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+
+
+
+
+ Rezension der „Alfred-Escher-Briefedition“
+
+ author
+
+
+ Dominik
+ Kasper
+
+
+ Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur Mainz
+ Mainz
+
+ dominik.kasper (at) adwmainz.de
+
+
+
+
+ Institut für Dokumentologie und Editorik
+ June 2019
+ 10
+ https://ride.i-d-e.de/issues/issue-10/alfred-escher-briefedition
+ 10.18716/ride.a.10.5
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Alfred Escher-Briefedition
+ Joseph Jung
+
+ Editor
+
+ Joseph Jung
+
+
+
+ Programmer
+
+ Ute Recker-Hamm
+
+
+
+ Advisor
+
+ Patrick Sahle
+
+
+
+ Designer
+
+ Wolfgang Vater
+
+
+
+ Encoder
+
+ too many
+
+
+
+ Contributor
+
+ too many
+
+
+
+ 2015
+
+
+ https://www.briefedition.alfred-escher.ch/
+
+
+
+ 2018-05-22
+
+
+
+
Auf der Basis von http://www.i-d-e.de/publikationen/weitereschriften/criteria-version-1-1
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 1.2
+
+ Is it easily possible to describe the project bibliographically along the schema "responsible editors, publishing/hosting institution, year(s) of publishing"?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 1.4
+
+ Are the contributors (editors, institutions, associates) of the project fully documented?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 1.5
+
+ Does the project list contact persons?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.1
+
+ Is the selection of materials of the project explicitly documented?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.1
+
+ Is the selection by and large reasonable?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.16
+
+ Does the documentation include information about the long term sustainability of the basic data (archiving of the data)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.1
+
+ Are the aims and purposes of the project explicitly documented?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.1
+
+ Are the methods employed in the project explicitly documented?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.7
+
+ Does the project document which data model (e.g. TEI) has been used and for what reason?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.15
+
+ Does the project offer help texts concerning the use of the project?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.8
+
+ Does the project supply citation guidelines (i.e. how to cite the project or a part of it)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.16
+
+ Does the editon regard itself as a completed project (i.e. not promise further modifications and additions)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.13
+
+ Does the project provide information about institutional support for the curation and sustainability of the project?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.2
+
+ Has the material been previously edited (in print or digitally)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.2
+
+ Does the edition make use of these previous editions?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.15
+
+ Does the project offer an introduction to the subject-matter (the author(s), the work, its history, the theme, etc.) of the project?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.3
+
+ Does the project offer a bibliography?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.3
+
+ Does the project offer a scholarly commentary (e.g. notes on unclear passages, interpretation, etc.)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.3
+
+ Does the project include or link to external resources with contextual material?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.3
+
+ Does the project offer images of digitised sources?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.6
+
+ Does the project offer images of an acceptable quality?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.3
+
+ Is the text fully transcribed?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.6
+
+ Does the project offer texts of an acceptable quality (typos, errors, etc.)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.5
+
+ Does the project feature compilations indices, registers or visualisations that offer alternative ways to access the material?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 1.3 and 2.1
+
+ Which kinds of documents are at the basis of the project?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 1.3 and 2.1
+
+ What era(s) do the documents belong to?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 1.3
+
+ Which perspective(s) do the editors take towards the edited material? How can the edition be classified in general terms?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.11
+
+ Does the project offer any spin-offs?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Print (selection)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.3
+
+ By which categories does the project offer to browse the contents?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.4
+
+ Does the project offer a simple search?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.4
+
+ Does the project offer an advanced search?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.4
+
+ Does the search support the use of wildcards?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.4
+
+ Does the search offer an index of the searched field?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.4
+
+ Does the search offer autocompletion or suggest functionalities?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.4
+
+ Does the project offer help texts for the search?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.3
+
+ Who is the intended audience of the project?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.3 and 5.1
+
+ Which type fits best for the reviewed project?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Method
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.6
+
+ In how far is the text critically edited?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.7
+
+
+ Is the data encoded in XML?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Is the project employing a standardized data model (e.g. TEI)?
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.5.
+
+ Which kinds or forms of text are presented?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.8
+
+ Are there persistent identifiers and an addressing system for the
+ edition and/or parts/objects of it and which mechanism is used to
+ that end?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.9
+
+ Are there technical interfaces like OAI-PMH, REST etc., which allow the reuse of the data of the project in other contexts?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Is the edition Open Access?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.12
+
+ Is the basic data (e.g. the XML) of the project accessible for each part of the edition (e.g. for a page)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.9
+
+ Can the entire raw data of the project be downloaded (as a whole)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.9
+
+ Can you use the data with other tools useful for this kind of content?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.13
+
+ Are the rights to (re)use the content declared?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.13
+
+ Under what license are the contents released?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
Based on letters from politician and industrialist Alfred Escher (1819–1882), an important
+ protagonist of Modern Swiss history, and his correspondents, the Alfred
+ Escher-Briefedition offers central insight into the economic and
+ political history of Switzerland during the 19th century. At the same
+ time, it reflects the personal development of Alfred Escher himself.
+ Most of the letters, which he sent or which were addressed to him, are
+ being published for the first time in this scholarly edition. Escher’s
+ correspondence is explored via editorial comments about specific
+ subjects, as well as an index of persons and places. Extensive
+ commentaries facilitate the placement of a respective source text in its
+ broader historical context. Whereas only a selection of the letters
+ written by and sent to Escher was presented within a chronological
+ thematic arrangement in the six volumes of the 2008–2015 print edition,
+ it is worth mentioning that the continuously expanded online version,
+ published since July 1st 2015, subsequently closes the gap between the
+ two converging parts of the entire collection. The online edition also
+ provides further accessibility and an array of interactive possibilities
+ that go beyond the potential of the print edition. In this article,
+ aspects of the ‘digital paradigm’ of the Alfred Escher-Briefedition are
+ reflected upon and explained.
+
+
+ Einführung
+
Auf Basis von Briefen des Politikers und Unternehmers
+ Alfred Escher (1819–1882, ), einem herausragenden Akteur der
+ jüngeren Schweizer Geschichte, und seiner Korrespondenzpartner, bietet die
+ Alfred Escher-Briefedition zentrale Einblicke
+ sowohl in die wirtschaftliche als auch in die politische Geschichte der
+ Schweiz im Verlauf des 19. Jahrhunderts. Zugleich reflektiert sie die
+ persönliche Entwicklung von Alfred Escher selbst. Die Mehrheit der von ihm
+ verschickten oder an ihn adressierten Briefe wird in dieser Edition zum
+ ersten Mal publiziert und über Sachkommentare und Register zu Personen und
+ Orten erschlossen. Umfangreiche Überblickskommentare erleichtern die
+ Einordnung in den breiteren historischen Kontext. Während in den sechs
+ Bänden der 2008–2015 erschienen Druckausgabe Jung, Joseph (Hrsg.),
+ Alfred Escher: Briefe: ein Editions- und Forschungsprojekt der
+ Alfred-Escher-Stiftung. Bd. 1–6, Zürich: Verl. Neue Zürcher
+ Zeitung 2008–2015 (NZZ Libro). Bibliographische Angaben zu den
+ einzelnen Druckbänden finden sich im
+ Literaturverzeichnis. der Edition jeweils nur eine
+ Auswahl der Briefe von und an Escher in chronologisch-thematischer Anordnung
+ vorgestellt wird, schließt die am 1. Juli 2015 Bereits am 21. Februar
+ 2012 wurde ein Prototyp mit 501 Briefe aus dem Zeitraum von 1831
+ bis 1848 online verfügbar gemacht. (vgl. Veröffentlichung unter
+ .
+ Ein Blick in das Internetarchiv mit Hilfe der Wayback Machine bestätigt für den 29. Februar das
+ Vorhandensein einer Website mit einer Auswahl an Briefen
+ ()
+ Der eigentliche Launch mit allen Briefen erfolgte dann am 1.
+ Juli 2015, was ebenfalls der Projektbeschreibung entnommen und
+ von der Wayback Machine bestätigt werden
+ kann. offiziell veröffentlichte und seitdem
+ kontinuierlich erweiterte und verbesserte Onlinefassung Jung,
+ Joseph (Hrsg.), Digitale Briefedition Alfred Escher, Launch Juli
+ 2015 (laufend aktualisiert), Zürich: Alfred Escher-Stiftung.
