The Title Statement

The title statement minimally lists the title of the electronic text in a title element. Next to the title, it provides room to list detailed information about the persons or institutions responsible for different aspects of the realisation of the electronic text. title: contains the title for the electronic text author: contains the name of an/the author(s) of the electronic text editor: contains the name of an/the editor(s) of the electronic text sponsor: specifies the name of a sponsoring organisation or institution for the realisation of the electronic text funder: specifies the name of a party responsible for the funding of the realisation of the electronic text principal: supplies the name of the principal researcher responsible for the creation of an electronic text respStmt (statement of responsibility): supplies a statement of responsibility for the intellectual content of the electronic text, where the specialised elements for authors, editors, etc. do not suffice or do not apply

Although the electronic text can be named anything, often its title will reflect the title of the source text (if any). In order to point out the distinction, it is advised to explicate the status of the electronic text in a phrase like an digital edition, an electronic transcription, or the like. The TEI Guidelines strongly advise to separate the title of an electronic text from the name of the file in which it is saved, as the latter is likely subject to change.

All elements inside titleStmt may occur as often as needed, in order to list all (sub)titles, authors, editors, or others responsible for the realisation of the electronic text. For example, the titleStmt section for our example could be expanded as follows:Notice how the order of the element inside titleStmt is free. Also, the funder element in the following example illustrates how the titleStmt elements may contain common phrase level elements, for example an address.

Honoré de Balzac The TBE crew Ellen Marriage translation George Saintsbury preface Ron Van den Branden transcription annotation Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing (ALLC) Centre for Data, Culture and Society, University of Edinburgh, UK Centre for Computing in the Humanities (CCH) - King's College London University College London (UCL)

Centre for Scholarly Editing and Document Studies (CTB) Royal Academy of Dutch Language and Literature Koningstraat 18 9000 Gent Belgium

ctb@kantl.be Edward Vanhoutte Melissa Terras A titleStmt header section.

Notice the specific form of the respStmt statements of additional responsibilities. Each responsibility statement should contain a proper name inside name, identifying the responsible party, and describe the responsibility inside a resp element. When one person or institution has more than one responsibilities, these may be enumerated in a number of resp elements.

The example above lists the translator among the additional responsibilities. However, this can be understood as a kind of editor role, and hence encoded as editor. In order to distinguish between different kind of editorial responsibilities, the editor element has a specific role attribute, whose values can include translator, editor, compiler, illustrator, etc. Likewise, the author of the preface could be considered a kind of editor and encoded as such.

When encoding an electronic text, you might want to identify who is responsible for certain textual phenomena, such as additions, deletions, abbreviations and their solutions, annotations, etc. Many of the tags for such phenomena have a resp attribute, whose value should refer to an element formally identified elsewhere. Of course, the titleStmt provides an excellent location to provide such formal identification codes, by making use of the global xml:id attribute. This way, the textual phenomena in a transcription can be associated directly with both the name of the responsible parties, and their roles in realising the electronic text.

The example above could thus be rephrased as follows:

Honoré de Balzac Ellen Marriage The TBE crew George Saintsbury Ron Van den Branden transcription annotation Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing (ALLC) Centre for Data, Culture and Society, University of Edinburgh, UK Centre for Computing in the Humanities (CCH) - King's College London University College London (UCL)

Centre for Scholarly Editing and Document Studies (CTB) Royal Academy of Dutch Language and Literature Koningstraat 18 9000 Gent Belgium

ctb@kantl.be Edward Vanhoutte Melissa Terras Providing more detail, and identifying the persons responsible for the creation of an electronic file.

These identifications allow the encoder to distinguish, for example, between an editorial annotation and a note by the translator in the text:

ass donkey I hesitated between The Piece of Shagreen and The Wild Ass' Skin for the title, but Balzac's own remarks decided me. The Magic Skin is very weak, and The Skin of Shagreen hideous. Referring to identified persons in the header for stating responsibilities in the text.

The title statement (titleStmt) is the first mandatory subsection of the file description. It should at least contain a title element, providing a title for the electronic text. Besides the title, different parties can be identified that had been involved in the realisation of the electronic text: author (author), editor (editor), sponsor (sponsor), funder (funder), principal (principal). Other responsibilities may be encoded in a respStmt element, listing both the name of the responsible party (name), and its responsibilities in a list of resp elements. For reference purposes, it makes sense to formally identify the parties identified in the title statement with global xml:id attributes.

The Edition Statement

The edition statement provides detailed information about the edition of the electronic text (if applicable). Similar to editions of printed texts, electronic texts may be substantially revised in different versions. Somehow closer to the world of software programs, an edition of an electronic text can be compared to the release of a piece of software. For an electronic text, the alteration of its contents, or addition/expansion/removal of substantive (types of) meta-information could qualify a new version of an electronic text as a new edition.

The editionStmt element can contain: p | edition: a description of the edition; either as loose prose paragraphs (p), or in a specific edition element respStmt: contains descriptions of responsibilities specific to the current edition The edition may be described either loosely in one or more paragraphs (p), or in a more specific edition element. One of both (but not both) must be present. Notice that only one edition element may be used. When applicable, responsible parties and their specific responsibilities for this edition can be listed inside a respStmt element, identifying both the responsible party (name) and its responsibilities (resp).

