Introduction to digital editions. Annotating texts with XML-TEI


José Luis Losada Palenzuela


Universität Basel (RISE)

Image from The Bodleian First Folio: Bodleian Arch. G c.7. URL: http://firstfolio.bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Lachmann’s method

(German tradition)
example of stemma (Pérez 1997: 97)
  • reconstructing the (original) text based on different witnesses
  • witnesses are grouped hierarchically in order to compile a genealogical tree (stemma)
  • genealogical tree is based on typology of errors
  • Dogmatism

    • Parvum lexicon stemmatologicum

Bon manuscrit

(French tradition)

  • Joseph Bédier's scepticism on stemmatics;
  • Edition based on the earliest or best preserved manuscript (codex optimus);
  • Historical & cultural analysis of the text tradition.
Parvum lexicon stemmatologicum

Copy-text theory

(Anglo-American tradition)

  • Printed edition closest to the author’s intention;
  • Autograph manuscript and printed edition (combined).
Parvum lexicon stemmatologicum

Methods related to type of documents


  • stemmatics: medieval and classical texts preserved in manuscripts;
  • copy-text: modern print materials;
  • genetics: authorial drafts and contemporary authors (edition ≃ genetic dossier).
Pierazzo 2015: 17 and Lexicon of Scholarly Editing

Digital Editing

A digital edition follows the requirements of a scholarly edition in consideration of the digital paradigm

"Eine digitale Edition ist dadurch bestimmt, dass sie die allgemeinen Anforderungen an eine wissenschaftliche Edition durch die Berücksichtigung der gegenwärtigen technischen Möglichkeiten und ihrer methodischen Implikationen erfüllt. Sie folgt einem «digitalen Paradigma»"

(Sahle 2016/2: 148)

Digital scholarly editions are not just scholarly editions in digital media:


digital ≠ digitized


"Wiedergabe ohne Erschließung ist keine Edition. Eine bloße Reproduktion, ein einfaches Faksimile, eine digitale Bibliothek ist keine Edition"

"Deshalb kann eine digitale Edition nicht einfach die digitale Fassung einer auch im Druck realisierbaren Edition sein – zu ihrem Wesen gehört, dass sie über die Beschränkungen der typografischen Edition hinweggeht"

(Sahle 2016/2: 141-142; 149)

Reference model for digital editing

"The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities", Desmond Schmidt, Queensland University of Technology, 2012

Document ⤑ Digital Edition

Christof Schöch: Digitale Textedition mit TEI. DARIAH TEI-Tutorial

Analysis

  • to set document properties
  • implicit → explicit

    • Outcome: a representation...

  • structured (but not standardized)
  • (possibly) digital (but not machine-readable)
  • abstract und simplified
bloques
B. Gracián, Obras Completas, Amberes, 1669. BUWr
structure
A structured representation of a document (Gracian's Oraculo manual y arte de prudencia)

Modelling

  • to set a formal model of the document.

    • Technologies:

  • Standard: XML-Schema.
  • Tool: Roma (webservice).

    • Outcome: a representation...

  • structured and standardized.
  • digital and machine-readable.
  • without content (yet).
  • useful for guiding encoding and visualization.

Schema RNG (snippets)

(manual) Transcription

  • to set the text in a linear form.

    • Technologies:

  • Format: .txt, .doc, .odt, ...
  • Tool: text editor...

    • Outcome: a text representation...

  • digital and machine-readable.
  • limited complexity and precision.
  • less structured.
  • not standardized.

(automatic) Transcription

  • to set the text in a linear form.

    • Technologies:

  • OCR, HCR
  • Tool: Transkribus,Tesseract,...

    • Outcome: a text representation...

  • digital and machine-readable.
  • some complexity and precision.
  • structured / not structured.
  • standardized / not standardized

Encoding

  • to improve the transcript

    • Technologies:

  • Standards: XML-TEI
  • Tool: XML-Editor (oXygen, ...)

    • Outcome: a text representation...

  • digital and machine-readable (not so human-readable).
  • structured and standardized
  • the core of a digital edition

Visualization

  • to represent for a reader

    • Technologies:

  • Standards: CSS, XSLT, X-Path, XML-FO
  • Formats: HTML, PDF, ePub

    • Outcome: different visualizations...

  • out of a TEI source file

Publication

  • to be available for the public
  • to set the text in the editorial context
  • to interact with the edition

    • Technologies

  • Databases: eXist (XML)
  • EVT Viewer, Omeka, TEI-Publisher..
  • Tailor-made projects

Summary

Summary

References

  • Burnard, Lou (2014): What is the Text Encoding Initiative?: How to add intelligent markup to digital resources, Marseille, OpenEdition Press, https://doi.org/10.4000/books.oep.426.
  • Elena Pierazzo (2015), Digital Scholarly Editing: Theories, Models and Methods, Ashgate Publishing
  • Patrick Sahle (2013), Digitale Editionsformen, Zum Umgang mit der Überlieferung unter den Bedingungen des Medienwandels, 3 Bände, Norderstedt: Books on Demand.
  • Christof Schöch (2014), Digitale Textedition mit TEI, DARIAH TEI-Tutorial.