Will Noel

Will Noel (d. 29 April 2024) was a curator and librarian who specialized in the study of the medieval and Renaissance European book, and in the application of digital technologies to humanist study. He was the John T. Maltsberger III ’55 Associate University Librarian for Special Collections in Princeton University Library, and Chair of the Philadelphia Consortium of Special Collections Libraries. He led numerous projects to digitize and data-mine the pre-modern manuscripts of the mid-Atlantic region, and was experienced in directing complicated, large digital humanities projects such as the imaging, conservation, and transcription of the Archimedes Palimpsest. He liked to create environments in which lots of people, lots of books, and a bit of technology come together to create new things. He taught 18 times for Rare Book School at the University of Virginia over the course of 19 years, he delivered the Sandars Lectures in Bibliography in 2019, and he often advocated for open data, as he did in this TED talk.

Courses Formerly Offered

• M-95. The Medieval Manuscript in the Twenty-First Century (2014–2019) | co-taught with Dot Porter
• H-25. Fifteenth-Century Books in Print & Manuscript (2005­–2024) | co-taught with Paul Needham from 2005–2021, and with Eric White joining them from 2022–2023