TEI P5: Guidelines for Electronic Text Encoding and Interchange: 11 Representation of Primary Sources

11 Representation of Primary Sources

Table of contents

This chapter defines a module intended for use in the representation of primary sources, such as manuscripts or other written materials. Section 11.1 Digital Facsimiles provides elements for the encoding of digital facsimiles or images of such materials, while the remainder of the chapter discusses ways of encoding detailed transcriptions of such materials. It is expected that this module will also be useful in the preparation of critical editions, but the module defined here is distinct from that defined in chapter 12 Critical Apparatus, and may be used independently of it. Detailed metadata relating to primary sources of any kind may be recorded using the elements defined by the manuscript description module discussed in chapter 10 Manuscript Description, but again the present module may be used independently if such data is not required.

It should be noted that, as elsewhere in these Guidelines, this chapter places more emphasis on the problems of representing the textual components of a document than on those relating to the description of the document's physical characteristics such as the carrier medium or physical construction. These aspects, of particular importance in codicology and the bibliographic study of incunables, are touched on in the chapter on Manuscript Description (10 Manuscript Description) and also form the subject of ongoing work in the TEI Physical Bibliography workgroup.

Although this chapter discusses manuscript materials more frequently than other forms of written text, most of the recommendations presented are equally applicable mutatis mutandis in the encoding of printed matter or indeed any form of written source, including monumental inscriptions. Similarly, where in the following descriptions terms such as ‘scribe’, ‘author’, ‘editor’, ‘annotator’ or ‘corrector’ are used, these may be re-interpreted in terms more appropriate to the medium being transcribed. In printed material, for example, the ‘compositor’ plays a role analogous to the ‘scribe’, while in an authorial manuscript, the author and the scribe are the same person.

11.1 Digital FacsimilesTEI: Digital Facsimiles¶

These Guidelines are mostly concerned with the preparation of digital texts, in which a pre-existing text is transcribed or otherwise converted into character form, and marked up in XML. However, it is also very common practice to make a different form of ‘digital text’, which is instead composed of digital images of the original source, typically one per page, or other written surface. We call such a resource a digital facsimile. A digital facsimile may, in the simplest case, just consist of a collection of images, with some metadata to identify them and the source materials portrayed. It may sometimes contain a variety of images of the same source pages, for example of different resolutions, or of different kinds. Such a collection may form part of any kind of document, for example a commentary of a codicological or paeleographic nature, where there is a need to align explanatory text with image data. And it may also be complemented by a transcribed or encoded version of the original source, which may be linked to the page images. In this section we present elements designed to support these various possibilities and discuss the associated mechanisms provided by these Guidelines.

When this module is included in a schema, the class att.global is extended to include a new pointer attribute facs:

att.global.facs groups elements corresponding with all or part of an image, because they contain an alternative representation of it, typically but not necessarily a transcription of it.
facs (facsimile) points to all or part of an image which corresponds with the content of the element.

This attribute may be used to associate any element in a transcribed text with an image of it, by means of the usual URI pointing mechanism.

If a digital text contains one image per page or column (or similar unit), and no more complex mapping between text and image is envisaged, then the facs attribute may be used to point directly to a graphic resource:

By convention, this encoding indicates that the image indicated by facs attribute represents the whole of the text following the pb (pagebreak) element, up to the next pb element. Any convenient milestone element (see further 3.10.3 Milestone Elements) could be used in the same way; for example if the images represent individual columns, the cb element might be used. Though simple, this method has some drawbacks. It does not scale well to more complex cases where, for example, the images do not correspond exactly with transcribed pages, or where the intention is to align specific marked up elements with detailed images, or parts of images. And it makes the management of the information about the images more difficult by scattering references to them through the file. Nevertheless, this solution may be adequate for many straightforward ‘digital library’ applications.

The recommended approach to encoding facsimiles is instead to use the facs attribute in conjunction with the elements facsimile, surface, and zone, which are also provided by this module. These elements make it possible to accommodate multiple images of each page, as well as to record arbitrary planar coordinates of textual elements on any kind of written surface and to link such elements with digital facsimile images of them. Typical applications include the provision of full text search in ‘digital facsimile editions’, and ways of annotating graphics, for example so as to identify individuals appearing in a group portraits and link them to data about the person represented.

The following elements are used to represent components of a digital facsimile:

facsimile contains a representation of some written source in the form of a set of images rather than as transcribed or encoded text.
surface defines a written surface in terms of a rectangular coordinate space, optionally grouping one or more graphic representations of that space, and rectangular zones of interest within it.
start points to an element which encodes the starting position of the text corresponding to the inscribed part of the surface.
zone defines a rectangular area contained within a surface element.

The facsimile element is used to represent a digital facsimile. It appears within a TEI document along with, or instead of, the text element introduced in section 4 Default Text Structure. When this module is selected therefore, a legal TEI document may thus comprise any of the following:-

a TEI Header and a text element
a TEI Header and a facsimile element
a TEI Header, a facsimile element, and a text element

Like the text element, a facsimile element may also contain an optional front or back element, used in the same way as described in sections 4.5 Front Matter and 4.7 Back Matter.