+ .
+ Die Zitation folgt dem Vorschlag auf der Website, zwischen Jung und Joseph
+ wurde jedoch ein Komma ergänzt und die URL nach den
+ RIDE-Vorgaben in einen Snapshot des Internet-Archivs verwandelt.
+ die Lücken zum Gesamtbestand. Sie stellt außerdem
+ weitere Zugänge und Benutzungsmöglichkeiten zur Verfügung, die über die
+ Möglichkeiten des Druckmediums hinausgehen und im Folgenden näher betrachtet
+ werden.
+
+
+ Über die Rezension
+
Diese Rezension betrachtet schwerpunktmäßig den
+ methodischen Rahmen und die Umsetzung des digitalen Teils der Edition aus
+ der Digital Humanities-Perspektive. Angesichts der sachlichen Tiefe und des
+ Umfangs an Quellenmaterial, das einen wichtigen Teil der Geschichte der
+ Schweiz im 19. Jahrhundert bezeugt, können inhaltliche Aspekte auch deshalb
+ nur am Rande berücksichtigt werden, da der Rezensent kein Spezialist für die
+ Geschichte der Schweiz ist. Es soll hier vielmehr allgemein in den Blick
+ genommen werden, wie sich der online bereitgestellte Teil der Edition zu den
+ an verschiedenen Orten formulierten allgemeinen Siehe Sahle (2016) und
+ Hochstrasser (2014). Hochstrasser war an der Konzeption und dem
+ Projektmanagement des digitalen Teils der Edition in seiner
+ Funktion als Leiter des Zentralen Firmenarchivs der Credit
+ Suisse Group beteiligt. Daher verwundert es nicht, dass die
+ Edition die von ihm erhobenen und in sechs Themenblöcken
+ gruppierten Kriterien (1. Über die Edition, 2. Inhalt, 3.
+ Kritisches Material, 4. Zugang und Hypertexte, 5. User-Hilfen
+ und Funktionen, 6. Technisches Design, vgl. Hochstrasser (2014),
+ S. 266) fast vollständig umsetzt. und
+ speziellen Siehe Stadler (2012) und Stadler
+ (2014). Anforderungen an digitale Briefeditionen
+ verhält. Die Rezension verwendet den „Kriterienkatalog für die Besprechung
+ digitaler Editionen“ Siehe Sahle (2014). als
+ Richtlinie und untersucht daher Gegenstand und Inhalt der Edition, Ziele und
+ Methoden, deren Umsetzung und Präsentation sowie die zeitlichen,
+ finanziellen und personellen Rahmenbedingungen. Wo es notwendig und sinnvoll
+ erscheint, wird auf Unterschiede zur Druckausgabe hingewiesen. Das
+ betrifft insbesondere die aufgrund technisch-medialer Faktoren
+ bestehenden Unterschiede im Bereich der Präsentation/Wiedergabe
+ und – sofern ermittelbar – im Erschließungs- und
+ Produktionsprozess.
+
+
+ Das Vorhaben im Überblick
+
Die Alfred Escher-Briefedition kann zunächst grob als
+ wissenschaftliche, historisch-thematische Briefwechsel-Edition
+ charakterisiert werden, die sowohl eine gedruckte als auch eine online
+ verfügbare Komponente hat (Hybridedition). Eine engere Charakterisierung
+ bzw. Einordnung der Edition wird im Folgenden vorgenommen.
+
+ Zu den Druckbänden
+
Im gedruckten Teil wird jeweils nur eine Auswahl
+ der Korrespondenz Eschers aus einem bestimmten Zeitraum und zu einem
+ bestimmten Thema publiziert. Es handelt sich um insgesamt
+ 798 Briefe (ein Telegramm inklusive): 208 von Escher, 591 an
+ ihn gerichtet. Der Anteil an Briefen von Escher selbst liegt
+ also bei etwa 26 %. Die inhaltliche und
+ chronologische Einteilung der Druckbände sowie die Anzahl der Briefe
+ werden im Folgenden tabellarisch zusammengefasst.
+
+
+ Bd.
+ Untertitel
+ Zeitraum
+ Anzahl Briefe
+ Bemerkungen
+
+
+ 1,1
+ Briefe zur schweizerischen
+ Alpenbahnfrage
+ 1850–1882
+ 427 (115 von, 312 an Escher) mit 88
+ Korrespondenten
+ Auswahl aus insgesamt 2080 Von- und An-Briefen,
+ die sich ganz oder in Teilen mit dem Thema Alpenbahn
+ befassen. Escher (2008c), S. 709f.
+ Innerhalb der weiteren Chronologie kommt dem Band
+ eine Sonderrolle zu, wie an der Spalte „Zeitraum“
+ der obigen Übersichtstabelle der Druckbände
+ ersichtlich wird.
+
+
+ 1,2
+ s. 1,1
+ s. 1,1
+ s. 1,1
+ s. 1,1
+
+
+ 1,3
+ s. 1,1
+ s. 1,1
+ -
+ Keine Briefe, sondern Begleittexte, Karten,
+ Verzeichnisse und Register.
+
+
+ 2
+ Alfred Eschers Briefe aus der Jugend und
+ Studentenzeit
+ 1831–1843
+ 68 (19 von, 49 an Escher) mit 26
+ Korrespondenten
+ Auswahl aus „Rund 200“ Von- und An-Briefen, die
+ aus seiner Jugend und Studentenzeit stammen. Escher (2010), S.
+ 7f.
+
+
+ 3
+ Alfred Eschers Briefwechsel. Jesuiten,
+ Freischaren, Sonderbund, Bundesrevision
+ 1843–1848
+ 86 (18 von, 68 an Escher) mit 43
+ Korrespondenten
+ Auswahl aus „Rund 300“ Von- und An-Briefen von
+ 01.08.1843 bis 31.10.1848. Im Titel des Bandes wird hier
+ erstmals von „Briefwechsel“ gesprochen. Escher (2011), S.
+ 9.
+
+
+ 4
+ Alfred Eschers Briefwechsel. Aufbau des jungen
+ Bundesstaates, politische Flüchtlinge und Neutralität
+ 1848–1852
+ 83 (10 von, 73 an Escher) mit 40
+ Korrespondenten
+ Auswahl aus „Rund 440“ Von- und An-Briefen vom
+ 01.11.1848 bis 31.07.1852. Escher (2012), S.
+ 7.
+
+
+ 5
+ Alfred Eschers Briefwechsel.
+ Wirtschaftsliberales Zeitfenster, Gründungen,
+ Aussenpolitik
+ 1852–1866
+ 106 (30 von, 76 an Escher) mit 51
+ Korrespondenten
+ Auswahl von „Rund 1670 Briefe[n] und 590
+ Telegramme[n]“ von und an Escher aus dem Zeitraum 01.08.1852 bis
+ 31.12.1866. In diesem Band sind auch die einleitenden Texte nach
+ hinten gestellt. Escher (2013), S.
+ 347.
+
+
+ 6
+ Alfred Eschers Briefwechsel. Private
+ Eisenbahngesellschaften in der Krise, Gotthardbahn, politische
+ Opposition
+ 1866–1882
+ 28 Briefe und ein Telegramm (15 und das
+ Telegramm von, 13 an Escher) mit 16 Korrespondenten. Drei der
+ Briefe stammen aus dem Jahr 1864 und wurden aus thematischen
+ Gründen hier aufgenommen
+ Auswahl aus „Rund 2540 Briefe[n] und 1940
+ Telegramme[n]“ von und an Escher aus dem Zeitraum 01.01.1866 bis
+ 06.12.1882. Escher (2015), S.
+ 266.
+
+
+
+
+ Zum digitalen Teil
+
Der digitale Teil ist als „Edition sämtlicher
+ bekannter Briefe von und an Alfred Escher“ Vgl. Veröffentlichung unter
+ .
+ angelegt. Insgesamt werden online 5018 überlieferte Briefe
+ bereitgestellt, 1196 stammen von Escher, 3822 sind an ihn gerichtet.