The TEI Guidelines state that an edition statement is optional for the first release of a computer file; it is mandatory for each later release, though this requirement cannot be enforced by the parser. , 2.2.2 The Edition Statement

If, for example, the digital edition of this version of builds on an existing electronic edition, but adds a substantive new category of annotations by Melissa Terras, this could be reflected in the editionStmt as follows:

2010 Melissa Terras Added thematic annotations. Encoding information about the edition of an electronic text in editionStmt.

Notice how we can’t formally identify Melissa anymore, at least not with the same identification code she received for the principal element, earlier in the header. Since xml:id values must be unique within a document, there are two options for identifying her in this role: provide a different identification code for the xml:id attribute move the xml:id identification from the principal element inside titleStmt to the name element inside the editionStmt

The particular edition of the electronic text can be described in editionStmt, either as a loose prose description in one or more paragraphs (p), or one edition element. Additional responsibilities associated with this edition can be stated in one or more respStmt elements.

File Size

The extent section of the file description provides an analogue to the bibliographical indication of the size of printed books. It allows the encoder to express the size of the electronic text, be it in terms of its carrier medium (bits, bytes, number of disks / DVDs), or in terms of its contents (number of words/sentences). In this way, the TEI Guidelines aim to offer some way of formalising this often fluid notion of size in digital terms. The extent element may contain a loose prose description of the amount and units of size.

For example, the size of our example text could be encoded in a number of ways:

572 Kb 1 5.25" floppy disk (720 Kb) Providing information about the size of the electronic text in extent.

The extent section of the file description provides a means to record the size of the electronic text.

The Publication Statement

The publication statement (publicationStmt) is the second mandatory section of the file description. It provides details about the publication status of the electronic text, in one or more of following subsections: p | publisher | distributor | authority: description of publication details; either by means of loose prose paragraphs (p), or an identification of the publisher (publisher), the distributor (distributor), or other authority (authority) for making the electronic text available pubPlace: the place of publication for the electronic text address: the address of the publishing body of the electronic text idno: a standardised bibliographic identification code for the electronic text availability: a statement about the availability and terms of use of the electronic text date: the publication date of the electronic text

The publication statement can either contain a loose prose description in one or more paragraphs (p), or any of the other elements (although the TEI Guidelines recommend to use at least publisher, distributor, or authority).

The element names are quite transparent, and analogous to the labels often present in traditional bibliographic descriptions of printed works. Most of them can contain plain text and phrase-level elements, apart from address, availability, and idno. The address element must contain at least one addrLine element, describing a single address line, or more specific address elements like street, name, postCode, or postBox. Information on availability and terms of use inside availability must be given in at least one paragraph (p), or a licence element, which can point to or contain a description of the formal license conditions. The availability of the electronic text can be typed formally in a status attribute on availability, with three possible values: free: the text is freely available restricted: the text is not freely available unknown: the status of the text is unknown

The idno element can be used to provide a formal identification code in some kind of classification scheme. The code itself must be given in plain text; the applicable identification scheme can be identified in the value of the type attribute. Suggested values are ISBN (International Standard Book Number), LCCN (Library of Congress Control Number), DOI (Digital Object Identifier), etc. The date element can give the date in free prose. Additionally, for processing purposes, the use of the when attribute is recommended. Its value should be a formal representation of the date, most commonly in the form yyyy-mm-dd.For a complete list of allowed date expressions in the date element’s when attribute: see W3C XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes Second Edition.

The publicationStmt for our sample text could look as follows:

Centre for Scholarly Editing and Document Studies (CTB) Centre for Computing in the Humanities (CCH) - King's College London Gent

Centre for Scholarly Editing and Document Studies (CTB) Royal Academy of Dutch Language and Literature Koningstraat 18 9000 Gent Belgium

0-00-000000-0 Published under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License. 1 January 2010 Encoding information about the publication of an electronic text with publicationStmt.

Notice how the availability description contains a licence element, whose target attribute is pointing to an online description of the licensing scheme.

The publication statement of an electronic text inside publicationStmt is the second mandatory subsection of the file description. Information about the publication of the electronic text can be provided either as loose prose in one or more paragraphs (p), or with one or more specialised elements. The TEI Guidelines advise to state at least the publisher (publisher), distributor (distributor), or any other bodies responsible for making available the electronic text (authority). Additional elements are provided for the description of the publication place (pubPlace), publication address (address), bibliographic identification code (idno), availability and terms of use (availability), and publication date (date).

The Series Statement

If the electronic text is published in a series, this series can be described in the seriesStmt element. It may contain following elements: p | title: a description of the series, either in a loose prose description (p), or by naming the series inside title idno: a standardised bibliographic identification code for the series in which the electronic text is published respStmt: statement of responsibility for the realisation of the series

The series statement may either be given in loose prose inside paragraphs (p), or must at least name the title of the series (title). Additionally, an identification code for the series, and/or for the electronic text within the series, can be given inside idno with an appropriate value for its type attribute. Responsible parties for the realisation of the series can be listed in (a) respStmt element(s).