In the simplest case, a facsimile just contains a series of graphic elements, each of which identifies an image file:

If desired, the binaryObject element described in 3.9 Graphics and other non-textual components (or any other element from the model.graphicLike class) can be used instead of a graphic.

In this simple case, the four page images are understood to represent the complete facsimile, and are to be read in the sequence given. Suppose, however, that the second page of this particular work is available both as an ordinary photograph and as an infra-red image, or in two different resolutions. The surface element may be used to indicate that there are two image files corresponding with the same area of the work:

The surface element provides a way of indicating that the two images of page2 represent the same physical surface within the source material. A surface might be a sheet of paper or parchment, a face of a monument, a billboard, a membrane of a scroll, or indeed any two-dimensional surface, of any size.

The actual dimensions of the object represented are not documented by the surface element; instead, the surface is located within an abstract coordinate space, which is defined by the following attributes, supplied by the att.coordinated class:

att.coordinated elements which can be positioned within a two dimensional coordinate system.

ulx	gives the x coordinate value for the upper left corner of a rectangular space.
uly	gives the y coordinate value for the upper left corner of a rectangular space.
lrx	gives the x coordinate value for the lower right corner of a rectangular space.
lry	gives the y coordinate value for the lower right corner of a rectangular space.

The same coordinate space is used for a surface and for all of its child elements.³⁴ It may be most convenient to derive a coordinate space from a digital image of the surface in question such that each pixel in the image corresponds with a whole number of units (typically 1) in the coordinate space. In other cases it may be more convenient to use units such as millimetres; in neither case is any specific mapping to the physical dimensions of the object represented implied.

Each surface can contain one or more zone elements, each of which represents a rectangular region or bounding box defined in terms of the same coordinate space as that of its parent surface element. This provides a unit of analysis which may be used to define any rectangular region of interest, such as a detail or illustration, or some part of the surface which is to be aligned with a particular text element. The att.coordinated attributes listed above are also used to supply the coordinates of a zone.

As we have seen, a surface will usually correspond with the whole of a written surface. A zone, by contrast, defines any arbitrary rectangular area of interest using the same coordinate system. It might be bigger or smaller than its parent surface, or might overlap its boundaries. The only constraint is that it must be defined using the same coordinate system.

When an image of some kind is supplied within either a zone or a surface, the implication is that the whole of the image represents the zone or surface containing it. In the simple case therefore, we might imagine a surface defining a page, within which there is a graphic representing the whole of that page, and a number of zones defining parts of the page, each with its own graphic, each representing a part of the page. If however one of those graphics actually represents an area larger than the page (for example to include a binding or the surface of a desk on which the page rests), then it will be enclosed by a zone with coordinates larger than those of the parent surface.

Note that this mechanism does not provide any way of addressing a non-rectangular area, nor of coping with distortions introduced by perspective or parallax; if this is needed, the more powerful mechanisms provided by the Standard Vector Graphics (SVG) language should be used to define an overlay, as further discussed in 16.4.3 A Three-way Alignment.

For example, consider the following figure:

Figure 2. Relation between page, surface, and zone

This is an image of a two page spread from a manuscript in the Badische Landesbibliothek, Karlsruhe. We have no information as to the dimensions of the original object, but the low resolution image displayed here contains 500 pixels horizontally and 321 pixels vertically. For convenience, we might map each pixel to one cell of the coordinate space.³⁵

The coordinates of the surface (that is, the area of the image which represents the written two page spread) can then be specified in terms of this coordinate space, simply by counting pixels in the image. The left corner of the two page spread appears 50 units from the left of the image and 20 units from the top, while the bottom right corner of the spread appears 400 units from the left of the image, and 280 units from the top. We therefore define the written surface within this image as follows:

To describe the whole image, we will also need to define a zone of interest which represents an area larger than this surface. Using the same coordinate system as that defined for the surface, its coordinates are 0,0,500,321. This zone of interest can be defined by a zone element, within which we can place the uncropped graphic:

If desired, the binaryObject element described in 3.9 Graphics and other non-textual components (or any other element from the model.graphicLike class) may be used instead of a graphic element.

The desc element may also be used within either surface or zone to provide some further information about the area being defined. For example, since the image in this example contains two pages, it might be preferable to define two distinct surfaces, one for each page, including its illuminated margins. In this case, each surface must specify a bounding box which encloses the appropriate page, as well as defining the zone for the graphic itself:

<facsimile>
<surface
   ulx="50"
   uly="20"
   lrx="210"
   lry="280">
  <desc>left hand page</desc>
  <zone
    ulx="0"
    uly="0"
    lrx="500"
    lry="321">
   <graphic
     url="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Handschrift.karlsruhe.blb.jpg"/>
  </zone>
</surface>
<surface
   ulx="240"
   uly="25"
   lrx="400"
   lry="280">
  <desc>right hand page</desc>
  <zone
    ulx="0"
    uly="0"
    lrx="500"
    lry="321">
   <graphic
     url="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Handschrift.karlsruhe.blb.jpg"/>
  </zone>
</surface>
</facsimile>