+ Insgesamt liegt der Anteil an Escher-Briefen in der Edition
+ also bei etwa 24 %. Im Herbst 2013 gibt Jung die Anzahl der
+ identifizierten Briefe noch mit 5360 an, vgl. Escher (2013),
+ S. 347.. Davon ausgenommen sind die ca. 2200
+ identifizierten Telegramme und die gesamte Geschäftskorrespondenz.
+ Vgl. Briefbestand unter
+ .
+ Die Unterscheidungskriterien zwischen privater und
+ geschäftlicher Korrespondenz liegen in Unterschrift und
+ Anrede, erklärt an einem Beispiel im Abschnitt Briefe und weitere Schreiben unter
+ .
+ Nicht aufgenommen werden den Briefen beigefügte Materialien.
+ Vgl. Briefelemente unter
+ .
+ Escher selbst hat die an ihn gerichteten Briefe zum größten Teil
+ aufbewahrt, unglücklicherweise gilt das nur selten für die Briefe, die
+ er selbst versandt hat. Vgl. Escher (2008c), S.
+ 709. Daraus erklärt sich die große Differenz in der
+ Korrespondenz.
+
Neben den zusätzlichen Inhalten bietet die Website weitere (visuelle)
+ Zugänge sowie Funktionen, die dem Benutzer das Speichern und Teilen von
+ Briefen erlauben. Die digitale Komponente bezeichnet sich selbst als
+ „Digitale Briefedition“ Der allgemeine Zitiervorschlag für die
+ Gesamtedition sieht wie folgt aus: Jung Joseph (Hrsg.),
+ Digitale Briefedition Alfred Escher, Launch Juli 2015
+ (laufend aktualisiert), Zürich: Alfred Escher-Stiftung. Bei
+ einem Einzelbrief-Zitat wird dieser Vorschlag lediglich um
+ die URL ergänzt. In dieser Rezension wird dem Vorschlag
+ gefolgt, obzwar kritisch anzumerken ist, dass im Sinne der
+ leichteren Erkennbarkeit der zitierten Ressource auch die
+ Angabe des Brieftitels zu empfehlen wäre.,
+ während in den Titeleien der Druckbände von einem „Editions- und
+ Forschungsprojekt“ gesprochen wird. Die Emanzipation der Website vom
+ Druckband verdeutlicht bereits ein fehlender Direktzugang zu den Briefen
+ über die inhärente Logik des Druckbandes (Briefnummern, Seiten). Das
+ digitale Angebot steht also für sich selbst; Druckort und Briefnummer im
+ Band werden zwar bei den entsprechenden Briefen oberhalb des
+ editorischen Briefkopfs zusammen mit den projektspezifischen und
+ archivalischen Signaturen als Druckorte erwähnt,
+ Siehe bspw.
+ .
+ stellen die digitale Edition aber nicht in ein abgeleitetes oder sonst
+ wie abhängiges Verhältnis zur Druckedition. Dass die digitale Fassung
+ mehr als nur die elektronische Ausgabe einer Druckedition darstellt, d.
+ h. einem digitalen Paradigma Vgl. Sahle (2016), besonders
+ Absatz 18–24. folgt und daher – unter
+ anderem – nicht einfach ohne Funktionsverlust ausgedruckt werden kann,
+ ist bereits nach wenigen vergleichenden Blicken zwischen Buch und
+ Website ersichtlich. In Patrick Sahles Onlinekatalog für
+ „Digital Scholarly Editions“ (Sahle 2008–2018) wird die
+ Alfred Escher-Briefedition unter „… some particularly
+ interesting editions / projects“ positiv herausgestellt und
+ angesichts ihrer vielen Zugänge und Funktionen als
+ „state-of-the-art in digitaler Editorik“ bezeichnet
+ ().
+ Diese Einschätzung verwundert nicht, da Sahle selbst
+ zumindest konzeptionell involviert war, wie oben im Kapitel
+ Organisatorische Rahmenbedingung ersichtlich
+ wird. Weitere Aspekte zur Praxis und Theorie der
+ Digitalität der Edition werden im Folgenden genannt.
+
+
+
+ Organisatorische Rahmenbedingungen
+
Zum zeitlichen und organisatorischen Ablauf des
+ Projekts, dem Gegenstand und den Arbeiten an der gedruckten und digitalen
+ Edition stellt das Vorhaben verständliche, nachvollziehbare und sofort
+ auffindbare Informationen auf seiner Website unter
+
+ bereit.
+
Am Anfang des Vorhabens standen die
+ Korrespondenz-Transkriptionsarbeiten für die erste Auflage der Alfred
+ Escher-Biographie Siehe Jung (2006). des
+ späteren Editionsprojektsleiters Joseph Jung. Vgl. Escher (2008c), S.
+ 709. Der erste Druckband der Edition wurde 2008
+ veröffentlicht, worin auf bereits für eine biographische Publikation zu
+ Escher gemachte Vorarbeiten zurückgegriffen werden konnte. Im selben Jahr
+ begann die systematische Transkription sämtlicher Briefe. Bis 2015
+ erschienen in hoher Taktung weitere Druckbände. Die erste Vorstellung des
+ digitalen Vorhabens erfolgte im August 2010 auf einer Expertentagung in
+ Zürich. Die daran anschließende Konzeptentwicklung wurde von Patrick Sahle
+ vom Cologne Center for eHumanities unterstützt und im
+ Januar 2011 auf einem Workshop an der Universität Köln Experten
+ verschiedener Fachrichtungen zur kritischen Diskussion vorgestellt. Bereits
+ am 21. Februar 2012 konnte eine Pilot-Edition von 501 Briefen aus dem
+ Zeitraum 1831–1848 online gestellt werden. Die Freischaltung der übrigen
+ Briefe erfolgte dann am 1. Juli 2015.
+
Die beeindruckend hohe Geschwindigkeit zeigt den großen Vorteil des
+ „Single-Source-Prinzips“ bei der Herstellung von verschiedenen
+ Ausgabeformaten oder anders formuliert: der Transmedialisierung von
+ Editionen. Vgl. Sahle (2017), S. 241.
+ So wurden sowohl die Druck-PDFs als auch die Webansichten auf der Basis von
+ grundlegenden XML-Dateien erstellt, für deren Erstellung und Modellierung
+ die Firma swissedit Vgl.
+ .
+ verantwortlich zeichnet. Vgl. Gedruckte
+ Edition unter
+ .
+
Die herausragend gute personelle Ausstattung war für die schnelle Publikation
+ höchstwahrscheinlich ebenfalls ein zentraler Faktor. So konnte das Vorhaben
+ auf über 130 Personen zugreifen, die – teils zu verschiedenen Zeiten – aktiv
+ oder beratend an den verschiedenen Arbeitsprozessen beteiligt waren.
+ Mitarbeiter, Berater und Förderer werden auf der folgenden
+ Webseite differenziert aufgelistet:
+ .
+ Über 33.000 Arbeitsstunden in den Bereichen Transkription, Personenrecherche
+ und Auszeichnung wurden dabei von insgesamt 60 Studierenden verschiedener
+ Universitäten in Sommercamps durchgeführt, 9 wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter
+ sicherten die Betreuung und führten Qualitätskontrollen durch. Vgl.
+ Transkription und Briefbearbeitung
+ unter
+ .
+ Finanziell gefördert wurde das Projekt der Alfred Escher-Stiftung von
+ Banken, Kantonen, Versicherungen, Fonds und anderen Stiftungen. Vgl.
+ .
+
+
+ Ziele und Grundsätze des Projekts
+
Mit der Bereitstellung der Edition verfolgt die Alfred
+ Escher-Stiftung das wissenschaftliche Ziel, der Alfred Escher-Forschung
+ diese wichtigen Quellen zur Verfügung zu stellen und verspricht zugleich
+ „reiche neue Erkenntnisse hinsichtlich wichtiger Ereignisse und
+ Entwicklungen in der Schweizer Wirtschafts-, Kultur- und
+ Parteiengeschichte“. Vgl. Projektbeschrieb unter
+ .
+ Der Herausgeber hat außerdem an anderer Stelle die gegenwartsbezogene
+ Interpretation und Neubelebung von Eschers „liberale[m] Pioniergeist“
+ Joseph Jung in einem Interview, zitiert nach Hafner
+ (2010). als gesellschaftliches Ziel der Edition
+ genannt.