For example, our sample electronic text could be published in a series that could be described as follows:

Edward Vanhoutte compiler 0000-0001 1 Encoding information about the series in which an electronic text appears with seriesStmt.

Notice how the second idno element is used to identify the electronic text within the series. The type attribute indicates here that the identification refers to the sequence number of the instalments in the series. It could, of course, indicate other reference schemes as well (such as volumes, issues, ...).

Details on the series in which an electronic text was published may be recorded in the seriesStmt element. The series statement may either be given as loose prose inside paragraphs (p), or must at least name the title of the series (title). Additionally, an identification code for the series, and/or for the electronic text within the series, can be given inside idno with an appropriate value for its type attribute. Responsible parties for the realisation of the series can be listed in one or more respStmt elements.

The Notes Statement

The notesStmt section of the file description is reserved for additional information that is not covered in the general bibliographic description. Each piece of additional information should be encoded in a separate note:

OCR scanning done at KANTL, Ghent. Providing general notes about the electronic text in notesStmt.

The notesStmt section of the file description is reserved for additional information that is not covered in the general bibliographic description. Each piece of additional information should be encoded in a separate note

The Source Description

The source description inside sourceDesc is the third required subsection of the file description. It should contain one of following elements: p | bibl | biblStruct | biblFull | listBibl: the bibliographic description of the source text; either as a loose prose description in a paragraph (p), a formal bibliographic description (either loose (bibl), structured (biblStruct), or exhaustive (biblFull)), or a list of bibliographic references (listBibl)

The source text of the electronic text can be described either as loose prose in one or more paragraphs (p), or by means of a more specialised bibliographical element (bibl, biblStruct, biblFull, listBibl).

Of course, not all texts are derived from a material source text. In fact, lots of TEI documents are encoded from scratch, just like regular text files produced with text processing software. For such texts, a kind of dummy statement can be given in a paragraph inside sourceDesc. For example, the sourceDesc element of this TBE tutorial module (a native TEI electronic document) looks as follows:

No source, born digital.

The source description of an electronic text without material source.

If possible, however, it is recommended to bibliographically describe the material source document using a more specialised TEI element for bibliographic description. The bibl, biblStruct, and biblFull elements share a common set of allowed child elements, but differ in their degree of completeness and strictness. The most informal of the specialised bibliographical elements is bibl, which allows a prose-like bibliographic description, possibly interspersed with bibliographic elements, the most important of which are: Responsibilities: author: the author of the source text editor: the editor of the source text distributor: the distributing agency of the source text publisher: the publishing agency of the source text funder: the funding agency of the source text principal: the principal researcher responsible for the realisation of the source text sponsor: the sponsoring agency of the source text respStmt: other responsibilities for the source text Edition: title: the title of the source text date: the publication date of the source text pubPlace: the publication place of the source text edition: the edition of the source text series: the series in which the source text was published idno: a bibliographic reference code for the source text biblScope: the scope of the bibliographic reference of the source text extent: the size of the source text

The sourceDesc for our example could look as follows:

The Wild Ass’s Skin by Honoré de Balzac. London : Dent, 1906. xv, 288 p. Translated by Ellen Marriage ; preface by George Saintsbury.

Describing the source for an electronic text as loose text in p.

... or with a bibl element:

The Wild Ass’s Skin by Honoré de Balzac. London : Dent, 1906. xv, 288 p. Translated by Ellen Marriage ; preface by George Saintsbury. Describing the source for an electronic text loosely with bibl.

... more formally:

by Honoré de Balzac. London : Dent, 1906. xv, 288 p. Translated by Ellen Marriage ; preface by George Saintsbury. Describing the source for an electronic text in more detail with bibl.

The same information can be structured more rigorously using the biblStruct element. A structured bibliography may contain the same bibliographic elements, but structured in a more explicit way on three possible levels: analytic: bibliographic description of an item published within a monograph or journal: title: the title of the article or contribution author: the author of the article or contribution editor: the editor of the article or contribution respStmt: other responsibilities for the article or contribution monogr: bibliographic description of an item published as an independent item: author: the author of the monograph editor: the editor of the monograph respStmt: other responsibilities for the monograph title: the title of the monograph imprint: information regarding the publication of the monograph: biblScope, distributor, pubPlace, publisher, date biblScope: the bibliographic scope of the monograph (volume, issue) note: additional bibliographical notes for the monograph series: bibliographic description of the series in which a work has been published: title: the series’ title editor: the series’ editor respStmt: other responsibilities for the series biblScope: the bibliographic scope for the bibliographic item within the series

Our example could be elaborated as follows:

Honoré de Balzac Ellen Marriage George Saintsbury London Dent 1906 xv 288 p. Describing the source for an electronic text in a structured way with biblStruct.

The biblFull element requires the most extensive bibliographic description for the source of the electronic text, organised in the same categories as the file description of the electronic text itself (without the sourceDesc section, of course): a mandatory title statement (fileDesc), optional edition statement (editionStmt), indication of the size (extent), mandatory publication statement (publicationStmt), series statement (seriesStmt), and possibly additional bibliographic notes (notesStmt). As this level of detail exceeds the aims of this introductory tutorial, you are kindly referred to the biblFull reference section of the TEI Guidelines for full reference and examples.