In addition to acting as a container for graphic elements, zone elements may also be used to select parts of each surface for analytical purposes. For example, to define the written part of the left hand page:

<facsimile>
<surface
   ulx="50"
   uly="20"
   lrx="210"
   lry="280">
  <desc>Left hand page</desc>
  <zone
    ulx="0"
    uly="0"
    lrx="500"
    lry="321">
   <graphic
     url="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Handschrift.karlsruhe.blb.jpg"/>
  </zone>
  <zone
    ulx="90"
    uly="40"
    lrx="200"
    lry="225">
   <desc>Written part of left hand page</desc>
  </zone>
</surface>
</facsimile>

In the following example, we discuss a hypothetical digital edition of an early 16th century French work, Charles de Bovelles' Géometrie Pratique.³⁶ In this edition, each page has been digitized as a separate file: for example, recto page 49 is stored in a file called Bovelles-49r.png. In the facsimile element used to contain the whole set of pages, we define a surface element for this page, which we situate within a coordinate scale running from 0 to 200 in the x (horizontal) axis, and 0 to 300 in the y (vertical) axis. The surface element contains a graphic element which represents the whole of this surface:

We can now identify distinct zones within the page image using the coordinate scale defined for the surface. In Figure 3, Zones within a surface we show the upper part of the page, with boxes indicating four such zones. Each of these will be represented by a zone element, given within the surface element already defined, and specified in terms of the same coordinate system.

Figure 3. Zones within a surface

The following encoding defines each of the four zones identified in the figure.

<facsimile>
<surface
   ulx="0"
   uly="0"
   lrx="200"
   lry="300">
  <graphic url="Bovelles-49r.png"/>
  <zone
    ulx="25"
    uly="25"
    lrx="180"
    lry="60">
   <desc>contains the title</desc>
  </zone>
  <zone
    ulx="28"
    uly="75"
    lrx="175"
    lry="178"/>

  <zone
    ulx="105"
    uly="76"
    lrx="175"
    lry="160"/>

  <zone
    ulx="45"
    uly="125"
    lrx="60"
    lry="130"/>

</surface>
</facsimile>

Note that the location of each zone is defined independently but using the same coordinate system, so that they may overlap freely. Zones need not nest within each other; they must however be rectangular, as previously noted. As noted earlier, a zone may fall outside the area of the surface which defines its coordinate space.

In this example a single graphic element has been associated directly with the surface of the page rather than nesting it within a zone. However, it is also possible to include multiple zone elements which contain a graphic element, if for example a detailed image is available. Since all zone elements use the same coordinate system (that defined by their parent surface), there is no need to demonstrate enclosure of one zone within another by means of nesting. To continue the current example, supposing that we have an additional image called Bovelles49r-detail.png containing an additional image of the figure in the third zone above, we might encode that zone as follows:

Now suppose that we wish to align a transcription of this page with the zones identified above. The first step is to give each relevant part of the facsimile an identifier:

The alignment between transcription and image is made, as usual, by means of the facs attribute:

<pb facs="#B49r"/>
<fw>De Geometrie 49</fw>
<head facs="#B49rHead">DU SON ET ACCORD DES CLOCHES ET <lb/> des alleures des chevaulx,
chariotz & charges, des fontaines:& <lb/> encyclie du monde,
& de la dimension du corps humain.</head>
<head>Chapitre septiesme</head>
<div n="1">
<p>Le son & accord des cloches pendans en ung mesme <lb/> axe, est
   faict en contraires parties.</p>
<p rend="it" facs="#B49rPara2">LEs cloches ont quasi fi<lb/>gures de rondes
   pyra<lb/>mides imperfaictes & <lb/> irregulieres: & leur
   accord se <lb/> fait par reigle geometrique. Com<lb/>me si les deux
   cloches C & D <lb/> sont <w facs="#B49rW457">pendans</w> à ung
   mesme axe <lb/> ou essieu A B: je dis que leur ac<lb/>cord se fera en
   co<ex>n</ex>traires parties<lb/> co<ex>m</ex>me voyez icy
   figuré. Car qua<ex>n</ex>d <lb/> lune sera en hault, laultre
   declinera embas. Aultrement si elles decli<lb/>nent toutes deux
   ensembles en une mesme partie, elles seront discord, <lb/> & sera
   leur sonnerie mal plaisante à oyr.<figure facs="#B49rFig1">
   <graphic url="Bovelles49r-detail.png"/>
  </figure>
</p>
</div>

Further discussion of the encoding choices made in the above transcription is provided in the remainder of this chapter.