+
Insgesamt werden editorische Entscheidungen verständlich und nachvollziehbar
+ begründet. Auf der Website des Vorhabens und in jedem Druckband finden sich
+ genaue Angaben zu den Transkriptionsprinzipien. Sehr umfangreich online:
+ Transkription unter
+ ;
+ in jedem Druckband ebenfalls, aber etwas knapper, siehe bspw.
+ Escher (2008c), S. 711f. Stichprobenartig konnten keine
+ Widersprüche ermittelt werden. Die Onlinefassung ist allerdings
+ an vielen Stellen präziser und notwendigerweise umfangreicher,
+ da die sich der Bestand erheblich vergrößert
+ hat. Die Erschließung der Inhalte durch
+ Stellenkommentare, Register (Personen und Orte) Der erste Druckband
+ enthält zusätzlich ein Register der Eisenbahngesellschaften, das
+ offenbar nicht als eigenständiges Verzeichnis in die digitale
+ Ausgabe aufgenommen wurde. und Schlagworte sowie
+ die historische Einordnung stehen gegenüber einer streng philologischen
+ Textkonstitution klar im Vordergrund, was sowohl in dokumentierten
+ editorischen Entscheidungen als auch in der Informationsarchitektur der
+ Website deutlich wird. So heißt es zwar, dass die Briefe „grundsätzlich
+ buchstaben- und zeichengetreu transkribiert“
+ Grundsätzliches unter
+ .
+ werden, zahlreiche Abweichungen von einer zeichengenauen Übertragung sind
+ aber ebenfalls dokumentiert und betreffen z. B. bestimmte Sonderzeichen,
+ Interpunktion (die am Ende der Zeile stillschweigend ergänzt wird),
+ Leerzeichen und Trennstriche am Zeilenende. In den Einleitungen der
+ Druckbände wird die historisch-thematische Ausrichtung noch einmal deutlich
+ hervorgehoben:
+
Auf eine vollständige diplomatische Wiedergabe
+ einschliesslich aller textgenetischen Eigenheiten (Verortung und genau
+ Darstellung von Textzusatz, -ersatz und -umstellung) wird zugunsten einer
+ leichteren Lesbarkeit verzichtet. Eine ausdifferenzierte philologische
+ Textdarstellung wird für das vorliegende, in erster Linie in historischer
+ Hinsicht interessierende Textkorpus als nicht angemessen erachtet.
+ Escher (2008c), S. 711.Diese Passage findet sich auch in den
+ übrigen Druckbänden.
+ Abb. 1: Diplomatischer Text und Bild.
+
Trotz dieser Einschränkung bietet die Onlineausgabe
+ (die auf den gleichen Transkriptionsarbeiten in XML basiert) eine
+ Präsentationsform der Briefe mit dem Titel „Diplomatischer Text und Bild“
+ (und umgekehrt) (Abb. 1). Die Bezeichnung ist hier wohl nicht im strengen Sinne zu
+ verstehen, Zur inflationären Verwendung von
+ „diplomatisch“, vgl. Radecke et al. (2015), S. 280, Anm.
+ 12. sondern meint im Wesentlichen, dass hier
+ gegenüber dem edierten (Lese-)Text – der Seitenumbrüche markiert und Absätze
+ pauschal einrückt –, zusätzlich auch Streichungen, Ergänzungen,
+ Hervorhebungen im Original, die grundsätzliche Absatzausrichtung sowie die
+ Zeilenumbrüche erhalten bleiben. Vgl. die Kapitel
+ Edierter Brief und
+ Diplomatischer Text und Bild unter
+ .
+ Hier wird u. A. auch die standardisierte Wiedergabe typischer
+ Briefelemente (Grußformel, Datumszeile, Unterschrift,
+ Postskriptum …) dokumentiert. Letztere wurden
+ aber offenbar nicht nur aus dokumentarischen Gründen, die Materialität
+ betreffend, erfasst, sondern dienen auch der Orientierung bei einer
+ synoptischen Darstellung von Text und Handschriftendigitalisat. Mit Hilfe
+ eines auf Farbkontrast- und Abstandserkennung basierenden automatischen
+ Schwellenwertverfahrens wurden die zeilengenauen Transkriptionen den
+ entsprechenden Bereichen der digitalen Faksimiles direkt zugeordnet (mapping) und anschließend manuell kontrolliert und
+ bearbeitet. Vgl. Grafikinhalte
+ unter
+
+ –Danke an Ute Recker-Hamm für die näheren Informationen zum
+ technischen Hintergrund des Text-Bild-mapping-Verfahrens. Auf diese Weise
+ ist es dem Projekt möglich, transkribierte Textzeilen in Form eines
+ grafischen Overlays, das per Mauszeigerbewegung aktiviert und per Klick
+ fixiert werden kann, direkt auf dem digitalen Faksimile darzustellen.
+
Auch umgekehrt können Ausschnitte des Digitalisats auf dem zeilen- und
+ seitengenauen Text abgebildet werden. Beide Ansichten können in jeder
+ Brief-Einzelansicht über die Auswahl „Diplomatischer Text und Bild“ bzw.
+ „Bild und diplomatischer Text“ eingenommen werden.
+
+
+ Umsetzung der Website und Präsentation der Inhalte
+
Die im flat-Design
+ Für eine Begriffserläuterung vgl. May 2018.
+ gestaltete Startseite eröffnet vier prominent platzierte und auf den
+ ersten Blick wahrnehmbare Zugänge zu den edierten Briefen: Ereignisse,
+ Briefe, Personen, Orte (Abb. 2). Die Ziele der Anreißer oder Teaser sind auch über die Hauptnavigation
+ erreichbar, die sich unterhalb des im Hauptfokus des Benutzers
+ platzierten Logos der Alfred Escher-Stiftung befindet.
+ Überraschenderweise steht nur dort, nicht aber bei den Teasern, der
+ Direktzugang zu einer Briefliste an erster Stelle (im Sinne der
+ westlichen Leseerwartung von oben links nach unten rechts). Die erste
+ Position unter den Teasern nimmt der Zugang Ereignisse ein. Er führt zu einer chronologischen Übersicht
+ wichtiger Ereignisse (Abb. 3), in Kontext gesetzt mit den Lebensjahren Alfred
+ Eschers. Die Zeiträume von Ereignissen werden als horizontale Balken
+ dargestellt. Etwas schlecht zu erkennen sind die vertikalen Balken auf
+ Jahresebene, deren Höhe mit der Anzahl an Briefen im entsprechenden Jahr
+ korrespondiert. Der Tooltip zeigt die Briefanzahl. Mit einem Klick gelangt man in eine
+ Übersicht des aktuellen Jahres mit einer Monats-Navigation. Die Briefe
+ werden in einer gewohnten Kalenderansicht am Tag des ermittelten
+ Briefdatums erreichbar gemacht.
+ Abb. 4: Zugang Briefe.
+
Der Zugang über den Startseiten-Teaser „Briefe“ bzw. den ersten Punkt des
+ Hauptmenüs führt zu einer auf unterschiedliche Weise sortierbaren Liste
+ mit allen Brieftiteln – verlinkt zum entsprechenden Brief (Abb. 4). Im oberen
+ Bereich befinden sich Facettierungsmöglichkeiten nach Sender, Empfänger
+ und Datierung. Letztere kann über ein grafisches Element mit
+ Balkenauswahl auf Jahresbereiche und mithilfe manueller Eingabefelder
+ bis auf Tagesebene eingegrenzt werden. In der linken Spalte findet sich
+ eine Auswahl an thematischen Schlagworten, die zur weiteren
+ Einschränkung der Auswahlmenge genutzt werden können. Da hier alle
+ Briefe gelistet wurden, dient die Schlagwortliste gleichsam als
+ thematische Navigation innerhalb der Briefe. Die Schlagworte
+ wurden manuell vergeben und eigens erstellt. Es wurde kein
+ kontrolliertes Vokabular im Sinne einer
+ projektübergreifenden Ontologie verwendet, vgl. Metadaten unter
+ .
