Datamodels for describing palimpsests

Palimpsests are complex manuscripts that pose several accessibility challanges to scholars. However, they are also crucial artifacts for expanding our knowledge of ancient texts. Describing accurately and in an standardized way their structure is a key step for progressing the study of these manuscripts. In this repository we aim to share a data model that we built during AntCom European project, for describing palimpsests using standard guidelines and formats.

TEI datamodel

We chose to use the standard produced by the Text Ecoding Initiative (TEI) because it is the de facto standard for describing manuscripts. The reference TEI files are contained in the tei-xml folder of this repository.

File name	Shelfmark	Status
CPVRm0120_0.tei.xml	CXX(110)	Reference prototype.
CPVRm0134_0.tei.xml	CXXXIV (123)	Reference prototype.
CPVRm0040_0.tei.xml	XL (38)	To be reviewed.
CPVRm0062_0.tei.xml	LXII (60)	To be reviewed.

The structure

For each codicological unit we create a <msPart>. To describe if it belongs to the scriptio superior or the scriptio inferior we use the attribute type with the respective value (scriptio_superior or scriptio_inferior).

<msPart n="1" type="scriptio_superior">...</msPart>
<msPart n="2" type="scriptio_inferior">...</msPart>
<msPart n="3" type="scriptio_inferior">...</msPart>

Inside <msPart> we have:

<msIdentifier>
   <idno>CPVRm0134_0A</idno>
   <msName xml:lang="el">Παρακλητική</msName>
   <msName xml:lang="en">Paracletica</msName>
</msIdentifier>
<msContents>
   <summary>Ioseph the Hymnographos' New Octoechos. The grave, plagal of the second and fourth tones (βαρύς, πλάγιος α΄, πλάγιος δ΄) survive, along with fragments of the third and plagal of the first tones (β΄, πλάγιος α΄).</summary>
   <textLang mainLang="grc">Ancient Greek (to 1453)</textLang>
   <msItem>
      <locus from="1r" to="79v">ff. 1-79</locus>
      <author xml:lang="en" ref="https://www.degruyterbrill.com/database/PMBZ/entry/PMBZ14598/html">Ioseph Hymnographos</author>
      <title xml:lang="el">Νέα Ὀκτάηχος</title>
      <title xml:lang="it">Nuovo Ottoeco</title>
   </msItem>
</msContents>

In cases of a non sequential or fragmented text, we use a parent msItem element that contains the overall loci of the described codicological unit and the children msItem.

<msItem>
   <locusGrp>
      <locus from="6r" to="61v">ff. 6-61</locus>
      <locus from="68r" to="69v">68-69</locus>
      <locus from="71r" to="74r">71-74</locus>
      <locus from="76r" to="78v">76-78</locus>
   </locusGrp>
   <title type="desc">Menology of December</title>
   <msItem>
      <locus from="78r" to="78v">f. 78</locus>
      <title xml:lang="el">[ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΩΝ ΑΓΙΩΝ ΤΟΥ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΩΝ ΑΚΕΨΙΜΑ, ΙΩΣΗΦ ΚΑΙ ΑΕΙΘΑΛΑ]</title>
   </msItem>
   ...
   <msItem>
      <locusGrp>
         <locus from="24r" to="24v">ff. 24</locus>
         <locus from="27r" to="27v">27</locus>
         <locus from="30r" to="30v">30</locus>
      </locusGrp>
      <title xml:lang="el">[ΜΑΡΤΥΡΙΟΝ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΒΟΝΙΦΑΤΙΟΥ]</title>
   </msItem>
</msItem>