It is also possible to point in the other direction, from a surface or zone to the corresponding text. This is the function of the start attribute, which supplies the identifier of the element containing the transcribed text found within the surface or zone concerned. Thus, another way of linking this page with its transcription would be simply

<facsimile>
<surface start="#PB49R">
<graphic url="Bovelles-49r.png"/>
</surface>
</facsimile>
<text>

<pb xml:id="PB49R"/>
<fw>De Geometrie 49</fw>

</text>

11.2 Scope of TranscriptionsTEI: Scope of Transcriptions¶

When transcribing a primary source, scholars may wish to record information concerning individual readings of letters, words, or larger units, whether the object is simply a ‘neutral’ transcription or a critical edition. In either case they may also wish to include other editorial material, such as comments on the status or possible origin of particular readings, corrections, or text supplied to fill lacunae. Further, it is customary in transcriptions to register certain features of the source, such as ornamentation, underlining, deletion, areas of damage and lacunae. This chapter provides ways of encoding such information:

first, methods of recording editorial or other alterations to the text, such as expansion of abbreviations, corrections, conjectures, etc. (section 11.3 Altered, Corrected, and Erroneous Texts)
then, methods of describing important extra-linguistic phenomena in the source: unusual spaces, lines, page and line breaks, change of manuscript hand, etc. (section 11.4 Hands and Responsibility)
finally, a method of recording material such as running heads, catch-words, and the like (section 11.7 Headers, Footers, and Similar Matter)

These recommendations are not intended to meet every transcriptional circumstance likely to be faced by any scholar. Rather, they should be regarded as a base which can be elaborated if necessary by different scholars in different disciplines.

As a rule, all elements which may be used in the course of a transcription of a single witness may also be used in a critical apparatus, i.e. within the elements proposed in chapter 12 Critical Apparatus. This can generally be achieved by nesting a particular reading containing tagged elements from a particular witness within the rdg element in an app structure.

Just as a critical apparatus may contain transcriptional elements within its record of variant readings in various witnesses, one may record variant readings in an individual witness by use of the apparatus mechanisms app and rdg. This is discussed in section 12.3 Using Apparatus Elements in Transcriptions.

11.3 Altered, Corrected, and Erroneous TextsTEI: Altered, Corrected, and Erroneous Texts¶

In the detailed transcription of any source, it may prove necessary to record various types of actual or potential alteration of the text: expansion of abbreviations, correction of the text (either by author, scribe, or later hand, or by previous or current editors or scholars), addition, deletion, or substitution of material, and the like. The sections below describe how such phenomena may be encoded using either elements defined in the core module (defined in chapter 3 Elements Available in All TEI Documents) or specialized elements available only when the module described in this chapter is available.

11.3.1 Core elements for Transcriptional WorkTEI: Core elements for Transcriptional Work¶

In transcribing individual sources of any type, encoders may record corrections, normalizations, expansions of abbreviations, additions, and omissions using the elements described in section 3.4 Simple Editorial Changes. Those particularly relevant to this chapter include:

abbr (abbreviation) contains an abbreviation of any sort.
add (addition) contains letters, words, or phrases inserted in the text by an author, scribe, annotator, or corrector.
choice groups a number of alternative encodings for the same point in a text.
corr (correction) contains the correct form of a passage apparently erroneous in the copy text.
del (deletion) contains a letter, word, or passage deleted, marked as deleted, or otherwise indicated as superfluous or spurious in the copy text by an author, scribe, annotator, or corrector.
expan (expansion) contains the expansion of an abbreviation.
gap indicates a point where material has been omitted in a transcription, whether for editorial reasons described in the TEI header, as part of sampling practice, or because the material is illegible, invisible, or inaudible.
sic (latin for thus or so) contains text reproduced although apparently incorrect or inaccurate.

Several of these elements bear additional attributes for specifying who is responsible for the interpretation represented by the markup, and the certainty associated with it. In addition, some of them bear an attribute allowing the markup to be categorised by type and source.

att.editLike provides attributes describing the nature of a encoded scholarly intervention or interpretation of any kind.

cert	(certainty) signifies the degree of certainty associated with the intervention or interpretation.
resp	(responsible party) indicates the agency responsible for the intervention or interpretation, for example an editor or transcriber.
source	contains a list of one or more pointers indicating the sources which support the given reading.

att.typed provides attributes which can be used to classify or subclassify elements in any way.
type characterizes the element in some sense, using any convenient classification scheme or typology.
subtype provides a sub-categorization of the element, if needed

The specific aspect of the markup described by these attributes differs on different elements; for further discussion, see the relevant sections below, especially section 11.4.2 Hand, Responsibility, and Certainty Attributes.

The following sections describe how the core elements just named may be used in the transcription of primary source materials.

11.3.2 Abbreviation and ExpansionTEI: Abbreviation and Expansion¶

The writing of manuscripts by hand lends itself to the use of abbreviation to shorten scribal labour. Commonly occurring letters, groups of letters, words, or even whole phrases, may be represented by significant marks. This phenomenon of manuscript abbreviation is so widespread and so various that no taxonomy of it is here attempted. Instead, methods are shown which allow abbreviations to be encoded using the core elements mentioned above.

A manuscript abbreviation may be viewed in two ways. One may transcribe it as a particular sequence of letters or marks upon the page: thus, a ‘p with a bar through the descender’, a ‘superscript hook’, a ‘macron’. One may also interpret the abbreviation in terms of the letter or letters it is seen as standing for: thus, ‘per’, ‘re’, ‘n’. Both of these views are supported by these Guidelines.

