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[[category: projects]]

== Background ==

The aim of this project is to gather information on the texts, dictionaries, compiled notes, and treatises on shipbuilding in existence, and share it in an easy and organized manner, both for quick searches and more in-depth studies.

Although a small number of texts about shipbuilding, dating to the early and mid-15th century, have survived in Italy, it was not until the late 16th century that writing about the building, rigging, and handling of oceangoing ships seems to have become fashionable among scholars and intellectuals.

Many of these texts are difficult to access, handle, copy, and understand. The ShipLab has started a long term project to gather information on the many texts, dictionaries, compiled notes, and treatises on shipbuilding in existence, in order to try to share it in an easy and organized manner.


[[File:Fernandez.jpg|Ship from Manoel Fernandez 1616 Treatise.|center]]
<div style="text-align: center;">'''Ship from Manoel Fernandez 1616 Treatise.'''</div>


Since 2005 the ShipLab team is working with Texas A&M University's [http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/ Center for the Study of Digital Libraries] on a project that will make some of the texts available in facsimile, with transcriptions, translations, glossaries and images available, as well as a number of other research tools.


[[File:Fernandez01-Alex06.jpg|Model of a nau from Manoel Fernandez 1616 Treatise by Alex Hazlett.|center]]
<div style="text-align: center;">'''Model of a nau from Manoel Fernandez 1616 Treatise by Alex Hazlett.'''</div>


The [[Nautical Archaeology Digital Library]] is now a cooperative effort that relies on the support of the Portuguese Academia de Marinha and the Portuguese National Library to make available an increasing number of texts.


[[File:Midship-sections.jpg|Contemporary midship sections according to two different authors.|center]]
<div style="text-align: center;">'''Contemporary midship sections according to two different authors.'''</div>

== Acknowledgements ==
This project was possible through the generous support of Dr. and Mrs. Peter Amaral, Mr. Mauro Bondioli, Mr. Lars Bruzelius, and the [[Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation]].