+ Im Gegensatz zu den im Folgenden noch näher erläuterten registerartigen
+ Zugängen über Personen und Orte, ist dieser Zugang allerdings auf die
+ eigentlichen Briefe beschränkt und berücksichtigt keine Vorkommen in
+ Überblickskommentaren oder Biographien. Die alphabetische
+ Schlagwort-Liste ist zudem etwas unübersichtlich, eine Gewichtung durch
+ unterschiedliche Schriftgrößen erleichtert die Orientierung aber.
+ Abb. 5: Zugang Orte.
+
Von der Startseite aus ist es auch möglich, sich den Inhalten über einen
+ geographischen Zugang zu nähern. Ein Klick auf Orte führt zu einer
+ eingebundenen, interaktiven Karte, die in Briefen, Überblickskommentaren
+ und Biographien kodierte Orte in ihrer entsprechenden Funktion
+ verzeichnet (Abb. 5). Orte fungiert dabei als Überbegriff
+ für (Wohn-)Orte, Territorien, Gebirge und Gewässer. Eine Legende erklärt
+ die durch unterschiedliche Fähnchensymbole georeferenzierten Ortsnamen.
+ Von jedem anklickbaren Fähnchen aus lassen sich zugeordnete Briefe,
+ Personenbiographien oder Kommentare erreichen. Eine Buchstabennavigation
+ oberhalb der Karte ermöglicht den Zugang via Ort auch über eine
+ alphabetische Liste.
Der Startseiten-Teaser „Personen“ führt direkt zu einer alphabetischen
+ Liste (Abb. 6). Hier ist es möglich, sich eine Liste der Korrespondenten oder
+ eine Liste von Korrespondenten und erwähnten Personen anzeigen zu
+ lassen. Nicht möglich ist eine Einschränkung auf die lediglich erwähnten
+ Personen, was wünschenswert wäre und sich wohl leicht ergänzen
+ ließe.
+
+
Der eigentliche Personeneintrag (Abb. 7) liefert eine Kurzbiographie und listet
+ außerdem Briefe, Überblickskommentare und Biographien, in denen die
+ Person erwähnt wird sowie Briefe, in denen sie als Sender respektive
+ Empfänger fungiert. Externe Links in der linken Spalte verweisen via
+ Metagrid, einem Konkordanz-System für Normdaten, automatisch auf
+ Angebote mit weiteren biographische Informationen zur Person.
+ Vgl.
+ Metagrid unter
+ .
+ Eine Erklärung für eine automatische Verfahrensweise zur
+ Verknüpfung von Datensätzen via Normdatenangaben findet sich
+ bei Stadler (2012), S. 177f. Dies ist
+ möglich, da die Personendatensätze der Edition mit einer GND-Nummer
+ versehen wurden. Vgl.
+ Kurzbiographien unter
+ . Allerdings finden sich nicht bei allen Personen externe Links, so fehlen
+ diese beispielsweise bei Alfred Escher selbst.
+ Vgl. .
+ Unterhalb der externen Links werden noch zwei
+ Facettierungsmöglichkeiten angeboten, allerdings nur für die gelisteten
+ Briefe, in denen die Person als Sender oder Empfänger auftritt: nach den
+ darin erwähnten Personen und nach thematischen Schlagworten.
+
+
Bei einem genaueren Blick in die Brieftexte fällt auf, dass in Entitäten
+ wie „Neuen Glarner Zeitung“ oder „St. Gallen-Zeitung“ nicht die Zeitung als
+ Ganzes, sondern lediglich der Ort ausgezeichnet wurde.
+ Vgl. Jung Joseph (Hrsg.), Digitale Briefedition Alfred
+ Escher, Launch Juli 2015 (laufend aktualisiert), Zürich:
+ Alfred Escher-Stiftung.
+ .
+ Und das Register der
+ Eisenbahngesellschaften aus dem ersten Band findet zwar Eingang in die Schlagworte, nach
+ denen ein Suchergebnis facettiert werden kann. Allerdings ist es in der
+ digitalen Fassung nicht als direkte Zugangsmöglichkeit vorgesehen. Es ist lediglich möglich,
+ über die in den Schlagworten genannten Eisenbahngesellschaften innerhalb der Briefe zu
+ navigieren. In Entitäten vom Typ „Eisenbahngesellschaft“ wie
+ „Gotthardbahn-Gesellschaft“ werden Ortsbezeichnungen, die Teil des
+ Namens sind, offenbar nicht kodiert – im Gegensatz zu der vorherigen
+ Praxis bei den Zeitungen. Vgl. Jung Joseph (Hrsg.), Digitale
+ Briefedition Alfred Escher, Launch Juli 2015 (laufend
+ aktualisiert), Zürich: Alfred Escher-Stiftung.
+
+ und
+ .
+ Steht „Gotthardbahn“ dagegen für sich alleine, so wurde der aus dem Ort
+ hervorgegangene Teil des Namens („Gotthard“) als Ort ausgezeichnet.
+ Vgl. ebenda. In den Editionsprinzipien heißt
+ es dazu: „Erwähnte Orte werden bei expliziter Erwähnung indexiert. […]
+ Bei Nennungen von Eisenbahnen werden die Ortsbezeichnungen nicht
+ indexiert, wenn mit der Nennung eindeutig die juristische Person
+ bezeichnet ist. Diese sind über die Beschlagwortung auffindbar.“
+ Auszeichnung unter
+ .
+ Insbesondere bei der Indexierung von jeder „expliziten Erwähnung“ eines
+ Ortsnamens, unabhängig von seiner Funktion bzw. seinem Bedeutungswandel
+ zu einem Namensbestandteil hin, besteht in Editionen grundsätzlich die
+ Gefahr von „Verzerrungseffekten“, man denke an Adelsgeschlechter. Des
+ Weiteren ließe sich auch argumentieren, dass in solchen Fällen eher von
+ einer impliziten Erwähnung gesprochen werden sollte, selbst wenn der
+ Ortsname zeichengenau oder flektiert im Namen der Entität vorkommt.
+
Die über das Hauptmenü erreichbare Volltextsuche bietet nach dem Absenden
+ eines Suchbegriffs die gleichen Facettierungsmöglichkeiten wie sie beim
+ Zugang über die Liste der Brieftitel bereitgestellt werden. Es kann hier
+ noch zusätzlich nach Provenienz und dem Kommentierungsstatus eines
+ Briefes gefiltert werden. Die Volltextsuche lässt sich außerdem vor dem
+ Absenden per Checkbox auf bestimmte Bereiche beschränken oder ausdehnen:
+ Briefe, Überblickskommentare, Kurzbiographien, Chronologie, Ortsregister
+ und Bibliographie. Bewegt man die Maus über das Hauptsuchfeld, wird ein
+ Tooltip eingeblendet, der mögliche Suchoptionen erklärt (logische
+ Operatoren AND, OR, NOT, Trunkierung, Phrasensuche, Mindestlänge der
+ Zeichenkette usw.).
Alle Einzelbriefe sind mit einer persistenten URL
+ versehen, verwenden aber keinen institutionellen persistenten
+ Identifikator wie URN oder DOI. Öffentlich zugängliche
+ Permalinkleitlinien konnten allerdings keine gefunden werden, sodass
+ hier unklar bleibt, wie die Persistenz gesichert wird, insbesondere mit
+ Blick auf die im Zitierhinweis genannte laufende Aktualisierung.
+ Klar ist, dass die Persistenz einer URL nur von der
+ bereitstellenden Institution gewährleistet werden kann.
+ Daraus lässt sich nun mit Recht folgern: „Permalinks erkennt
+ man daran, dass der Bereitsteller ihre Permanenz durch
+ öffentlich zugängliche Permalinkleitlinien ausdrücklich
+ zusichert.“ (Arnold/Müller (2017)). Über die Kooperation mit
+ Metagrid hat sich das Vorhaben aber implizit verpflichtet,
+ zumindest die URLs seiner Entitäten stabil zu halten, da
+ dies von allen Partnern erwartet wird, vgl. Verhaltenskodex – 4. Pflichten der
+ Projektpartner unter
+ .