In many cases the glyph found in the manuscript source also exists in the Unicode character set: for example the common Latin brevigraph ⁊, standing for et and often known as the ‘Tironian et’ can be directly represented in any XML document as the Unicode character with code point U+204A (see further Character References and vi.1. Language identification). In cases where it does not, these Guidelines recommend use of the g element provided by the gaiji module described in chapter 5 Representation of Non-standard Characters and Glyphs. This module allows the encoder great flexibility both in processing and in documenting non-standard characters or glyphs, including the ability to provide detailed documentation and images for them.

These two methods of coding abbreviation may also be combined. An encoder may record, for any abbreviation, both the sequence of letters or marks which constitutes it, and its sense, that is, the letter or letters for which it is believed to stand. For example, in the following fragment the phrase euery persone is represented by a sequence of characters which may be transcribed directly, using the g element to indicate the two brevigraphs it contains as follows:

eu<g ref="#b-er">er</g>y <g ref="#b-per">per</g>sone that loketh after heuen hath a place in this
ladder


<charDecl>
<char xml:id="b-er">

</char>
<char xml:id="b-per">

</char>
</charDecl>

bibliography

Note that in each case the g element may contain a suggested replacement for the referenced brevigraph; this is purely advisory however, and may not be appropriate in all cases. The referenced character definitions may be located elsewhere in this or some other document, typically forming part of a charDecl element, as described in 5.2 Markup Constructs for Representation of Characters and Glyphs.

The transcriber may also wish to indicate that, because of the presence of these particular characters, the two words are actually abbreviations, by using the abbr element:

<abbr>eu<g ref="#b-er">er</g>y</abbr>
<abbr>
<g ref="#b-per">per</g>sone
</abbr>
...

Alternatively, the transcriber may choose silently to expand these abbreviations, using the expan element:

<expan>euery</expan>
<expan>persone</expan> ...

And, of course, the choice element can be used to show that one encoding is an alternative for the other:

<choice>
<abbr>eu<g ref="#b-er">er</g>y</abbr>
<expan>euery</expan>
</choice>

When abbreviated forms such as these are expanded, two processes are carried out: some characters not present in the abbreviation are added (always), and some characters or glyphs present in the abbreviation are omitted or replaced (often). For example, when the abbreviation Dr. is expanded to Doctor, the dot in the abbreviation is removed, and the letters octo are added. Where detailed markup of abbreviated words is required, these two aspects may be marked up explicitly, using the following elements:

ex (editorial expansion) contains a sequence of letters added by an editor or transcriber when expanding an abbreviation.
am (abbreviation marker) contains a sequence of letters or signs present in an abbreviation which are omitted or replaced in the expanded form of the abbreviation.

Using these elements, a transcriber may indicate the status of the individual letters or signs within both the abbreviation and the expansion. The am element surrounds characters or signs such as tittles or tildes, used to indicate the presence of an abbreviation, which are typically removed or replaced by other characters in the expanded form of the abbreviation:

<abbr>eu<am>
<g ref="#b-er"/>
</am>y</abbr>
<abbr>
<am>
<g ref="#b-per"/>
</am>sone
</abbr> ...

while the ex element may be used to indicate those characters within the expansion which are not present in the abbreviated form.

<expan>eu<ex>er</ex>y</expan>
<expan>
<ex>per</ex>sone
</expan> ...

The content of the abbr element should usually include the whole of the abbreviated word, while the expan element should include the whole of its expansion. If this is not considered necessary, the am and ex elements may be used within a choice element, as in this example:

eu<choice>
<am>
<g ref="#b-er"/>
</am>
<ex>er</ex>
</choice>y
<choice>
<am>
<g ref="#b-per"/>
</am>
<ex>per</ex>
</choice>sone ...

As implied in the preceding discussion, making decisions about which of these various methods of representing abbreviation to use will form an important part of an encoder's practice. As a rule, the abbr and am elements should be preferred where it is wished to signify that the content of the element is an abbreviation, without necessarily indicating what the abbreviation may stand for. The ex and expan elements should be used where it is wished to signify that the content of the element is not present in the source but has been supplied by the transcriber, without necessarily indicating the abbreviation used in the original. The decision as to which course of action is appropriate may vary from abbreviation to abbreviation; there is no requirement that the one system be used throughout a transcription, although doing so will generally simplify processing. The choice is likely to be a matter of editorial policy. If the highest priority is to transcribe the text literatim, while indicating the presence of abbreviations, the choice will be to use abbr or am throughout. If the highest priority is to present a reading transcription, while indicating that some letters or words are not actually present in the original, the choice will be to use ex or expan throughout.

