“King's Seminar in Humanities Computing”
organized by John Lavagnino and Tamara Lopez
@ DDH (Department of Digital Humanities)
King’s college
London, 1 october 2009
Towards a digital edition of a
collection of fifteenth-century
letters
Francesca Tomasi
University of Bologna
http://www.unibo.it/docenti/francesca.tomasi
[email protected]
The corpus
• Manuscript letters in latin and XV century
italian, held in different repositories (archives
and libraries)
• Sent to and received by the Florentine
librarian and copyist Vespasiano da Bisticci
• Arrived under different physical supports (not
an existing collection)
• Written with different hands (different
authors, different writers, different copyists)
Hands and supports
Archival documents
Miscellaneous manuscripts
Dedication codices
Archival documents
Firenze, Archivio di Stato, Mediceo avanti il Principato (1373 –
1557; 165 pezzi; inventario a stampa) filza XVII n. 165,
filza XVII n. 176, filza XII n. 413, filza XXVIII n. 701, filza
XXV n. 377.
Firenze, Archivio di Stato, Carte Strozziane (1336 – 1905; 3497
pezzi; inventario) serie I, filza 253 n. 2; serie III, vol. 145
ff. 86-87v; serie I, vol. 137 ff. 290r-v; serie I, vol. 137 ff.
288-289v.
Firenze, Archivio di Stato, Notarile Antecosimiano (1237-1589;
21489 pezzi; inventario) T. 498 allegato primo e secondo
all’atto del 6 settembre 1479 e allegato all’atto del 14
febbraio 1479.
Forlì, Biblioteca Comunale, Autografi Piancastelli, n. 85 e n. 102.
Miscellaneous codices
Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria, Italiano 1452, ff. 347-349.
Firenze, Biblioteca Nazionale, Magl. VIII, 1390, ff. 102, 102v, 103v, 41v, 47v, 48v.
Roma, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Reg. lat. 1612, 157v-158v.
Roma, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. lat. 326, 26r-v.
Dedication codices
Firenze, Biblioteca Nazionale,
Ms. Naz. II.XI.34, ff. 1-10v.
Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea
Laurenziana. Plut. 90 sup.
30, ff. 1-29v.
The content
The letters’ content
• Vespasiano da Bisticci was a librarian but also the
leader of a school of copyists maker of some
manuscript fonds in European libraries.
• The correspondence is with notable people of that
period (humanists, princes, dukes).
• The content regards mostly manuscripts’ trade:
copied, proposed, requested codices.
• A lot of the manuscripts copied by the school had been
identified.
• From the letters we can learn about features of these
manuscripts: materials, copyists, costs, but also names
of latin, greek and humanistic authors and texts.
The printed edition
• Progressive number (ID)
• Para textual information extracted
form the letters (or conjectured)
• Information about the repository
(institution, idno and leaves)
• Other editors (if existing)
• Text in interpretative transcription
• A rich commentary about:
• people
• places
• codices
• events
• lexicon
The digital edition
• XML/TEI (P5) and digital images of the sources
• Markup/encoding model:
– Document transcription (diplomatic point of view)
• and
Respect to the
original text version.
All the information
regarding the
normalization
had been solved
with the markup
– Manuscripts’ transcription that is primary source
representation
– Letters’ structure and formulae
– Letters’ content: different access points to the content and from
the content
– Supports’ description (archival documents and codices)
– Metadata of the edition (single letters and corpus)
Primary source representation
Phenomena
•
Normalization/regularization (like capitalization, scriptio continua, interpunction)
•
•
•
•
•
•
Abbreviations (<abbr>, <am> <g>)
Additions and deletions (<add>, <del>)
Corrections and conjectures (<choice>, <sic>, <corr>)
Gap and Damages (<gap>, <damage>, <unclear>, <supplied>)
Hands (<hand>, <handshift>)
Illuminations and rubrications (<hi>, <rubric>)
(<choice>, <orig>, <reg>)
Markup finalized to
present, with
different XSLT
documents, either
diplomatic,
interpretative and
critical edition.
