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Transcribing incipits and explicits in TEI-XML Dr Takako Kato De Montfort University Takako Kato.
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Transcribing incipits and explicits in TEI-XML Dr Takako Kato De Montfort University Takako Kato
The story of the decay and decline of Old English and the eventual re-emergence of Middle English, set to conquer the world, is one of our great national myths. An essential component of this myth was the view that Old English literary activity in the twelfth century was merely a fossilised and archaic throwback, a linguistic chicken continuing to twitch after its head had been cut off in 1066. Andrew Prescott ‘Talking Together: Reflecting on The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060-1220’
Aim: Deliver fundamental challenges to the national myth. Objectives: Identified, analysed & evaluated all mss containing English texts between 1060 & 1220. Produced an analytical electronic corpus of material. 5-year, AHRC-funded Universities of Leicester and Leeds May 2005- Nov 2010 PI: Elaine Treharne Directors: Mary Swan, Jo Story, Orietta Da Rold I have been involved since Jan 2008 (the second RA)
Success of the EM Project 1. Research: reappraised the importance of post-Conquest English • Identified 205 manuscripts • Homilies, annotations, laws, sermons, saints’ lives, land charters, medical recipes, prayers, etc. • Geographically: Exeter, Worcester, London, Canterbury, Durham, Bath, etc. • English was used together with Latin and French. • Output: • The website (http://www.le.ac.uk/english/em1060to1220/) • 23 articles • 23 academic papers at international conferences • Special Issue on Producing and Using English Manuscripts in the Post-Conquest Period, New Medieval Literature, 13 (2012) 2. Scholarly network; nurturing the next generation
The challenges the EM Project presented New discoveries: increase of workload (128 => 205 mss) Image reproduction Longevity and sustainability of digital resources AHDS (Arts and Humanities Data Service) discontinued AHRC requires a technical APPENDIX
The challenges the EM Project presented the technical APPENDIX • PIs outsource the technical appendix. • Technical reviewers of the AHRC comment on the technical feasibility of the proposal. • How to define DH as a discipline? • 1. New recommendations: • The Technical Plan (not the Appendix) must be integrated with the research plan • Technical reviews of the AHRC should consider the technical plan’s relationship to the proposal. • A Review of the AHRC Technical Appendix and Recommendations for a Technical Plan (http://digital.humanities.ox.ac.uk/Support/technicalappendix_final3.pdf, Oct 10). • 2. Centres of DH; • 3. King’s: from Centre to Department
The challenges the EM Project presented the technical APPENDIX EM Project’s research plan: Year 1: Website goes live. It will be updated regularly throughout the duration of the project. Year 5: RA finishes the Catalogue ... , it will be launched on website. building the website • Relational Database • Machine Readable Catalogue • Extensive Mark-up Language • Text Encoding Initiative • vs
The challenges the EM Project presented building the website Digital Humanities is about building things. I’m willing to entertain highly expansive definitions of what it means to build something. … – but if you aren’t building, you are not engaged in the “methodologization” of the humanities … Stephen Ramsay, ‘Who’s In and Who’s Out’ (http://lenz.unl.edu/papers/2011/01/08/whos-in-and-whos-out.html) • Theoretical work: methodology and terminology, both in DH and MS studies • Trial database => limitations for a document-centric project • Working with the TEI => shaping of the guidelines for the ms description • Networks with DH projects • Palaeography: terminologies for description the scripts
The challenges the EM Project presented building the website • Flexible approach • Detailed case studies • Standard descriptions • Summary descriptions • transcribing • the incipits & explicits • XML is extendable • Standard descriptions • Summary descriptions • Indices • Chronology|Texts|Origin|Scribes|French|Places|Names • Implementation of sophisticated search facilities • Collaboration, communication, and networking UsingvsBuilding
EM Project is cited in: Blanton, Virginia, and Helene Scheck eds, Intertexts: Studies in Anglo-Saxon culture presented to Paul E. Szarmach (Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2008) Conti, Aidan, ‘Revising Wulfstan's Antichrist in the Twelfth Century: A Study in Medieval Textual Re-appropriation’, Literature Compass, 4.3 (2007), 638–63 Faulkner, Mark, ‘Rewriting English Literary History 1042–1215’, Literature Compass, 9.4 (2012), 275–91 Marsden, Richard, ed., The Old English Heptateuch: and Ælfric'sLibellus de VeteriTestamento et Novo, EETS (Oxford University Press, 2008) Wogan-Brown, Jocelyn, ed., Language and Culture in Medieval Britain: THE FRENCH OF ENGLAND c.1100–c.1500 (York Medieval Press, 2009)
The new myth: • Even after the Norman Conquest, English was still in continuous use. As many as 205 manuscripts with English survived from the period between 1060 and 1220.