Help Build the First Annotated Digital Edition of the 1829 Printer’s Manuscript
Book of Mormon’s 1829 Printer’s Manuscript is an extraordinary but underexplored document. While it has been studied historically and theologically, it has never been fully digitally annotated in a way that allows for advanced computational and linguistic analysis.
This project will change that.
Building on Important Foundations
Valuable digital work on the Book of Mormon already exists. Royal Skousen and his team have produced the Critical Text Project, WordCruncher, and Book of Mormon Voices — resources of great worth to both scholars and readers. However, these data are currently fragmented across multiple files, tied to proprietary software, and often not downloadable or exportable. While the work is valuable it lacks in many ways for a computational analysis.
This project is designed to complement and extend that work by producing a fully consolidated, open-source annotation file of the 1829 Printer’s Manuscript. The goal is not to replace what exists, but to provide a freely available dataset that anyone can use for AI, complexity studies, computational linguistics, and digital humanities research.
The Project
We are creating an open-source, community-driven annotation of the Printer’s Manuscript. Every word will be carefully tagged for:
- Linguistic features (grammar, syntax, patterns)
- Commentary i.e Moroni’s / Mormon’s commentary of the text
- Isaiah verses and other biblical references – these appear in various forms
- Attributions of voice or authorship
- Book and chapter divisions – The printer’s manuscript is not formatted like the current version. It is formatted in chunks instead of our current chapter and verse format we are used to seeing.
- Errors – this will included spelling and grammatical mistakes.
The result will be a public scholarly resource that enables new approaches to studying the Book of Mormon at scale.
What is Digital Annotation?
Digital annotation is the practice of enriching a text with structured, searchable metadata that goes far beyond traditional footnotes or commentary. Instead of static notes on a page, digital annotations embed layers of information—such as grammar, syntax, themes, voices, references, or cross-links—directly into a machine-readable format. This makes the text not only easier to study but also computationally accessible, enabling large-scale analysis with tools from linguistics, artificial intelligence, and the digital humanities. In other words, digital annotation transforms a historical manuscript into a dynamic dataset that can be queried, visualized, and explored in ways never before possible.
Those that are familiar with geneological indexing will find this process very similar. Instead of labeling dates and names, you will be labeling grammar, and narrative structures.
Why Support This?
- As part of my doctoral research, I will personally supervise, coordinate, and analyze the work.
- All participants will be credited by name in the open-source repository and annotation files. This is a genuine collaborative scholarly effort.
How You Can Help?
Volunteer
You don’t need to be a scholar to help. With just a computer, an internet connection, and a little training, you can join the annotation team. This is a chance to be directly involved in a groundbreaking research project that blends faith, scholarship, and technology.
The Vision
For Latter-day Saints, this project deepens understanding of the sacred record and its earliest transmission. For scholars, it opens up a dataset unlike any other for computational study. For the public, it provides a model of how collaborative digital annotation can unlock insights into complex texts.
Together, we can make the 1829 Printer’s Manuscript a living resource — studied, understood, and appreciated in new ways for generations to come.
Who am I?
I am a software engineer, linguist, and researcher specializing in the intersection of artificial intelligence and historical linguistics. My academic background bridges Middle Eastern Studies (BA, University of Utah) and linguistics (MA, Francisco Marroquín University, Guatemala City). I am currently a PhD candidate in Complex Systems at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain where my research explores how computational methods can be applied to understand complex texts, languages, and cultural artifacts.
My work brings together expertise in:
- AI and historical linguistics – designing algorithms to analyze and reconstruct linguistic data from ancient and early modern sources.
- Morphosyntax in ancient languages – focusing on both Mesoamerican and Mesopotamian traditions.
- Religious texts and linguistic analysis – particularly the Book of Mormon, early LDS writings, and their broader linguistic and cultural contexts.
- Language and liberty – investigating how linguistic structures shape perceptions of freedom and human thought.
This unique blend of computational, linguistic, and historical expertise positions me to lead the first comprehensive digital annotation of the 1829 Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon.