Epigraphical encoding, from
the Stone to Digital Edition
Marion Lamé
University of Bologna (Italy)
University of Provence (France)
http://sites.univ-provence.fr/ccj/spip.php?article65
http://wiki.digitalclassicist.org/Epigraphie_en_reseau
What is epigraphy?
Definition from Wikipedia.
• Epigraphy (from the Greek: ἐπιγραφή,
epigraphē, "inscription") is the study of
inscriptions engraved into stone or other
durable materials, or cast in metal, the
science of classifying them as to cultural
context and date, elucidating them and
assessing what conclusions can be
deduced from them. A person studying this
is called an epigrapher or epigraphist.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigraphy)
Puzzle and broken stones
AE 2005, 1662
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sebastiagiralt/1818057586/
Proposition of restitution: Dibus Lepcis Magnae / M(arcus) Vipsanius Clemens
redem(p)tor / marmorarius templi Liberi / Patris d(e) s(ua) p(ecunia) v(otum) s(olvit)
sub cura / Q(uinti) Servili Candidi amatoris patriae / amatoris civium ornatori[s
patriae] / flaminis divi Vespas[iani
Personality …
Funerary stele of Agrippina the Elder, 14 B. C. - 33 A. D.,
wife of Germanicus and mother of Emperor Caligula.
CIL, VI, 886
http://www.flickr.com/photos/julio-claudians/2899798881/
Very simple …
One word on a cup. It means: «sweet to drink»
Central Greece (IG VII-IX) : Phokis, Lokris, Aitolia,
Akarnania, and Ionian Islands (IG IX,1) IG IX,1 265.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dandiffendale/2343583129/in/po
ol-562831@N24/
Graffiti…
Puteolanis feliciter
omnibus Nucerinis
felicia et uncu(m) Pompeianis,
Petecusanis.
(CIL IV 2183)
Amphitheatre of Pompei. First century A. D., sweet message
maybe written by supporters.
English translation: "Viva the Puteolians and Nucherians!
Pompeians and Pithecusans: go hang!“
Italian translation: “Evviva gli abitanti di Pozzuoli!!!
Felicità a quelli di Nocera!!
a Pompeiani ed abitanti di Petecusa si augura un uncino!”
• hundreds of thousands of inscriptions
collected up to now
• Published in huge corpora (Corpus
Inscriptionum Latinarum, Inscriptiones
Graecae)
RGDA: Res Gestae Divi Augusti, political
testament of Agustus from the first century A. D.
Editions: from Th. Mommsen (1883)
to J. Scheid (2007
• Rérum gestárum díví Augusti, quibus orbem
terra[rum] ímperio populi Rom. subiécit, § et
inpensarum, quas in rem publicam populumque
Ro[ma]num fecit, incísarum in duabus aheneís
pílís, quae su[n]t Romae positae, exemplar
sub[i]ectum.
• <lb/>Rérum gestárum díví Augusti, quibus
orbem terra<supplied
resp="Mommsen">rum</supplied>ímperio
populi <abbr type="altro"
expan="Romani">Rom.</abbr>
Encoding
• "métasource" by the medievalist historian
J.-Ph. Genet: "a set of structured
information, modeled, passed on to the
computer and processed by it" (ensemble
structuré des informations mises en
formes, transmises à l'ordinateur et
traitées par lui.)
• The mere representation of books in a digital form is a
reduced expression of the computer's capacity.
• This mere representation makes impossible to highlight
the essential complementarities of digital and paper
tools.
• As M. R. Laganà, M. Righi, F. et F. Romani say: "A
computer is not just a toy for performing monkeys, it is a
tool. It is to help us work and think“. (È infatti importante
non fare del computer un giocattolo per "scimmie
ammaestrate", ma uno strumento di pensiero e di
crescita).
• The main differences that characterize the digital representation can
be grouped into four sections:
• 1- amount of data
• 2- primordial role of structuring data (through links for example): So
Boonstra, Breure and Doorn write: "Creating structure and linking
the structured text to semantic models (eg, authority lists of
persons, places etc.) are essential for historical data processing,
however, it is desirable to automate this process to a large extent.";
• 3- data processing. A paper tool cannot apply a process to its
content.
• 4- updating the data becomes possible to correct the errors and
increase the amount of data, with completeness of a type of
document as an ideal.
Encoding historical information
• Francesca Tomasi explains: "The problem is
how to represent information in a form that allow
an adequate and functional process."
• "When you want to create collections, in
electronic form, and then put in relations among
them several documents (…), then you
must think about how to enable these
relationships." (Quando si vogliono creare delle
collezioni, su supporto elettronico, e quindi
mettere in relazioni fra di loro documenti diversi
(…)allora è necessario ragionare sulle modalità
che consentono tale correlazione.).