Further information may be attached to instances of these elements by the note element, on which see section 3.8 Notes, Annotation, and Indexing, and by use of the resp and cert attributes. In this instance from the English Brut, a note is attached to an editorial expansion of the tail on the final d of good to goode:

For alle the while that I had
good<ex xml:id="exp01">e</ex>
I was welbeloued

bibliography

Then the note:

<note target="#exp01">The stroke added to the final d could signify the
plural ending (-es, -is, -ys>) but the singular <hi rend="it">good</hi> was used with the meaning <q>property</q>,
<q>wealth</q>, at this time (v. examples quoted in OED, sb. Good,
C. 7, b, c, d and 8 spec.)</note>

The editor might declare a degree of certainty for this expansion, based on the OED examples, and state the responsibility for the expansion:

For alle the while that I had
good<ex resp="#mp" cert="high">e</ex> I was welbeloued

The value supplied for the resp attribute should point to the name of the editor responsible for this and possibly other interventions; an appropriate element therefore might be a respStmt element in the header like the following:

<respStmt xml:id="mp">
<resp>Editorial emendations</resp>
<name>Malcom Parkes</name>
</respStmt>

Observe that the cert and resp attributes are used with the ex element only to indicate confidence in the content of the element (i.e. the expansion), and responsibility for suggesting this expansion respectively.

The choice element may be used to indicate that the proposed expansion is one way of encoding what might equally well be represented as an abbreviation, represented by the hooked D, as follows:

For alle the while that I had
<choice>
<sic>good<abbr>ɽ</abbr>
</sic>
<expan resp="#mp" cert="high">good<ex>e</ex>
</expan>
</choice>
I was welbeloued

If it is desired to express aspects of certainty and responsibility for some other aspect of the use of these elements, then the mechanisms discussed in chapter 21 Certainty and Responsibility should be used. See also 11.4.2 Hand, Responsibility, and Certainty Attributes for discussion of the issues of certainty and responsibility in the context of transcription.

If more than one expansion for the same abbreviation is to be recorded, multiple notes may be supplied. It may also be appropriate to use the markup for critical apparatus; an example is given in section 12.3 Using Apparatus Elements in Transcriptions.

11.3.3 Correction and ConjectureTEI: Correction and Conjecture¶

The sic, corr, and choice elements, defined in the core module should be used to indicate passages deemed in need of correction, or actually corrected, during the transcription of a source. For example, in the manuscript of William James's A Pluralistic Universe, edited by Fredson Bowers (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1977) a sentence first written

One must have lived longer with this system, to appreciate its advantages.

has been modified by James to begin ‘But One must ...’, without the inital capital O having been reduced to lowercase. This non-standard orthography could be recorded thus:

But <sic>One</sic>
must have lived ...

or corrected:

But <corr>one</corr> must
have lived ...

or the two possibilities might be represented as a choice:

But
<choice>
<sic>One</sic>
<corr>one</corr>
</choice> must have lived
...

Similarly, in this example from Albertus Magnus, both a manuscript error angues and its correction augens are registered within a choice element:

Nos autem iam ostendimus quod nutrimentum
et <choice>
<sic>angues</sic>
<corr>augens</corr>
</choice>.

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Note that the corr element is used to provide a corrected form which is not present in the source; in the case of a correction made in the source itself, whether scribal, authorial, or by some other hand, the add, del, and subst elements described in 11.3.4 Additions and Deletions should be used.

The sic element is used to mark passages considered by the transcriber to be erroneous; in such cases, the corr element indicates the transcriber's correction of them. Where the transcriber considers that one or more words have been erroneously omitted in the original source and corrects this omission, the supplied element discussed in 11.3.7 Text Omitted from or Supplied in the Transcription should be used in preference to corr. Thus, in the following example, from George Moore's draft of additional materials for Memoirs of My Dead Life, the transcriber supplies the word we omitted by the author:

You see that I avoid the word create for we
create nothing <supplied>we</supplied> develope.

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As with expan and abbr, the choice as to whether to record simply that there is an apparent error, or simply that a correction has been applied, or to record both possible readings within a choice element is left to the encoder. The decision is likely to be a matter of editorial policy, which might be applied consistently throughout or decided case by case. If the highest priority is to present an uncorrected transcription while noting perceived errors in the original, the choice will typically be to use only sic throughout. If the highest priority is to present a reading transcription, while indicating that perceived errors in the original have been corrected, the choice will be to use only corr throughout.

Further information may be attached to instances of these elements by the note element and resp and cert attributes. Instances of these elements may also be classified according to any convenient typology using the type attribute.

For example, consider the following encoding of an emendation in the Hengwrt manuscript proposed by E. Talbot Donaldson:

Telle me also, to what conclusioun
Were membres maad, of generacioun
And of so parfit wis a
<choice xml:id="corr117">
<sic>wight</sic>
<corr>wright</corr>
</choice>
ywroght?


<note target="#corr117">This emendation of the Hengwrt copy text,
based on a Latin source and on the reading of three late
and usually unauthoritative manuscripts, was proposed
by E. Talbot Donaldson in <bibl>
<title>Speculum</title> 40 (1965)
626–33.</bibl>
</note>

The note element discussed in 3.8 Notes, Annotation, and Indexing may be used to give a more detailed discussion of the motivation for or scope of a correction. If linked by means of a pointer (as in this example) it may be located anywhere convenient within the transcription; typically all detailed notes will be collected together in a separate div element in the back. Alternatively, the pointer may be omitted, and the note placed immediately adjacent to the element being annotated. The advantage of the former solution is that it permits the same annotation to refer to several corrections.

