Critical Editions Cheatsheet

This page draws on the experience of the first of the TEI Cheatsheets, "TEI: Critical Apparatus Cheatsheet" (Marjorie Burghart, 2011).

Feel free to add other phenomena or tasks that should be covered. Some examples:

Biblical references and quotations

Work in progress: listing the different cases / problems

• Sometimes, the quotation is explicit, i. e. following or followed by a reference (for medieval times, only book and chapter, never the verse(s) of course):

Example: Matt. XXVI : Nam tunc principes sacerdotum cum senioribus populi congregati sunt in atrium Caiphe principis sacerdotum.

Recommendation from Lou: <quote><ref cRef="Mt 26.3">Matt. XXVI</ref> Nam tunc principes sacerdotum cum senioribus populi congregati sunt in atrium Caiphe principis sacerdotum</quote> with an associated <cRefPattern> in your teiHeader to decompose the cRef value into its component parts.

• Sometimes, the quotation is implicit, with no reference in the original text.

Example: Unde dicitur quod gentiles uocabant Paulum Mercurium qui erat dux uerbi.

Recommendation from Lou: Unde dicitur quod <quote>gentiles uocabant Paulum Mercurium qui erat dux uerbi<ptr cRef="Act 14.11"/></quote>. with an associated <cRefPattern> in your teiHeader to decompose the cRef value into its component parts.

• In all previous cases, the medieval author may have added "tool words" of his own in the quotation, or cut it in two parts, and the additional words should not be displayed the same way:

Example: Eph. V: Eratis enim aliquando tenebre, nunc autem lux in Domino.

• In all previous cases, the author or scribe may have made a blunder and the reference is sometimes erroneous. You could therefore have something like:

Example: Rom. V: Eratis enim aliquando tenebre, nunc autem lux in Domino.

• Eventually, the text of the quotation might be different from the text found in the Vulgate to an extent that requires the editor to mention it. This is usually something that belongs in the layer of notes regarding the textual variants, with the exact quote from the Vulgate.

• There are different Bible versions (Greek LXX, Latin Vulgate or Vetus Latina)

• There are different historical editions of the same Bible version (like a modern critical Vulgate or the Clementine Vulgate or manuscript X). Even two critical editions of the same Bible version might not follow the same versification (like Swete and Rahlfs for the LXX).

• The list of abbreviations used for the books of the bibles will vary according to the language, community,etc.

Recommendation to check Nestle-Aland, Sources chrétiennes, openbible, OSIS Also the list of abbr. in the Fischer-Weber edition of the Vulgate.

But is it the TEI's role to make recommendation on the set of abbreviations to use?

• It would be a Good Thing if there was some system for indicating levels of certainty w.r.to scribal biblical citations. E.g.
  • A = no shadow of a doubt what is the referent
  • B = the most likely of two possibilities
  • C = the most likely of three possibilities
  • D = no idea what this points to

Index nominum

You could have several levels of "complexity".

Simplest case

You just want to mention that "Jesus" in this sentence is a person name. This will not let you compile automatically a full-fledged index nominum, but may be useful for data exploration.

If you want to markup "Jesus" in the following sentence: Jezus z wielką chwałą przyjechał do Jeruzalem...

Suggestion:

 <persName>Jezus</persName> z wielką chwałą przyjechał do Jeruzalem

More complex

You want to create a link between this occurrence of a name and a single entry describing a person in index nominum:

Example: Arthemandus senior comes de Quibor et M[argarita] comitissa uxor illius omnibus presentem paginam intuentibus salutem in omnium salvatore.

Suggestion:

• In the text: Jezus</persName>

 <persName ref="#Hartmann4">Arthemandus senior comes de Quibor</persName> et <persName ref="#Marg">M[argarita] 
 comitissa</persName> uxor illius omnibus presentem paginam intuentibus salutem in omnium salvatore.

Nota: it is absolutely possible to encode the previous names with more details (for instance, it is possible to encode their titles (count and countess). But here we are assuming that you are only interested in building an index nominum, and those pieces of information are irrelevant for that.

• Somewhere else in the TEI file, or an external TEI file: encode the person

 <listPerson>
    <person xml:id="Hartmann4">
    <persName>Hartmann IV l'Ancien
    <roleName>comte de <placeName>Kibourg</placeName></roleName>
    </persName>
    <death when="1264-11-27"/>
    </person>
    <person xml:id="Marg">
      Marguerite de Savoie (1212-1270 ou 73), fille du comte de Savoie Thomas Ier, et épouse d'Hartmann IV de Kibourg depuis 1218
    </person>
 </listPerson>

Question: In some instances, you may find a name in your text and not be certain to which person it refers. For instance, a single first name might refer to two or more people in your list of persons. What would be the recommended encoding?

Index locorum

Same as for the index nominum, but replace persName with placeName, listPerson with listPlace and person with place.