+
Im oberen Bereich fallen zunächst zwei zusätzliche
+ Navigationsbalken auf. Der rein textlich gestaltete erste Balken
+ ermöglicht das Blättern zum nächsten oder vorherigen Brief im
+ chronologisch sortierten Gesamtangebot. Darunter befindet sich eine in
+ Zeitstrahlform visualisierte Blätterfunktion zum nächsten und vorherigen
+ Brief in der aktuellen Korrespondenz. Am Beispiel des Briefes mit dem
+ internen Bezeichner B0356 Erreichbar unter Jung Joseph
+ (Hrsg.), Digitale Briefedition Alfred Escher, Launch Juli
+ 2015 (laufend aktualisiert), Zürich: Alfred Escher-Stiftung.
+ .
+ wird der Aufbau einer Brief-Einzelansicht hier zusammengefasst (Abb. 8). Im Kopfbereich finden sich
+ die folgenden Metadaten (in dieser Reihenfolge):
+
+ Die interne Signatur der Alfred Escher-Stiftung und ggfs. eine
+ externe Archivsignatur
+ Druckort(e)
+ Sender, Empfänger, auf dem Brief genannter Ort, Wochentag, Tag,
+ Monat und Jahr (erschlossene Informationen werden in eckige Klammern
+ gefasst)
+ Eine Liste der dem Brief zugeordneten thematischen
+ Schlagwörter
+
+
Es folgt ein Navigationsbalken, der neben dem
+ edierten Text drei weitere Ansichten ermöglicht: Zu den bereits
+ erwähnten und oben näher erläuterten synoptischen Darstellungen mit
+ Overlay von diplomatischem Text und Digitalisat (sowie umgekehrt) kommt
+ hier noch eine einfache Wiedergabe aller digitalen Faksimiles der
+ Handschriften hinzu. Ob hierbei auch Leerseiten aufgenommen wurden,
+ konnte nicht ermittelt werden. Stichprobenartig wurden keine gefunden.
+ Da auch keine Folierung der Blätter oder Nummerierung im Rahmen der
+ Edition vorgenommen wurde, wird die Referenzierbarkeit und die
+ Orientierung des Benutzers hier etwas erschwert, Vorder- und Rückseite
+ eines Blattes können (gerade bei fehlenden Leerseiten) nicht
+ identifiziert werden.
+
Der edierte Brieftext selbst präsentiert die Anrede einheitlich auf der
+ linken Seite, die Datumszeile mit Ort – sofern vorhanden – wird immer
+ rechts oben wiedergeben. Die Absätze des Originals bleiben erhalten. Ist
+ der Brief unterzeichnet, wird die Unterschrift einheitlich rechts
+ wiedergegeben. Stichproben haben gezeigt, dass diese Regeln bisweilen
+ auch im diplomatischen Text angewandt wurden: So müsste die Anrede in
+ der diplomatischen Fassung von B0938 Vgl. Jung Joseph (Hrsg.),
+ Digitale Briefedition Alfred Escher, Launch Juli 2015
+ (laufend aktualisiert), Zürich: Alfred Escher-Stiftung.
+ .
+ eigentlich leicht eingerückt sein (wie in B0900
+ Vgl. Jung Joseph (Hrsg.), Digitale Briefedition Alfred
+ Escher, Launch Juli 2015 (laufend aktualisiert), Zürich:
+ Alfred Escher-Stiftung.
+ ),
+ was aber nicht der Fall ist, um nur ein Beispiel zu nennen.
+
Innerhalb des Brieftexts ist man mit zahlreichen Markierungen
+ konfrontiert, von denen sich unterstrichene Personen- und Ortsnamen
+ sowie ebenfalls durch Unterstreichung gekennzeichnete aufgelöste
+ Abkürzungen per Klick auf eine Checkbox in der rechten Spalte ausblenden
+ lassen. Bestehen bleiben die mit den Einzelstellenkommentaren unterhalb
+ des Brieftextes verlinkten Endnotenziffern, die senkrechten Striche zur
+ Markierung des Seitenumbruchs im Original und die Verweiszeichen auf
+ Überblickskommentare und andere Briefe. Diese sprechend gestalteten Icons sind direkt mit den entsprechenden Stellen
+ im Kommentar bzw. anderen Brief-Einzelansichten verlinkt. Weiterführend
+ kommentiert, d. h. mit Einzelstellenkommentaren und Verweisen zu anderen
+ Briefen sowie Überblickskommentaren versehen, scheinen aber aktuell
+ leider nur die auch gedruckt vorliegenden Briefe zu sein, wie
+ Stichproben ergaben. Ein Blick in die Briefliste, worin die Signatur von
+ weiterführend kommentierten Briefen mit einem Plus-Zeichen versehen
+ ist Vgl. Stellenkommentar unter
+ .,
+ bestätigt diese Vermutung. Eine Zählung ergab 779 Signaturen mit
+ Pluszeichen von insgesamt 5018 online bereitgestellten Briefen, davon
+ 798 bereits gedruckt.
+
Die gesamte rechte Spalte unterhalb des Navigationsbalkens ist für
+ Metadaten reserviert. Von hier aus kann zu den Biographien der
+ Korrespondenten gesprungen und über das verlinkte Datum in die
+ chronologische Gesamtübersicht gewechselt werden (siehe Kapitel Zugänge
+ – Ereignisse). Sämtliche erwähnte Orte und
+ Personen sind hier außerdem gelistet, per Checkbox im Text durch ein
+ zusätzliches Highlighting mit Hintergrundfarbe markierbar und mit den
+ zugehörigen Einzeleinträgen der erschlossenen Entitäten verlinkt. Auch
+ die innerhalb des Brieftexts durch kleine Verweiszeichen in Form von
+ Icons verlinkten Briefe und Überblickskommentare werden hier noch einmal
+ erreichbar gemacht. Insgesamt können die Briefe hypertextlich als sehr
+ gut intern miteinander verbunden betrachtet
+ werden. Dies geschieht ausgehend von der digitalen Erschließung von
+ Person (Sender, Empfänger, erwähnt), Orten, Datierungen, Briefen
+ (erwähnt) und Überblickskommentaren, die ebenfalls vielfach miteinander
+ verlinkt sind. Von den Personeneinträgen aus vernetzt sich die
+ Alfred Escher-Briefedition mit externen Angeboten.
+
+
+ Technische Umsetzung der Website
+ Abb. 9: Schaubild des technischen Aufbaus.
+
Das Vorhaben macht auf seiner Website umfangreiche
+ Angaben zum technischen Hintergrund. Siehe
+ .
+ Alle folgenden Informationen zur Datenmodellierung, zur
+ Datenbearbeitung, zur Website und zu den Schnittstellen
+ stammen aus dieser Übersicht. Die in dieser
+ Hinsicht hervorragende Dokumentation nennt die beteiligten Technologien
+ vom internen Herzstück, dem Speicher- und Abfrageort der
+ XML-Forschungsdaten (native XML-Datenbank eXist) und den
+ Bearbeitungswerkzeugen für die Editoren (XML Spy, Oxygen XML Editor),
+ über die Realisierung der Briefpräsentation in Pythons Webframework
+ Django und der Benutzerverwaltung in einer relationalen Datenbank
+ (MySQL) bis hin zu den mit JavaScript realisierten Funktionen, die
+ direkt im Browser des externen Nutzers (client) ausgeführt werden.
+ Nähere Auskunft zur verwendeten Suchtechnologie findet sich nicht, in
+ eXist-db ist aber Apache Lucene als Modul nativ eingebunden. Die verwendeten
+ Technologien kommen sowohl in der allgemeinen Webentwicklung als auch in
+ den Digital Humanities häufig zur Anwendung und
+ können daher als nachhaltig gelten. Das Schaubild in Abb. 9 zeigt die technische Umsetzung auf einen Blick. Recker-Hamm (2015), Folie
+ 14. Danke an Ute Recker-Hamm für die Genehmigung zur
+ Verwendung der Abbildung.
