Highlighted words or phrases in a text are commonly distinguished from their surroundings for a reason. Only a thorough understanding of the text and the language can lead to a correct identification and interpretation. The underlying semantics may be encoded with more specific elements than the generic <hi> element. Highlighting is commonly used to render the following logical and semantic features:
- Emphasis (
<emph>), foreign words (<foreign>), and other linguistically distinct uses (<distinct>) of highlighting. - Technical terms (
<term>), glosses (<gloss>), or documentation of XML elements, attributes, and classes. - The use of quotation marks for any purpose (
<q>), in the representation of speech and thought (<said>), quotation (<quote>), cited quotation (<cit>), words or phrases mentioned (<mentioned>), and words or phrases for which the author or narrator indicates a disclaiming of responsibility (<soCalled>).
<p xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><q>Plenty of options</q>, he thought, sat on a bench
and opened the book he had taken from the Whoopledywhaaian National Library. It was titled
'While thou art here', by Sir Edmund Peckwood. While reading the first sentence, his placid
expression turned to a certain <foreign>je ne sais quoi</foreign>: <quote>For the first
time in twenty-five years, Dr Burt Diddledygook decided not to turn up to the annual
meeting of the Royal Academy of Whoopledywhaa.</quote></p>Passages of the edited text may be quoted explicitly or implicitly from other works. When the editor whishes to encode a quotation together with the source, the element <cit> can be used, which contains <quote> and a reference to the source, often encoded as <bibl> or <ref>, as in the following examples:
<div xml:id="mm01" type="chapter">
<head>Chapter 1</head>
<epigraph>
<cit>
<quote>
<l>Since I can do no good because a woman</l>
<l>Reach constantly at something that is near it.</l>
</quote>
<bibl>
<title>The Maid's Tragedy</title>
<author>Beaumont and Fletcher</author>
</bibl>
</cit>
</epigraph>
<p>Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into
relief by poor dress...</p>
</div>Lexicography has shown little sign of being affected by the
work of followers of J.R. Firth, probably best summarized
in his slogan, <cit>
<quote>You shall know a word by the company it keeps.</quote>
<ref>(Firth, 1957)</ref>
</cit>Instead of providing the source reference in the <bibl> element within <cit>, it is also possible to create a bibliography and link to it. The bibliography can be put in the <front> or <back> elements, to separate it from the <body>.
The TEI offers many options to encode a bibliography, here it is just an example:
<bibl xml:id="Firth1957">
<author>
<forename>John Rupert</forename>
<surname>Firth</surname>
</author>
<title>A synopsis of linguistic theory. Studies in linguistic analysis</title>
<publisher>Blackwell</publisher>
<pubPlace>Oxford</pubPlace>
<date>1957</date>
</bibl>Once this is done, the previous citation can be encoded as following:
<cit>
<quote>You shall know a word by the company it keeps.</quote>
<ptr target="#Firth1957"/>
</cit>or using <ref> when we want to add information to be processed or displayed to the link, for example:
<cit>
<quote>You shall know a word by the company it keeps.</quote>
<ref target="#Firth1957">Firth 1957, p. 11</ref>
</cit>Canonical references are identified not by bibliographic citation, like most literary sources, but by a short reference following rules defined by a scholarly community. That is the case of many religious texts as well as some classical works.
Biblical quotations are identified by canonical references, which take the form of a book name or abbreviation and, optionally, chapter and verse numbers. Despite their resemblance, they may vary considerably, because the book names are translated and abbreviated differently, various separators might be used (comma, colon) and there exist multiple editions and translations to which one might want to refer.
A simple encoding of a biblical reference is as following:
Unde in Genesim: <cit type="bible">
<quote>In principio creavit Deus celum et terram.</quote>
<ref>Gn 1:1</ref>
</cit>We can refine this further, by using the attribute @cRef (canonical reference) on the element <ptr> and <ref>, as in the following example:
Unde in Genesim: <cit type="bible">
<quote>In principio creavit Deus celum et terram.</quote>
<ptr cRef="Gn 1:1"/>
</cit>The referencing scheme used in the attribute @cRef should be explained in the element <refsDecl> (references declaration) within <encodingDesc> in the TEI header. The explanation might be in prose, as the following:
<refsDecl xml:id="biblicalCitations">
<p>The <att>cRef</att> attribute of <gi>ref</gi> elements
citing the Bible contain a canonical reference in one to three
parts. The first part is an abbreviation for the name of the
relevant book of the Bible, and it is the only mandatory one. The
second part, preceded by a space, is a chapter number. The third,
preceded by a colon, is either a single verse number, or a series
of consecutive verses with the number of the first verse followed
by a hyphen, followed by the number of the last verse. </p>
<p>The following list of abbreviations has been used for the
books of the Bible: Gn: Genesis; Exodus: Ex; Leviticus: Lv; [etc.]</p>
</refsDecl>This information will be very useful to future users (including yourself) and current collaborators, but it cannot be processed automatically.