If an electronic text is derived from more than one source text, these can all be described with the desired granularity using bibl, biblStruct, and biblFull. When doing so, listBibl provides a convenient way to group these bibliographic descriptions inside sourceDesc.

Although our example text is derived from only one source, following example illustrates how listBibl can be used:

by Honoré de Balzac. London : Dent, 1906. xv, 288 p. Translated by Ellen Marriage ; preface by George Saintsbury. Grouping descriptions of multiple source texts in listBibl.

When the dedicated msdescription TEI module for Manuscript Description is included in a TEI schema, the sourceDesc section of the TEI header contains a specific element for the bibliographic description of the source manuscript for the electronic text: msDesc. Due to the extensiveness of this element and the specificity of its use, you are referred to the TEI Guidelines for a full reference on how to bibliographically describe source manuscripts. Chapter 10 Manuscript Description of the TEI Guidelines is nearly completely devoted to this element. The description of the material sources for an electronic text inside sourceDesc is the third mandatory subsection of the file description. It must contain either a prose description of the source in one or more paragraphs (p), or a more formalised description using one of the specific TEI elements for bibliographic description: bibl, biblStruct, or biblFull. When an electronic text is derived from more source texts, these descriptions may be grouped inside a listBibl element.

Summary

The file description (fileDesc) is the first and sole mandatory section of the TEI header. It contains a description of the electronic text, in a mandatory title statement (titleStmt), a description of the specific edition of the electronic text is published (editionStmt), the file size (extent), a mandatory description of publication details of the electronic text (publicationStmt), a description of the series in which the electronic text is published (seriesStmt), additional bibliographic notes (notesStmt), and a mandatory bibliographic description of the electronic text’s material source text (sourceDesc).

When all pieces are put together, the file description for our example can look as follows:

Honoré de Balzac Ellen Marriage The TBE crew George Saintsbury Ron Van den Branden transcription annotation Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing (ALLC) Centre for Data, Culture and Society, University of Edinburgh, UK Centre for Computing in the Humanities (CCH) - King's College London University College London (UCL)

Centre for Scholarly Editing and Document Studies (CTB) Royal Academy of Dutch Language and Literature Koningstraat 18 9000 Gent Belgium

ctb@kantl.be Edward Vanhoutte Melissa Terras 2010 Melissa Terras Added thematic annotations. 572 Kb Centre for Scholarly Editing and Document Studies (CTB) Centre for Computing in the Humanities (CCH) - King's College London Gent

Centre for Scholarly Editing and Document Studies (CTB) Royal Academy of Dutch Language and Literature Koningstraat 18 9000 Gent Belgium

0-00-000000-0 Published under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License. 1 January 2010 Edward Vanhoutte compiler 0000-0001 1 OCR scanning done at KANTL, Ghent. by Honoré de Balzac. London : Dent, 1906. xv, 288 p.. Translated by Ellen Marriage ; preface by George Saintsbury. The fileDesc header section for the example text.

The Editorial Practice Declaration

The editorial policy used when marking up the electronic text can be documented in editorialDecl, either as loose prose in one or more paragraphss, or in minimally one specific element. Following elements are most common: correction: describes if / how / when corrections have been made in the text. A status attribute can indicate the degree of correction applied to the text (low, medium, high, or unknown); a method attribute can formalise whether corrections have been applied silently (silent) or explicitly (markup). normalization: describes if / how / when the text has been normalised. A source attribute can point to the description of the authority for the normalisations; a method attribute can formalise whether normalisations have been applied silently (silent) or explicitly (markup). quotation: describes how quotation marks in the original have been treated in the electronic text. A marks attribute can record the degree to which quotation marks have been retained in the electronic text (none, some, or all). hyphenation: describes how hyphenated text in the original has been treated in the electronic text. An eol attribute can record the degree to which end-of-line hyphenation has been retained in the electronic text (none, some, all, or hard (only hard end-of-line hyphenation has been retained)). interpretation: describes what interpretive information has been added to the text, apart from the transcription

All of these elements must contain at least one paragraph (p) containing the description.

For our example, the editorialDecl subsection could look as follows:

Apparent errors have been corrected using the <sic> / <corr> elements, wrapped in a <choice> element.

Spelling has been modernised using the <orig> / <reg> elements, wrapped in a <choice> element.

Diplomatic transcription, all original quotation marks have been retained and normalised to double quotation marks.

End-of-line hyphenation has been removed. All other hyphenation has been retained.

Thematic analysis added, studying the main motifs.

Names and dates are marked.

Documenting details about the editorial practice with editorialDecl.

The editorialDecl subsection of the encoding description documents the editorial practice that has been adopted for the encoding of the electronic text. It may consist of either a loose prose in one or more paragraphs, or more specialised elements describing the editorial policy concerning corrections (correction), normalisation (normalization), quotation (quotation), hyphenation (hyphenation), and interpretation (interpretation).