• link between them all ancient documents
that have this person in common: Gaius
Vibius Pansa Caetronianus (colleague of
Aulus Hirtius for the consulate of 43 A. D).
and not all the «Pansa» of the classical
world or the strings of character p-a-n-s-a.
• To identify in an information system these
historical features, we need: «historical
encoding».
• To some extent, codification is interpretation, as
it removes ambiguities, makes explicit what is
implicit, associates what may be similar or
correlated
• the case of Lepidus: Augustus refuses to name
in the chapter X of the RGDA: " Pontifex
maximus ne fierem in víví conlegae locum ".
• How could a computer could find this passage
about Lepidus if it is not explicitly identified in the
system through encoding?
• SGML family (Standard Generalized
Markup Language), its subset XML
(eXtensible Mark-up Language).
• TEI Encoding, and the part of it dedicated
to epigraphy: EpiDoc.
• Boonstra, Breure and Doorn write: "(...)
the core question seems to be: how can
we create structure in historical material in
a way that is (...) appropriate to the
source's complexity."
• . It would be desirable to interpret and
encode a number of historical data in
order to apply a process on them.
• A historical encoding represents digitally
networks of primary documents linked
together by historical information.
• Nicole Dufournaud and Jean-Daniel Fekete :
«One of the essential profits is (...) the passage
from the mode "production of document" [thesis,
article, monograph, corpus] to the mode
"process of production of knowledge "» ("un des
bénéfices essentiels (...) est le passage
du mode "production de document" [thesis,
article, monograph, corpus] vers le mode
"processus de production de connaissances").
Bibliography (1/2)
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Bocchi, F., Denley, P. (a cura di). 1994. Storia & multimedia: Atti del settimo
congresso Internazionale Association for History & Computing. Bologna: Grafis.
Bodard, G. 2008. The Inscriptions of Aphrodisias as electronic publication: A user's
perspective and a proposed paradigm. In Digital Medievalist. 4.
http://digitalmedievalist.org/journal/4/bodard/
Boonstra, O., Breure, L., Doorn, P. 2004. Past, present and future of historical
information science. Amsterdam: NIWI-KNAW.
Borillo, M. 1984. Informatique pour les sciences de l'homme: limites de la
formalisation du raisonnement. Bruxelles: Pierre Mardaga.
Dufournaud, N., Fekete, J.-D. 2006. Comparaison d'outils pour la visualisation de
sources historiques codées en XML / TEI. In Document numérique. 9, n°2. pp. 37-56.
Elliott, T. 2000-2008. The EpiDoc Collaborative for Epigraphic Documents in TEI
XML. http://epidoc.sourceforge.net/
Gardin, J.-C. 1974. Les analyses de discours. Neuchâtel: Delachaux et Niestlé.
Gardin, J.-C. 1991. Le calcul et la raison: essais sur la formalisation du discours
savant. Paris: École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.
Genet, J.-P. 1994. Source, métasource, texte, histoire. In Bocchi, Denley. 1994. pp.
3-17.
Bibliography (2/2)
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Laganà, M. R., Righi, M., Francesco, R. 2007. Informatica: Concetti e
sperimentazioni. 2a ed. Milano: Apogeo.
Lamé, M. 2006. Critères d’évaluation des documents écrits primaires des sciences
de l’Antiquité sur le Web: l’exemple des Res Gestae Divi Augusti. Aix-en-Provence:
Université de Provence. Mémoire de Master recherche " Sciences historiques et
humanités ", Spécialité " Histoire des Mondes méditerranéens, européens et africains
". Dir. : Brigitte Sabattini (Aix-en-Provence), Carla Salvaterra (Bologne).
Lamé, M. 2008. Codificare le inscrizioni antiche: l'esempio delle Res Gestae Divi
Augusti. Venise: Università Ca' Foscari. Tesi di Laurea Specialistica di Informatica per
le Discipline Umanistiche. Relatrice: Prof. Giovanella Cresci-Marrone, co-relatore:
Prof. Fabio Ciotti.
* Mommsen, T. 1883. Res gestae Divi Augusti ex monumentis Ancyrano et
Apolloniensi. Berolini : Weidmannos.
Orlandi, T. 1993. Sulla codifica delle fonti archeologiche. In Archeologia e Calcolatori.
vol. 4. pp. 27-39. http://rmcisadu.let.uniroma1.it/~orlandi/pubbli/archeo.html
* Scheid, J. 2007. Res Gestae Divi Augusti: hauts faits du divin Auguste. Paris: Belles
Lettres.
Tomasi, F. 2008. Metodologie informatiche e discipline umanistiche. Roma: Carocci.