Structure and content
Letters
structure and
content
PARATEXTUAL
INFORMATION
3
VESPASIANO
A
FILIPPO PODOCATARO
Firenze,
9 dicembre 1448
Firenze,
Bibl. Naz.,
Magl. VIII, 1390,
f. 102v
<letDesc type=”manuscript” xml:id=”MaglVIII1390”>
<letIdentifier>
<idno>Magl VIII 1390</idno>
<extent>f. 102v</extent>
</letIdentifier>
<letHeading>
<author attested=”yes”>Vespasiano da Bisticci</author>
<addressee attested=”yes”>Filippo Podocataro</addressee>
<placeLet attested=”no”>Firenze</placeLet>
<dateLet attested=”yes”>9 dicembre 1448</dateLet>
</letHeading>
<letBibl>
<bibl xml:id=”Frati_1”>Frati, pp. 335-336</bibl>
<bibl xml:id=”Cagni_1”> Cagni (1969), p. 117</bibl>
</letBibl>
</letDesc>
Names, codices, lexicon
Names
(persons and places)
• Normalize the entry (forename and surname)
• Relation between proper names and variant forms
(periphrasis; synonims)
• Recognized (yes/no)
• Present in repertories (which)
• Biography / Description
– Created
– Present in other repertories
• Role (possible connection with codices…)
• Relationships between people
– and
• between people and places
Persname and Placename
<person xml:id=”value_of_URI”>
Raccomandami a
<persname ref=”#Pi1”>Piero</persname> et a
<persname ref=”#Do1”>Donato</persname> et
alla brighata di casa, et a messer
<persname ref=”#GA1”>Giovanni
Argiropolo</persname> et a tutta
l’Accademia.
<dateline>
Datum in <placename ref=”#RCTG1”> Regijs
Castris apud Turres
Garigliani</placename>
</dateline>
<persname ref=”#ADC1”>Alfonso duca di
Calabria</persname>
[...]
Quanto alla parte dello Illustrissimo
<rs type=”person” ref=”#ADC1”>nostro
Primogenito</rs>, havemo gran piacere
habia satisfacto alli animi de quisti
excelsi Signori et homini de questa
<rs type=”place” ref=”#Po1”>cità</rs>, et
molto li restamo obligati dello honore
che per quelli lì hè stato facto allo
prefato
<rs type=”person” ref=”#ADC1”>Duca</rs>
Person and places (for an authority list):
Italian/latin
Surname/forename
Proper name/periphrasis
Periphrasis sometimes recognized
Role
Description
Relationships between people
Relationships between one person and
one place
How to create an external
knowledge base
starting from the
annotated text
A lot of standards….
Vocabulary: TEI,
Languages: RDF, OWL, TM,
Models: CIDOC, FRSAR
Codices
• Normalize author and title (authority list for latin,
greek and humanistic author and title)
• If identified in one library individuate the
shelfmark like starting point, in order to:
• Create relationships with other repertories:
– Link to the codicological description
– Link to the digital images
• Relationships between codices and persons who
possessed them (person
xml:id=”value_of_URI”>)
Bibl
<ptr target=”value_of_URI”/>
[lettera 9]
<bibl type=”ms”> <ptr target=”#PV”/><title>Vite</title> di
<author>Plutarco</author> </bibl>
URI
Author, Title: Plutarco, Vite
Shelfmark: Laur Plut. 65, 26-27
Owner: Piero de’ Medici
Stored in: BNCF (Library of Florence)
Codicological description: MANUS repository
Digital images: Digital Scriptorium
Full-text: TLG
[lettera 16]
<bibl type=”ms”> <ptr target=”#TLpD”/><title>prima Deca</title></bibl>
[lettera 18]
<bibl type=”ms”> <ptr target=”#PST”/><author>Prinio</author></bibl>
Normalize Form (author, title)
Normalize Name of the authors
Normalize Title by associating it to the author
How to establish
relationships
between the annotated text and other repertories?
And between codices and persons who possessed them?
Technical lexicon
• Definition
– Created
– Extracted from somewere
• Tipology: writing, binding, illumination, format,
support
• Relationships between terms (thesaurus)
– and
• Relationships with other repertories
• Connection between codices and lexicon used in
order to describe them
Term
[lettera 2]
<term type=”writing”> <ptr target=”#Lex2-1”/>
ad fragmenta</term>
[lettera 3]
<term type=”writing”> <ptr target=”#Lex3-2”/>
fusa scriptura</term>
[lettera 5]
<term type=”support”> <ptr target=”#Lex5-1”/>
in papiro</term>
[lettera 9]
<term type=”binding”> <ptr target=”#Lex9-2”/>
coperte</term> o di nero o di morello
[lettera 10]
<term type=”binding”> <ptr target=”#Lex10-2”/>
leghatelo</term> in carte
[lettera 16]
<term type=”binding”> <ptr target=”#Lex16-4”/>
chordovani</term>
[lettera 17]
<term type=”illumination”> <ptr target=”#Lex17-2”/>
miniare</term>
@type:
writing, binding, illumination,
format, support
Link to definitions
Connection with CODICES
Knowledge base of terms?