An alternative is to define a pattern that the canonical reference must match and how to automatically transform it into a valid URI. Several patterns can be defined, each in a <cRefPattern> element, using the two attributes @matchPattern (to define how canonical references are constructed), and @replacementPattern (to define how the different parts of the matching references must be transformed), as in the following:
<refsDecl xml:id="biblicalCitations">
<cRefPattern matchPattern="(.+) (.+):(.+)"
replacementPattern="http://vulsearch.sourceforge.net/html/
$1.html#x$2_$3">
<p>This pointer pattern extracts and references the <q>book,</q> <q>chapter,</q>
and <q>verse</q> parts of a biblical reference pointing to a single verse, like
“Gn 1:1”, and reconstructs a link to an online version of the biblical text.</p>
<p>The following list of abbreviations has been used for the books of the Bible:
Gn: Genesis; Exodus: Ex; Leviticus: Lv; [etc.]</p>
</cRefPattern>
</refsDecl>The replacement pattern will transform 'Gn 1:1' in http://vulsearch.sourceforge.net/html/Gn.html#x1_1.
The source description inside <sourceDesc> is the third required subsection of the file description withing <teiHeader>. It generally contains a <p> (paragraph), <bibl> (bibliographic entry) or <msDesc> (manuscript description), similar elements or a list of them. We focus here on <msDesc>, which is suitable both for manuscripts and for early prints.
A <msDesc> is required to contain a <msIdentifier> usually containing its geographical and archival location, and manuscript identification information.
This <msIdentifier> can be followed by one or more paragraphs, or more structured
information.
Example of semi-structured descriptions are the following:
<msDesc xml:id="MySampleManuscript">
<msIdentifier>
<msName>My Manuscript</msName>
</msIdentifier>
<p>One or more paragraphs concerning various aspects of the manuscript.</p>
</msDesc>and
<msDesc xml:id="MySampleManuscript">
<msIdentifier>
<msName>My Manuscript</msName>
</msIdentifier>
<msContents>
<p>One or more paragraphs concerning the manuscript's content.</p>
</msContents>
<physDesc>
<p>One or more paragraphs concerning the manuscript's physical description.</p>
</physDesc>
<history>
<p>One or more paragraphs concerning the manuscript's history.</p>
</history>
</msDesc>A more structured description is detailed below.
In general as many details should be provided in the <msIdentifier> as are necessary to be able to easily locate the manuscript. An example of a structured <msIdentifier> is the following:
<msIdentifier>
<settlement>Oxford</settlement>
<institution>Bodleian Library</institution>
<idno>MS. Add. A. 61</idno>
<altIdentifier type="SC">
<idno>28843</idno>
</altIdentifier>
</msIdentifier>To detail the intellectual contents of a manuscript, the <msContents> element is generally used with <msItem> elements, as in the following example:
<msContents>
<msItem n="1">
<locus from="1r" to="4v">fol. Ir - fol. 4v</locus>
<p>Description of this item</p>
</msItem>
<msitem n="2">
<locus from="5r" to="109r">fol. 5r - fol. 109r</locus>
<p>Description of this item</p>
</msItem>
</msContents>The <msItem> element itself can contain additional information, as following:
<msItem n="2">
<locus from="132r" to="134v">(fols. 132r—134v)</locus>
<title>List of emperors</title>
<note>with the lengths of their reigns, as far as Alexios III, after which is
recorded the Latin capture of CP.</note>
<incipit xml:lang="gre">...</incipit>
<explicit xml:lang="gre">...</explicit>
<textLang xml:lLang="grce">Greek</textLang>
</msItem>Each section of the physical description can incorporate more details or structure provided. Here it is an example:
<physDesc>
<objectDesc>
<supportDesc>
<p>...</p>
</supportDesc>
<LayoutDesc>
<p>...</p>
</LayoutDesc>
</objectDesc>
<handDesc>
<handNote>
<p>...</p>
</handNote>
</handDesc>
<typeDesc>
<typeNote>
<p>...</p>
</typeNote>
</typeDesc>
<scriptDesc>
<scriptNote>
<p>...</p>
</scriptNote>
</scriptDesc>
<musicNotation>
<p>...</p>
</musicNotation>
<decoDesc>
<decoNote>
<p>...</p>
</decoNote>
</decoDesc>
<additions>
<p>...</p>