The Project Description

The aims and purposes for which the electronic text have been created can be given in projectDesc, as well as any other information regarding this endeavour. The structure of projectDesc is simple: it consists simply of one or more paragraphs (p).

For example:

Text encoded for The TBE collection: sample texts encoded with TEI, aiming at providing a collection of prime exemplar TEI encoded materials.

Providing details about the project content in which an electronic text originated, with projectDesc.

The projectDesc subsection of the encoding description provides more information about the aims and goals for which the electronic text has been created. This is provided as a prose description in one or more paragraphs (p).

The Tagging Declaration

The XML elements that have been used to mark up the text can be formally documented in the tagsDecl subsection of the encoding description. Following aspects can be documented: namespace: formally identifies the namespace to which the XML elements belong that are documented in its tagUsage children rendition: declares a rendering style for one or more XML elements in the electronic text

Inside tagsDecl, the XML tags occurring within an electronic text can be documented with tagUsage elements, grouped within a namespace element. The namespace element must include a formal reference to the namespace of these XML elements in its name attribute. For any default TEI text, this namespace reference should point to the http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0 namespace definition. Each distinct XML element occurring within the text part of the electronic text should be documented in its own tagUsage element, providing a prose description for the use of this element in the electronic text. The element name must be provided in the gi (generic identifier) attribute. Additionally, the number of occurrences can be recorded in an occurs attribute, and the number of occurrences with a unique identification code can be given in a withId attribute. A rendition attribute can point to a standard rendering style for this element in the source text:

Marks text divisions in the source text. Marks paragraphs in the source text. Documenting the XML elements used in an electronic text with tagsDecl.

Notice how the listing of the distinct elements in an electronic text and their occurrences (with ID code) can only be provided after the completion of the encoding, before publication. The counting of all unique text elements and their occurrences is typically a task that can be automated, for example by using XSLT or XSLT 2.0 stylesheets. The TEI Wiki has a dedicated section with useful XSLT snippets: if you can’t figure out how to perform a specific XSLT job for your TEI files, the XSLT section on the TEI Wiki may be a good place to start looking for inspiration.

Of course, if your electronic document contains elements from other namespaces, these should be documented within their dedicated namespace element. Notice how the rendition attribute points to the definition of a rendering style somewhere else in the document. The tagging declaration is the place for such definitions as well, by means of different rendition elements for each distinct rendition style. The description of rendition styles can be done either as a loose prose description, with an idiosyncratic hand-crafted formal vocabulary, or make use of existing styling languages such as CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) or XSL FO (eXtensible Stylesheet Language: Formatting Objects). The scheme attribute defines one of these styles: css (CSS), xslfo (XSL FO), free (informal free text description), or other (any other formal rendition scheme). The contents of the rendition element then can provide the formal rendition rules expressed in any of the schemes identified. For example, the styles division and paragraph can be defined in terms of CSS rules as follows:

display:block; margin: 1em; display:block; margin-bottom: 0.5em; Marks text divisions in the source text. Marks paragraphs in the source text. Declaring standard rendition styles for elements in the source text, with rendition.

Notice how the xml:id value of the rendition elements is used to refer to these definitions with the rendition attribute. This is a global attribute, that can occur on any TEI element, so general rendition declarations can be used for individual (groups of) elements as well. Have a look, for example, at the main title on the title page:

The title page of the example text.

...appearing as large red text in small caps, this title can be encoded as follows:

display:block; margin: 1em; display:block; margin-bottom: 0.5em; color:red; font-variant:small-caps; font-size:large; Marks text divisions in the source text. Marks paragraphs in the source text. The Wild Ass’s Skin Referring to rendition definitions with the rendition attribute on elements in the text.

The tagsDecl subsection of the encoding declaration can document all tags, their usage, and rendition in the electronic document. Specific rendition styles can be defined with a rendition element, whose scheme attribute identifies the formal rendition scheme. Documentation for all unique tags occurring inside the electronic document’s text element should be grouped per namespace to which they belong, within a namespace element. Its name attribute must point to a formal definition of that namespace. Each unique tag of that namespace then can be documented with a dedicated tagUsage element, containing a prose description, the tag’s name in the gi attribute, and indications for its occurrence within the electronic document, either in general (the occurs attribute), or with a unique identification code (withId).

The Reference System Declaration

Any reference schemes that are used in the electronic text can be declared in the refsDecl subsection of the encoding description. They can be defined either as loose prose descriptions in one or more paragraph (p), or with specialised elements. Because of the complexity of these specialised elements, this tutorial section only treats the informal prose description.For more information on the means for formal documentation of complex reference schemes inside refsDecl, see section 2.3.5 The Reference System Declaration of the TEI Guidelines.

The reference system declaration may be used to document any reference system used in the electronic text, for example the numbering schemes in n attributes of certain elements, the composition of xml:id values for certain elements, and so on.

For example, the numbering scheme of paragraphs, and identification codes of chapters could be documented as follows in the example text:

The paragraphs in the text are numbered with the n attribute. Each number consists of four digits; numbering is consecutive throughout the book. For example: 0203 numbers the 203th paragraph throughout the book.