+
+
+
+ Daten und Export
+
Zur Auszeichnung der einzelnen Briefe wurde ein
+ XML-basiertes Datenmodell entwickelt, dass sich an die von der Text Encoding Initiative definierten
+ Auszeichnungsvorschläge anlehnt, ihnen aber nicht entspricht. Ein Blick
+ in die bereitgestellte „Spezifikation“ Siehe
+ .,
+ eine Liste der verwendeten XML-Elemente und Attribute, lässt sowohl
+ strukturelle als auch inhaltliche Nähe zur TEI-Vorstellung von
+ Briefmodellierung erkennen. Eine Möglichkeit, die den Briefen
+ zugrundeliegenden XML-Daten direkt oder bspw. über eine
+ REST-Schnittstelle herunterzuladen und open
+ data-lizensiert zu nutzen, stellt das Vorhaben aber leider nicht
+ zur Verfügung. Rechteinhaber und Geldgeber hatten sich hier deutlich
+ dagegen ausgesprochen. Vielen Dank an Ute Recker-Hamm für
+ diese Information. Eine Nachnutzung der
+ Daten ohne Kontaktaufnahme beim Herausgeber ist daher leider nicht
+ möglich, obgleich die Möglichkeit besteht, auf Anfrage XML-Daten zu
+ bekommen. Der Verfasser erhielt auf Anfrage die
+ einem bestimmten Brief zugrundeliegende XML-Datei im
+ editionseigenen XML-Dialekt, aber keine
+ TEI-Datei. Angesichts der umfangreich
+ dokumentierten Editionsrichtlinien und der bereitgestellten
+ Spezifikation sollte eine Transformation in TEI oder die Anpassung an
+ eine bestimmte Arbeitsumgebung unproblematisch sein.
+ Zu den von Syd Baumann aufgestellten und von Peter Stadler
+ an Briefeditionen adaptierten Kriterien für die höchste Form
+ der Nachnutzbarkeit – Interoperabilität – vgl. Stadler
+ (2014), S. 279f. In jedem Anzeigekontext der
+ Zugangsoption „Briefliste“ ist aber der Export der zugehörigen Kopfdaten
+ im csv- oder xslx-Format möglich – auch für die gesamte Sammlung. Die im
+ Rahmen der Personenrecherche erhobenen Normdateien stellt das Vorhaben
+ ebenfalls über einen Link im dafür entwickelten BEACON-Format bereit.
+ Zur Bereitstellung der erschlossenen Personennormdaten im
+ BEACON-Format vgl. Stadler (2012), S. 178.
+ Für den Webservice correspSearch
+ Der Webservice ist unter
+
+ zu erreichen. Eine Vorstellung und Einführung liefert Dumont
+ (2016), passim. wurden Briefmetadaten im
+ CMI-Format aufbereitet, die jeder unter den Bedingungen der CC-BY 4.0
+ Lizenz nutzen kann. Die Daten sind hier als XML-Datei
+ abrufbar:
+ . In einer Reihe
+ mit den im nächsten Kapitel erwähnten social
+ media-Buttons findet sich auch ein Drucksymbol.
+
+
+ Personalisierung und Social Edition
+
Buttons zum Teilen von Inhalten bei Facebook und
+ Google Plus und der „Weiterempfehlen“-Button mit E-Mail-Formular sind
+ erste Anknüpfungspunkte für das digitale Konzept der social edition. Siehe dazu weitergehend Siemens et
+ al. (2012). Ebenso wie die Möglichkeit der
+ digitalen Gruppierung, Speicherung und Verbreitung von individuell
+ zusammengestellten Briefen der Edition in individuell benennbaren
+ „Arbeitsmappen“ handelt es sich hier um deutliche Merkmale eines
+ digitalen Paradigmas. Für eine weitere Einbindung der Fach-Community
+ wäre es aber zumindest notwendig, auch die XML-Rohdaten zur Verfügung zu
+ stellen. Geschähe dies bspw. in einem Github-Repository könnten
+ Feedback-, Verbesserungs- und auch Nachnutzungsprozesse leicht
+ organisiert werden.
+ Abb. 10: Benutzerkonto.
+
Um die obengenannten, sehr praktischen Funktionen nutzen zu können, ist
+ ein Benutzerkonto erforderlich, das über eine einfache Registrierung
+ angelegt werden kann. Ist man dort eingeloggt, wird bei der
+ Briefvollanzeige rechts oberhalb des editorischen Briefkopfs ein Button
+ mit dem Titel „In die Arbeitsmappe“ angezeigt. Eine Notizfunktion im
+ unteren Bereich der Einzelbriefansicht kann für eigene Bemerkungen
+ genutzt werden. Allerdings kann pro Brief lediglich eine Notiz
+ gespeichert werden und der Inhalt des Textfeldes lässt sich zwar später
+ noch ändern, aber nicht abspeichern. Dies scheint so nicht beabsichtigt
+ zu sein, da nach einmaligem Abspeichern auch ein zusätzlicher Rahmen
+ gezogen wurde und das Textfeld nun plötzlich die englische Überschrift
+ „Comment*“ trägt, während man vergeblich nach einem Speichern- bzw.
+ Aktualisieren-Button sucht.
+
Im Benutzerkonto wird außerdem der Verlauf der besuchten Brief-Webseiten
+ aufgezeichnet. Die Ergebnisliste einer Suche kann hier ebenfalls
+ gespeichert und wiederverwendet werden.
+
+
+ Rahmendesign
+
Das Design ist ästhetisch ansprechend und zugleich
+ funktional gehalten und umrahmt eine nachvollziehbare
+ Informationsinfrastruktur. Trotz des geringen Alters bietet die Website
+ aber nur eine geringfügige Unterstützung für mobile Endgeräte. Gerade
+ angesichts des starken digitalen Paradigmas des Angebots wäre die volle
+ Responsivität der Edition wünschenswert. Zur Forderung nach
+ der Unterstützung aller gängigen Gerätetypen und Browser
+ sowie zur grundsätzlichen Umsetzung von Webstandards siehe
+ Hochstrasser (2014), S. 272.
+
+
+
+ Fazit
+
Da die Edition historische Dokumente in edierter Form
+ und als digitale Faksimiles präsentiert, (text-)kritisch vorgeht und die
+ geschichtlich bedingte Verständnislücke Vgl. Sahle (2016), Absatz
+ 13. durch vielfältige Erschließung (Kommentare,
+ Biographien, Register, chronologische Übersichten usw.) überbrückt, kann der
+ digitalen Alfred Escher-Briefedition ein an vielen Stellen erkennbares
+ digitales Paradigma attestiert werden. Dies ist auch insofern bemerkenswert,
+ da das Vorhaben als Druckedition gestartet ist und die digitale Orientierung
+ erst im laufenden Projektbetrieb entwickelt hat. Allerdings gibt es bei der
+ Auflösung der historisch bedingten Verständnislücke mit Blick auf die
+ Stellenkommentare noch Desiderate: Eine weiterführende Kommentierung der
+ ausschließlich online publizierten Briefe wäre dazu zu leisten und würde
+ auch deren Einordnung in den Gesamtkontext noch weiter verbessern.
+
Die Einbeziehung von verschiedenen Studierendengruppen
+ in die Transkriptionsarbeit und die damit einhergehend kollaborativ zu
+ gestaltenden Arbeitsprozesse illustrieren auf positive Weise die
+ pragmatische und ergebnisorientierte Einstellung des Vorhabens. Die klare
+ Zielgruppenorientierung – den an der jüngeren Schweizer
+ (Eisenbahn-)Geschichte im Allgemeinen oder an Alfred Eschers
+ politisch-unternehmerischer Biographie im Besonderen interessierten Forscher
+ oder wissenschaftlichen Laien – erklärt die in geringerem Maße als möglich
+ geschehene Aufarbeitung der persönlichen (Korrespondenz-)Beziehungen
+ zwischen Escher und seinen Korrespondenten, welche sich aus längeren
+ Briefwechseln wohl noch tiefergehender hätte herausarbeiten lassen. An
+ letzter Stelle sei noch einmal erwähnt, dass das Projekt an
+ Interoperabilität gewänne, d. h. eine über die intendierte Nutzung
+ hinausgehende Verwendung („Nachnutzung“) stärker unterstützen würde, wenn
+ seine zugrundeliegenden XML-Daten über eine offene Schnittstelle und unter
+ einer open data-Lizenz zur Verfügung stünden. Auf
+ diese Weise ließe sich auch außerhalb der sehr gelungenen Onlinepublikation
+ mit den annotierten Biographica weiterforschen.
+
+
+
+
+ Arnold, Eckhart; Müller, Stefan. 2017. „Wie permanent sind Permalinks?“
+ Informationspraxis 3 (1).