</additions>
<bindingDesc>
<binding>
<p>...</p>
</binding>
</bindingDesc>
<sealDesc>
<seal>
<p>...</p>
</seal>
</sealDesc>
<accMat>
<p>...</p>
</accMat>
</physDesc>An example of the <handDesc>, <typeDesc> and <scriptDesc> is given here:
<handDesc>
<handNote xml:id="handID" medium="inkType" scope="major" scribe="Scribel"
scribeRef="#scribeID" script="scriptName" scriptRef="#scriptl">
<p>One hand note for each identified hand in the manuscript with optional
attributes for a hand id number, the medium of the hand, the scope of its
writing stint, a scribe or reference to more information about one, a script
or reference to one</p>
</handNote>
</handDesc>
<typeDesc>
<typeNote>
<p>If describing a source with printed aspects, an optional typeNote for each
typographic feature</p>
</typeNote>
</typeDesc>
<scriptDesc>
<scriptNote xml:id="scriptl">
<p>Discussion of a particular script in the manuscript, its scriptorium, or
usual use</p>
</scriptNote>
</scriptDesc>The section devoted to the history of the manuscript can be structured as following:
<history>
<summary>
<!-- Summary entry of history of the manuscript -->
</summary>
<origin>
<!-- Information concerning the origin and creation of the manuscript -->
</origin>
<p rovenance>
<!-- Information concerning any single identifiable episode during the history
of the manuscript after its creation but before its acquisition -->
</provenance>
<acquisition>
<!-- Information concerning the acquisition of the manuscript
by the current resource-holding institution -->
</acquisition>
</history>It is important to remember that every element is datable, as in the following example:
<history>
<origin>
Written in the
<origDate calendar="Gregorian" notAfter="1500" notBefore="1400">15th century</origDate>
in <origPlace><country>England</country></origPlace>
</origin>
<provenance>
Previously owned by <persName type="person" role="formerOwner"
ref="http://viaf.org/viaf/73979081"> Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872)</persName>,
MS. 13443* and 13446
</provenance>
<provenance>
Previously owned by <persName type="person" role="formerOwner"
ref="http://viaf.org/viaf/11255508 "> Sir Robert Leicester Harmsworth</persName>
</provenance>
<acquisition>
Harmsworth Trust sale at Sotheby's, <date when="1945-10-16">16 Oct. 1945</date>,
lot 2051, bought by Quaritch for £38.
</acquisition>
</history>Additional metadata, such as information about the sources of the manuscript description, events in its custodial history (such as photography and conservation), digital or print surrogates for the manuscript, and secondary works concerning the manuscript. These may be provided in an <additional> element which contains (optional) <adminInfo>, <surrogates>, and <listBibl> elements.
Manuscript descriptions. Have a look at the resources from e-codices or the Bodleian Libraries, you should recognise the structure of the document. To know more, read the Manuscript Description chapter of the TEI Guidelines.
- ecodices. Explore by yourself or go to this example: website, click on 'Show standard description' and then 'Show XML' to see the TEI source.
- Medieval Manuscripts in Oxford Libraries and corresponding Github repo. Check the About page > Technical details. Explore by yourself or go to this example: website and TEI source.
TEI export in Zotero. Check the Zotero documentation about exchange with the TEI: https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/tei. Create an entry in your Zotero library, export in TEI (check the options you have) and open the generated file in your XML editor. You should be able to recognise the structure of the document. To know more, read the Bibliographic Citations and References section in the TEI Guidelines.
This tutorial extensively reuses materials from:
- Melissa Terras, Edward Vanhoutte, and Ron Van den Branden. TEI by Example. https://teibyexample.org (accessed December 2022)
- Digital Editing of Medieval Texts: A Textbook, ed. by Marjorie Burghart. https://www.digitalmanuscripts.eu/digital-editing-of-medieval-texts-a-textbook/ (accessed December 2022)
See readme.