Each chapter is identified with a formal identification code inside the xml:id attribute. Chapters are numbered using arabic numerals. The codes are composed by concatenating the identification codes for all ancestor text divisions down to the chapter level, with the dot as separation marker. For example: I.2.3 identifies the third chapter of the second book of the first volume.

Docmentation of reference systems used in the electronic text, with refsDecl.

Any reference scheme used in the electronic text can be documented in the refsDecl subsection of the encoding declaration. The description can happen either informally in one or more paragraphs, or more formally in specific TEI elements (not treated in this introductory tutorial).

The Classification Declaration

If you want to classify the electronic text using some kind of classification scheme or taxonomy, this taxonomy should be defined inside the classDecl subsection of the encoding description. The actual classification of the text is done in another part of the TEI header (see ), but it must point to one of the taxonomies defined here. The classification schemes used in the electronic document must each be defined in a dedicated element: taxonomy: defines a typology used to classify texts

The taxonomy element can either refer to an existing classification scheme, or define an own classification scheme, and should be formally identified in an xml:id attribute. If the taxonomy refers to an existing classification scheme, this should be described in a bibl element. The library record for our example text contains a reference to the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) scheme (see code 082 in ). If we want to include this classification code, and the Library of Congress Subject Headings in our electronic version of the text, these schemes should be referred to in a taxonomy element as follows:

Abridged Edition 14 Declaring classification schemes for the electronic text with classDecl.

If the classification scheme is less universal, or if you want to roll your own, the taxonomy element can be used as well. Apart from an optional bibliographical reference in bibl, the classification categories can be defined in separate category elements, each with their own xml:id identification code. The category can be described in a catDesc element. As classification categories can nest, it is possible to define hierarchical classification systems. For example, it could make sense to classify this novel in the terms of the Balzac’s own plan of the , which the author envisaged as the encompassing series for his complete prose oeuvre:

Studies of Manners Scenes from Private Life Scenes from provincial life The Celibates Parisians in the Country The Jealousies of a Country Town Scenes from Parisian life The Thirteen Poor Relations Scenes from political life Scenes from military life Scenes from country life Philosophical studies Analytical studies Defining a custom text classfication scheme in taxonomy.

In this example, a separate taxonomy is created for Balzac’s , indicated with the identification code BCS. It consists of 6 subcategories, each in its own category element, and a more detailed value for its xml:id attribute. Some of these categories contain even further categories. These categories can be referred to in the actual text classification further in the TEI header (see ).

If the TEI header contains a formal text classification, the classification schemes used must be defined in the classDecl subsection of the encoding description. Each classification scheme should be identified by means of the xml:id attribute on a taxonomy element. Such taxonomy declarations can either refer to public classification schemes, with a bibl element, or define their own classification categories inside specific category elements. Such category descriptions should describe the category in a catDesc element.

The Metrical Notation Declaration (available in the verse module)

When the TEI module verse is included in the TEI schema, the encoding description contains an additional element for the declaration of the metrical notation used in the analysis of poetry: metDecl.

See for a discussion of the elements in the TEI verse module for a discussion of how to include the TEI verse module in a TEI schema

The metrical notation may be defined either informally, in one or more paragraphs (p), or formally using one or more metSym elements. An informal declaration may look as follows:

The classical scansion system has been used, which marks quantitative metre originally by a macron (here a dash '-') for long syllables and a breve (here a 'u') for short syllables. A bar '|' is used to mark the foot boundary and a slash '/' marks the line boundary.

Documenting the notation for metrical analysis informally, as loose prose in metDecl.

This system can be declared more formally via one or more metSym (metrical notation symbol) elements. Each metrical symbol to be used in an analysis in the electronic text must be defined in the value attribute, and described in the text contents of a metSym element. The previous example could be formalised as follows:

long syllable short syllable foot boundary line boundary Documenting each symbol in the notation for metrical analysis in a metSym element inside metDecl.

After having declared the notation system for metrical analysis in the header, you can use this notation system for metrical analyses in the electronic text. For example, if you consider following section in the text of a poem:

Possessing me thou shalt possess all things, but thy life is mine, for God has so willed it. Wish, and thy wishes shall be fulfilled; but measure thy desires, according to the life that is in thee. This is thy life, with each wish I must shrink even as ty own days. Wilt thou have me? Take me. God will hearken unto thee. So be it! A poem, to be enriched with a metrical analysis.

You can enrich the transcription with a metrical analysis by means of the specific met attribute. It should contain the symbols for the metrical notation system you declared in the metDecl subsection of the encoding description:

Possessing me thou shalt possess all things, but thy life is mine, for God has so willed it. Wish, and thy wishes shall be fulfilled; but measure thy desires, according to the life that is in thee. This is thy life, with each wish I must shrink even as thy own days. Wilt thou have me? Take me. God will hearken unto thee. So be it! Encoding the metrical analysis for a poem, making use of the metrical notation declaration inside metDecl.

