptive individual biographical
studies into quantitative and statistic research on
the combined total of these biographical studies.”
“Prosopography is a typical inductive method. It
starts from concrete data […] and aims at
understanding general phenomena.”

12. Bodleian Libraries
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Prosopographical Method
• Single model: questionnaire
• Uniform variables
• Research objectives

13. Bodleian Libraries
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Prosopographical Method
http://www.slideshare.net/PipWillcox/prosopographya-very-brief-introduction
Photo: Pip Willcox