The attribute cert may be used to indicate the degree of confidence ascribed by the encoder to the proposed emendation on a broad scale: high, medium, or low. The attribute resp is used to indicate who is responsible for the proposed emendation. Its value is a pointer, which will typically indicate a respStmt or name element in the header of the transcribed document, but can point anywhere, for example to some online authority file. Using these two attributes, the corr element presented above might usefully be enhanced as follows:

<name xml:id="ETD">E Talbot Donaldson</name>

And of so parfit wis a
<choice>
<sic>wight</sic>
<corr resp="#ETD" cert="medium">wright</corr>
</choice>
ywroght?

As remarked above, where the same annotation applies to several corrections, this may be represented by supplying multiple pointers on the note. Consider for example such corrections as the following, in Dudo of S. Quentin. Parkes cites two cases in this manuscript of the same phenomenon:

quamuis <choice xml:id="sic-1">
<sic>mens</sic>
<corr>iners</corr>
</choice> que nutu dei
gesta sunt ... unde esset uiriliter
<choice xml:id="sic-2">
<corr>uegetata</corr>
<sic>negata</sic>
</choice>

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which may be described as follows:

<note target="#sic-1 #sic-2">Substitution of a more familiar word which resembles
graphically what the scribe should be copying but which does not make
sense in the context.</note>

The target attribute on the note element indicates the choice elements which exemplify this kind of scribal error. This necessitates the addition of an identifier to each choice element. However, if the number of corrections is large and the number of notes is small, it may well be both more practical and more appropriate to regard the collection of annotations as constituting a typology and then use the type attribute. Suppose that the note given above is one of half a dozen possible kinds of corrected phenomena identified in a given text; others might include, say, ‘repetition of a word from the preceding line’, etc. The type attribute on the corr element can be used to specify an arbitrary code for the particular kind of correction (or other editorial intervention) identified within it. This code can be chosen freely and is not treated as a pointer.

quamuis
<choice>
<sic>mens</sic>
<corr type="graphSubs">iners</corr>
</choice> que nutu dei
gesta sunt ... unde esset uiriliter
<choice>
<corr type="graphSubs">uegetata</corr>
<sic>negata</sic>
</choice>

Note that this encoding might be extended to include a range of possible corrections:

quamuis
<choice>
<sic>mens</sic>
<corr type="graphSubs">iners</corr>
<corr type="reversal">inres</corr>
</choice> que nutu dei
gesta sunt ...

In addition, the conscientious encoder will provide documentation explaining the circumstances in which particular codes are judged appropriate. A suitable location for this might be within the correction element of the encodingDesc of the header, which might include a list such as the following:

<correction>
<p>The following codes are used to categorise corrections identified
   in this transcription:
<list type="gloss">
   <label>graphSubs</label>
   <item>Substitution of a more familiar word which resembles
       graphically what the scribe should be copying but which does not make
       sense in the context.</item>

  </list>
</p>
</correction>

A subtype attribute may be used in conjunction with the type for subclassification purposes: the above examples might thus be represented as <choice type="substitution" subtype="graphicResemblence"> for example.

For a given project, it may well be desirable to limit the possible values for the type or subtype attributes automatically. This is easily done but requires customization of the TEI system using techniques described in 23.2 Personalization and Customization, in particular 23.2.1.4 Modification of Attribute and Attribute Value Lists, which should be consulted for further information on this topic.

When making a correction in a source which forms part of a textual tradition attested by many witnesses, a textual editor will sometimes use a reading from one witness to correct the reading of the source text. In the general case, such encoding is best achieved with the mechanisms provided by the module for textual criticism described in chapter 12 Critical Apparatus. However, for simple cases, the source attribute of the corr attribute may suffice. In the passage from Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale mentioned above, Parkes proposes to emend the problematic word wight to wyf which is the reading found in the Cambridge manuscript Gg.1. 27. This may be simply represented as follows:

And of so parfit wis a
<choice>
<sic>wight</sic>
<corr resp="#mp" source="#Gg">wyf</corr>
</choice>
ywroght?

The value of the source attribute here is, like the value of the resp attribute, a pointer, in this case indicating the manuscript used as a witness. Elsewhere in the transcribed text, a list of witnesses used in this text will be given, one of which has an identifier Gg. Each witness will be represented either by a witness element (see 12.1 The Apparatus Entry, Readings, and Witnesses) or more fully by a msDesc element (see 10 Manuscript Description) :

<msDesc xml:id="Gg">
<msIdentifier>
  <settlement>Cambridge</settlement>
  <repository>University Library</repository>
  <idno>Gg.1. 27</idno>
</msIdentifier>

</msDesc>

The app element described in chapter 12 Critical Apparatus provides a more powerful way of representing all three possible readings in parallel:

And of so
parfit wis a
<app>
<rdg wit="#Hg">wight</rdg>
<rdg wit="#Ln #Ry2 #Ld">wright</rdg>
<rdg wit="#Gg">wyf</rdg>
</app>

This encoding simply records the three readings found in the various traditions, and gives (by means of the wit attribute) an indication of the witnesses supporting each. If the resp attribute were supplied on the rdg element, it would indicate the person responsible for asserting that the manuscript indicated has this reading, who is not necessarily the same as the person responsible for asserting that this reading should be used to correct the others. Editorial intervention elements such as corr can however be nested within a rdg to provide this additional information:

And of so
parfit wis a
<app>
<rdg wit="#Hg">wight</rdg>
<rdg wit="#Ln #Ry2 #Ld">
<corr resp="#ETD">wright</corr>
</rdg>
<rdg wit="#Gg">
<corr resp="#mp">wyf</corr>
</rdg>
</app>

This encoding asserts that the reading wyf found in Gg is regarded as a correction by Parkes.