When the verse TEI module is included in a TEI schema, the encoding description contains a specific subsection for the declaration of metrical notation systems: metDecl. It can contain either an informal prose description of such a system in one or more paragraphs (p), or make use of more formalised metSym (metrical notation symbol) elements. Their value attributes must specify a symbol for a metrical phenomenon that is described as their text contents. This metrical notation system can then be used in the specific met attribute on poetic structures in the electronic text.

The Variant Encoding (available in the textcrit module)

When the TEI module textcrit is included in the TEI schema, the encoding description contains an additional element for the declaration of the method used to indicate text-critical variants: variantEncoding.

See for a discussion of the elements in the TEI textcrit module for a discussion of how to include the TEI textcrit module in a TEI schema

The variantEncoding element is an empty element with two mandatory attributes. With the method attribute, you must identify one of three methods for the encoding of text-critical variants in the electronic text: location-referenced: apparatus entries are anchored to identified locations in the text double-end-point: apparatus entries are anchored to the precise start and end point of the lemma in a base text parallel-segmentation: apparatus entries contain all text variants as alternative readings For a full reference of these systems, see chapter 12 Critical Apparatus of the TEI Guidelines.

A second aspect that must be documented for the system used for the encoding of text-critical variants, is the location of the text-critical apparatus. This must be done in the location attribute, with two possible values: internal: the text-critical apparatus is encoded within the running text external: the text-critical apparatus is encoded outside the running text

If we wanted to create a digital text-critical edition of by collating different editions of the novel, we should include the textcrit module in our TEI schema and declare the system used to represent the textual variation in variantEncoding. The following declaration, for example, specifies that the textual variation is encoded in the running text, using the parallel-segmentation method:

Declaring the method for representing textual variation with variantEncoding.

For a full treatment of recording textual variation in critical editions, see .

When the textcrit TEI module is included in a TEI schema, the encoding description contains a specific subsection for the declaration of the encoding system for textual variation: variantEncoding. It is an empty element that must have two attributes. The method attribute indicates which of three methods is used to encode textual variation (location-referenced, double-end-point, or parallel-segmentation). The location attribute specifies where the critical apparatus is located: internal or external to the base text.

Summary

The encoding description (encodingDesc) is the second section of the TEI header. It describes the relationship between the electronic text and its source text, either as loose prose in one or more paragraphs, or in minimally one of more specific elements. Aspects that can be documented are the editorial practice (editorialDecl), the project context in which the electronic text was realised (projectDesc), a declaration of all XML elements used in the encoding (tagsDecl), declaration of reference systems used in the encoding (refsDecl), and a declaration of any classification schemes used to classify the text (classDecl). When the verse TEI module is included in the TEI schema, the system for metrical analysis can be declared in the metDecl element. When the TEI schema includes the textcrit TEI module for the encoding of text-critical variants, the system used for variant encoding may be documented in variantEncoding.

In the previous sections, we added the encoding description for our electronic edition of , describing the editorial principles, the aim and purposes of the encoding, the different XML elements, their use and rendition, the system(s) that will be used to classify the text (further in the header), the notation system for metrical analyses of poems in the text, and the method of recording textual variation for the text-critical edition. This amounts to following encoding description:

Apparent errors have been corrected using the <sic> / <corr> elements, wrapped in a <choice> element.

Spelling has been modernised using the <orig> / <reg> elements, wrapped in a <choice> element.

Diplomatic transcription, all original quotation marks have been retained and normalised to double quotation marks.

End-of-line hyphenation has been removed. All other hyphenation has been retained.

Thematic analysis added, studying the main motifs.

Names and dates are marked.

Text encoded for The TBE collection: sample texts encoded with TEI, aiming at providing a collection of prime exemplar TEI encoded materials.

display:block; margin: 1em; display:block; margin-bottom: 0.5em; color:red; font-variant:small-caps; font-size:large; Marks text divisions in the source text. Marks paragraphs in the source text.

The paragraphs in the text are numbered with the n attribute. Each number consists of four digits; numbering is consecutive throughout the book. For example: 0203 numbers the 203th paragraph throughout the book.

Each chapter is identified with a formal identification code inside the xml:id attribute. Chapters are numbered using arabic numerals. The codes are composed by concatenating the identification codes for all ancestor text divisions down to the chapter level, with the dot as separation marker. For example: I.2.3 identifies the third chapter of the second book of the first volume.

Abridged Edition 14 Studies of Manners Scenes from Private Life Scenes from provincial life The Celibates Parisians in the Country The Jealousies of a Country Town Scenes from Parisian life The Thirteen Poor Relations Scenes from political life Scenes from military life Scenes from country life Philosophical studies Analytical studies long syllable short syllable foot boundary line boundary The encodingDesc header section for the example text.

Creation

If there are any details worth recording about the actual place or time of creation of the source text, this can be done in the creation element, as a loose prose description. This may be useful when the text was created long before its publication, as an exact situation in place and time can be important to certain types of research (e.g., study of (diachronic) linguistic variation). It is worth pointing out the difference between the use of the creation element, for details about the creation of a source text; and the sourceDesc element, for bibliographic details about the publication of the source text.

For example:

Original written in 1831 in Paris. Documentation of details about the creation of a source text with creation.

The creation element can provide a prose description of the circumstances in which a source text was created, such as its actual time and place of writing.

