About digital edition
The publication of the third volume of Theatrum Neolatinum Bohemiae, Moraviae et Silesiae was also accompanied by the preparation of an electronic version in the form of a digital edition. This involved processing the text and all its editorial layers (textual criticism, notes, index entries, intertext, etc.) in the international machine-readable XML TEI P5 standard, and subsequently publishing it using visualisation tools that allow end users to comfortably interact with the edition.
- Metodology
- Dracor
- Final TEI and EVT visualisation
- DraCor version: without annotation and text-critical notes or register entries, meeting the DraCor schema, published under the CC0 1.0 license.
- Full version: with a complete text-critical apparatus, scholarly notes, and registers.
In the first phase of preparing the digital edition, our focus was on the experimental processing of the play Angelus ad aras by D. Joannes Nepomucenus, published in the first volume of Theatrum Neolatinum. The aim was to test the process of converting the text from print sources into XML TEI P5 format using InDesign’s internal XML notation, the Transpect tool and our Plays Encoding Framework application.
The electronic version of the biblical plays prepared for the third volume was already produced as 'born-digital' alongside the preparation of the traditional print edition. This approach involved the automated transformation of texts prepared by editors from Microsoft Word DOCX (or OOXML) format into structured TEI P5 XML, including the addition of necessary metadata, while preserving the original editorial conventions. The next step involved using a specialised annotation tool within the TEI Publisher environment, where not only was a final review of the text conducted, but further semantic enrichment was also carried out, particularly in the areas of textual criticism, factual commentary, indexing and identifying named entities (such as names, places and corporations).
During the project, we collaborated with the DraCor (Drama Corpora Project) platform, a digital research ecosystem focusing on the study of European drama from antiquity to the 20th century. Developed by a team led by Prof. Frank Fischer (Freie Universität Berlin), the platform follows the FAIR and Open Science principles, providing modern access to drama corpora from various sources and and provenances, as well as offering tools for their further research (e.g. API interfaces for comparative analysis and network visualisations). As part of this collaboration, a working group was formed under the leadership of Dr Julie Jennifer Beine (University of Würzburg). This group brings together several European teams that are involved in researching and publishing Neo-Latin plays in various contexts. Thanks to this initiative, a new corpus called NeoLatDraCor (Neo-Latin Drama Corpus) has been created within the DraCor environment where new plays are being published gradually in a format that complies with the platform’s schema and requirements (validated TEI).
The completed TEI version of the biblical plays is therefore available in two complementary formats:
The EVT (Edition Visualization Technology) tool, developed at the University of Pisa, was used to visualise the full edition. It provides users with convenient, interactive access to all layers of the digital edition (including the critical apparatus, registers, editorial commentary, analogies, etc.), including synchronised access to digitised versions and translations of the text.
When compiling this digital edition, we benefited from our experience in preparing the digital edition of the Jesuit Literae Annuae. The website of this edition provides a detailed description of the methodology used, including TEI markup and EVT user guide.
Dramas
- EVT
- Dracor