Like the resp attribute, the cert attribute may be used with both corr and rdg elements. When used on the rdg element, these attributes indicate confidence in and responsibility for identifying the reading within the sources specified; when used on the corr element they indicate confidence in and responsibility for the use of the reading to correct the base text. If no other source is indicated (either by the source attribute, or by the wit attribute of a parent rdg), the reading supplied within a corr has been provided by the person indicated by the resp attribute.

If it is desired to express aspects of certainty and responsibility for some other aspect of the use of these elements, then the mechanisms discussed in chapter 21 Certainty and Responsibility may be found useful. See also 11.4.2 Hand, Responsibility, and Certainty Attributes for further discussion of the issues of certainty and responsibility in the context of transcription.

11.3.4 Additions and DeletionsTEI: Additions and Deletions¶

Additions and deletions observed in a source text may be described using the following elements:

add (addition) contains letters, words, or phrases inserted in the text by an author, scribe, annotator, or corrector.
addSpan/ (added span of text) marks the beginning of a longer sequence of text added by an author, scribe, annotator or corrector (see also <add>).
del (deletion) contains a letter, word, or passage deleted, marked as deleted, or otherwise indicated as superfluous or spurious in the copy text by an author, scribe, annotator, or corrector.
delSpan/ (deleted span of text) marks the beginning of a longer sequence of text deleted, marked as deleted, or otherwise signaled as superfluous or spurious by an author, scribe, annotator, or corrector.

Of these, add and del are included in the core module, while addSpan and delSpan are available only when using the module defined in this chapter. These particular elements are members of the att.spanning class, from which they inherit the following attribute:

att.spanning provides attributes for elements which delimit a span of text by pointing mechanisms rather than by enclosing it.
spanTo indicates the end of a span initiated by the element bearing this attribute.

Further characteristics of each addition and deletion, such as the hand used, its effect (complete or incomplete, for example), or its position in a sequence of such operations may conveniently be recorded as attributes of these elements, all of which are members of the att.transcriptional class:

att.transcriptional provides attributes specific to elements encoding authorial or scribal intervention in a text when transcribing manuscript or similar sources.

seq	(sequence) assigns a sequence number related to the order in which the encoded features carrying this attribute are believed to have occurred.
status	indicates the effect of the intervention, for example in the case of a deletion, strikeouts which include too much or too little text, or in the case of an addition, an insertion which duplicates some of the text already present.
hand	signifies the hand of the agent which made the intervention.

As described in section 3.4 Simple Editorial Changes, the add element is used to record any manuscript addition observed in the text, whether it is considered to be authorial or scribal. In the autograph manuscript of Max Beerbohm's The Golden Drugget, the author's addition of do ever may be recorded as follows, with the hand attribute indicating that the addition was Beerbohm's by referencing a handNote element defined elsewhere in the document (see further 11.4.1 Document Hands):

Some things are best at first
sight. Others — and here is one of them — <add hand="#mb">do
ever</add> improve by recognition ....

<handNote xml:id="mb">Max Beerbohm holograph</handNote>

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Similarly, when the del element is used to record manuscript deletions. In the autograph manuscript of D. H. Lawrence's Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani the author's deletion of my may be recorded as follows. In this case, the hand attribute indicating that the deletion was Lawrence's is complemented by a rend attribute indicating that the deletion was by strike-through:

For I hate this <del rend="strikethrough" hand="#dhl">my</del> body, which is so dear to me
...

<handNote xml:id="dhl">D H Lawrence holograph</handNote>

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If deletions are classified systematically, the type attribute may be useful to indicate the classification; when they are classified by the manner in which they were effected, or by their appearance, however, this will lead to a certain arbitrariness in deciding whether to use the type or the rend attribute to hold the information. In general, it is recommended that the rend attribute be used for description of the appearance or method of deletion, and that the type attribute be reserved for higher level or more abstract classifications.

The place attribute is also available to indicate the location of an addition. For example, consider the following passage from a draft letter by Robert Graves:

At the end of this extract, the writer inserts the word ‘cant,’ above the line, with a stroke to indicate insertion: this might be encoded as follows:

The O.E.D. is not a dictionary so much as a corpus of
precedents <del hand="#RG">in the</del>: current,
obsolete, <add hand="#RG" place="supralinear">cant,</add>
cataphretic and nonce-words are all included.

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A little earlier in the same extract, Graves writes ‘for an abridgement’ above the line, and then deletes it. This may be encoded similarly:

type	characterizes the element in some sense, using any convenient classification scheme or typology.
subtype	provides a sub-categorization of the element, if needed