Language Usage

The langUsage subsection of the profile description provides room to describe the different languages used in the text. Each language must be described in a distinct language element. It may contain a prose description of the language (or dialect), and must provide a formal identification code for this language in the ident (identifier) attribute. When appropriate, the distribution of this language over the text contents can be stated as a percentage in a usage attribute. Section vi.1. Language identification of the TEI Guidelines offers recommendations for the constructions of the formal language identification codes for the ident attribute. It is important that these codes correspond to the values of the xml:lang attributes elsewhere in the electronic text to identify phrases in that language.

For example, the languages used in the English translation of could be defined as follows:

English French Arabic Documenting the languages of an electronic text in langUsage.

The languages used in an electronic text can be formally declared in the langUsage subsection of the profile description. Each language can be described in a separate language element, which must contain a formal identification code in the ident attribute, and can provide details about the distribution of this language in the text in a usage attribute.

Text Classification

The contents of the text can be classified according to one or more classification schemes in the textClass subsection of the profile description. It can be done by means of three specific elements: keywords: a list of keywords in a given keyword list classCode: a classification code in a given classification scheme catRef: a list of pointers to specific categories in a given taxonomy

In general, these elements allow for two kinds of classification: reference to an external classification scheme, which uses either subject headings (keywords), or classification codes (classCode) reference to specific categories in an internally defined taxonomy (catRef)

The keywords and classCode elements fulfil a similar role: they allow you to use classification categories defined in external classification schemes. If such a scheme defines categories in terms of subject headings, the keywords element should be used to refer to those keywords; if the scheme defines categories in terms of classification codes, the classCode element should be used. The classification scheme must be identified in the scheme attribute, which contains a pointer to its declaration in a taxonomy element inside the classDecl subsection of the encoding description (see ).

The keywords element must list the terms either in a series of term elements, or make use of a list structure. For example, can be classified in terms of the Library of Congress Subject Headings scheme as follows:

Literature Fiction and juvenile belles lettres Literature--Translations into English Classifying a text with the subject headings of a formal classification scheme, in keywords.

...and / or in terms of the Dewey Decimal Classification Scheme like this (see code 082 in the library record above):

843.7 Classifying a text with classification codes from a formal classification scheme, in classCode.

When you have defined your own classification system in the encoding description (see ), you can refer to one of its categories by means of the catRef element. This is an empty element that must point to the category definitions with a target attribute. This is basically a list of pointers to the xml:id attributes of the relevant categories in one of the taxonomy elements defined in the profileDesc section of the TEI header. If the reference to the category does not suffice, the scheme attribute may point to the declaration of the relevant taxonomy containing the category. For example, could be classified using the Balzac-specific classification scheme declared above as follows:

Classifying a text in terms of an internally developed taxonomy, with catRef.

An electronic text can be classified in the textClass subsection of the profile description. A classification can use a keyword (keyword) or a classification code (classCode) defined in an external classification scheme. The scheme attribute must be used to refer to the declaration of any external classification scheme in the classDecl subsection of the encoding description. Alternatively, the classification can be done using internally defined classification categories defined in the classDecl subsection of the encoding description. This is done by pointing to the definition of the relevant classification categories in the target attribute of a catRef element.

Document Hands

When the transcr TEI module for the transcription of primary sources is included in the TEI schema, the profile description contains an additional element for the declaration of the different hands occurring in the document handNotes.

See for a discussion of the elements in the TEI transcr module for a discussion of how to include the TEI transcr module in a TEI schema

Each hand that occurs in the source text can be identified in a handNote element, containing a prose description of its characteristics. It should be identified with an xml:id attribute, and can contain additional attributes for formalised documentation of the script or writing style (script), writing medium (medium), and an indication of the prominence of this hand in the text (scope). If the document hand can be ascribed to a specific person, this person can be identified in the scribe attribute.

For example, the handNotes element could be used to identify the hand in which the previous owner of the book has added some annotations (supposed we wanted to transcribe these as well), as well as the Arabic script in this example:

A page with Arabic script.

handwriting in blue ink by James Harding, previous owner of the book Arabic script Identifying hands in a text with handNotes.

When the transcr TEI module for the transcription of primary sources is included in the TEI schema, different hands in the source text can be identified in handNote elements inside a handNotes subsection of the profile description.

Summary

The profile description (profileDesc) is the third section of the TEI header. It describes all kinds of non-bibliographic information about an electronic text, either as loose prose in one or more paragraphs, or in minimally one of more specific elements. Aspects relating to the creation of the text can be documented in creation, the languages used in the document can be declared in langUsage, and a text classification can be provided in textClass. When the transcr TEI module for the representation of primary sources is included in the TEI schema, the different hands occurring in the source text can be formally documented in a handNotes element.

With the information about the text’s creation, languages, and classification in place, the profileDesc section of the TEI header for our sample text could look as follows:

Original written in 1831 in Paris. English French Arabic Literature Fiction and juvenile belles lettres Literature--Translations into English 843.7 handwriting in blue ink by James Harding, previous owner of the book Arabic script The profileDesc header section for the example text.