+ Dumont, Stefan. 2016 „correspSearch – Connecting Scholarly Editions of
+ Letters“. Journal of the Text Encoding Initiative (10). Online since 14
+ February 2018, connection on 31 October 2018.
+ .
+ Escher, Alfred. 2008a. Briefe. Bd. 1, Teil 1. Alfred Escher zwischen
+ Lukmanier und Gotthard. Briefe zur schweizerischen Alpenbahnfrage 1850–1882.
+ Herausgegeben von Joseph Jung. Zürich: Verl. Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
+ ———. 2008b. Briefe. Bd. 1, Teil 2. Alfred Escher zwischen Lukmanier und
+ Gotthard. Briefe zur schweizerischen Alpenbahnfrage 1850–1882. Zürich: Verl.
+ Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
+ ———. 2008c. Briefe. Bd. 1, Teil 3. Alfred Escher zwischen Lukmanier und
+ Gotthard. Briefe zur schweizerischen Alpenbahnfrage 1850–1882. Zürich: Verl.
+ Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
+ ———. 2010. Briefe. Bd. 2: Alfred Eschers Briefe aus der Jugend- und
+ Studentenzeit 1831–1843. Herausgegeben von Joseph Jung. Zürich: Verl. Neue
+ Zürcher Zeitung.
+ ———. 2011. Briefe. Bd. 3: Alfred Eschers Briefwechsel 1843–1848: Jesuiten,
+ Freischaren, Sonderbund, Bundesrevision. Herausgegeben von Joseph Jung und
+ Sandra Wiederkehr. Zürich: Verl. Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
+ ———. 2012. Briefe. Bd. 4: Alfred Eschers Briefwechsel 1848–1852: Aufbau des
+ jungen Bundesstaates, politische Flüchtlinge und Neutralität. Herausgegeben
+ von Joseph Jung. Zürich: Verl. Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
+ ———. 2013. Briefe. Bd. 5: Alfred Eschers Briefwechsel 1852–1866:
+ wirtschaftsliberales Zeitfenster, Gründungen, Aussenpolitik. Herausgegeben
+ von Joseph Jung. Zürich: Verl. Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
+ ———. 2015. Briefe. Bd. 6: Alfred Eschers Briefwechsel 1866–1882: private
+ Eisenbahngesellschaften in der Krise, Gotthardbahn, politische Opposition.
+ Herausgegeben von Joseph Jung. Zürich: Verl. Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
+ Hafner, Urs. 2010. „Die Schweiz als Vision | NZZ“. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 19.
+ September 2010.
+ .
+ Hochstrasser, Daniel. 2014. „Anforderungen an digitale
+ Briefeditionen“. In Fontanes Briefe ediert. Internationale wissenschaftliche
+ Tagung des Theodor-Fontane-Archivs Potsdam, 18. bis 20. September 2013.
+ Fontaneana 12, herausgegeben von Hanna Delf von Wolzogen und Rainer Falk.
+ Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 266–277.
+ Jung, Joseph. 2006. Alfred Escher. 1819–1882. Der Aufbruch zur modernen
+ Schweiz. Bd. 4. Bde. Zürich.
+ ———. 2017. Alfred Escher, 1819–1882 – Aufstieg, Macht, Tragik. 6. Auflage.
+ Zürich: NZZ Libro.
+ May, Tom. 2018. The beginner's guide to flat design. Creative Blog. .
+
+ Radecke, Gabriele, Heike Neuroth, Martin de la Iglesia, und Mathias Göbel.
+ 2015. „Vom Nutzen digitaler Editionen. Die Genetisch-kritische
+ Hybrid-Edition von Theodor Fontanes Notizbüchern erstellt mit der Virtuellen
+ Forschungsumgebung TextGrid“. In Vom Nutzen der Editionen. Zur Bedeutung
+ moderner Editorik für die Erforschung von Literatur- und Kulturgeschichte,
+ herausgegeben von Thomas Bein. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 277–296.
+ .
+ Recker-Hamm, Ute. 2015. „Technische Aspekte der digitalen Alfred
+ Escher-Briefedition“. Konferenzbeitrag, Weimar.
+ .
+ Sahle, Patrick. 2008–2018. „A catalog of Digital Scholarly Editions. v 3.0“.
+ .
+ ———. 2014. „Kriterien für die Besprechung digitaler Editionen, Version 1.1“.
+ Juni 2014.
+ .
+ ———. 2016. „2. What is a Scholarly Digital Edition?“ In Digital Scholarly
+ Editing: Theories and Practices, herausgegeben von Matthew James Driscoll
+ und Elena Pierazzo. Open Book Publishers.
+ .
+ ———. 2017 „Digitale Edition“ In Digital Humanities. Eine Einführung,
+ herausgegebenen von Fotis Jannidis, Hubertus Kohle und Malte Rehbein.
+ Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, 234–249.
+ Siemens, Ray; Timney, Meagan; Leitch, Cara; Koolen, Corina und Garnett, Alex.
+ 2012. „Toward Modeling the Social Edition: An Approach to Understanding the
+ Electronic Scholarly Edition in the Context of New and Emerging Social
+ Media“. Literary and Linguistic Computing 27 (4): 445–61.
+ .
+ Stadler, Peter. 2012. „Normdateien in der Edition“. Editio 26 (1): 174–183.
+ .
+ ———. 2014. „Interoperabilität von digitalen Briefeditionen“. In Fontanes
+ Briefe ediert. Internationale wissenschaftliche Tagung des
+ Theodor-Fontane-Archivs Potsdam, 18. bis 20. September 2013. Fontaneana 12,
+ herausgegeben von Hanna Delf von Wolzogen und Rainer Falk. Würzburg:
+ Königshausen & Neumann, 278–87.
+
+
+
+
\ No newline at end of file
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+++ b/mozart/mozart-tei.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,1365 @@
+
+
+
+
+ Mozart Briefe und Dokumente -- Online-Edition
+
+ author
+
+
+ Maja
+ Hartwig
+
+
+ Independent Scholar
+
+ maja.hartwig@gmx.de
+
+
+
+
+ Institut für Dokumentologie und Editorik
+ June 2019
+ 10
+ https://ride.i-d-e.de/issues/issue-10/mozart-briefe-dokumente
+ 10.18716/ride.a.10.3
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Mozart Briefe und Dokumente -- Online-Edition
+ Stiftung Mozarteum Salzburg und Packard Humanities Institute
+
+ Editor
+
+ Ulrich Leisinger
+
+
+
+ Editor
+
+ Anja Morgenstern
+
+
+
+ Programmer
+
+ Franz Kelnreiter
+
+
+
+ Encoder
+
+ Agnes Amminger
+
+
+
+ Contributor
+
+ Till Reininghaus
+
+
+
+ Contributor
+
+ Iacopo Cividini
+
+
+
+ Contributor
+
+ Geneviève Geffray
+
+
+
+ 2006
+
+
+ http://dme.mozarteum.at/DME/main/cms.php?tid=110&sec=briefe&l=
+
+
+
+ 2018-05-07
+
+
+
+
Auf der Basis von http://www.i-d-e.de/publikationen/weitereschriften/criteria-version-1-1
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 1.2
+
+ Is it easily possible to describe the project bibliographically along the schema "responsible editors, publishing/hosting institution, year(s) of publishing"?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 1.4
+
+ Are the contributors (editors, institutions, associates) of the project fully documented?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 1.5
+
+ Does the project list contact persons?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.1
+
+ Is the selection of materials of the project explicitly documented?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.1
+
+ Is the selection by and large reasonable?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.16
+
+ Does the documentation include information about the long term sustainability of the basic data (archiving of the data)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.1
+
+ Are the aims and purposes of the project explicitly documented?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.1
+
+ Are the methods employed in the project explicitly documented?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.7
+
+ Does the project document which data model (e.g. TEI) has been used and for what reason?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.15
+
+ Does the project offer help texts concerning the use of the project?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.8
+
+ Does the project supply citation guidelines (i.e. how to cite the project or a part of it)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.16
+
+ Does the editon regard itself as a completed project (i.e. not promise further modifications and additions)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.13
+
+ Does the project provide information about institutional support for the curation and sustainability of the project?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.2
+
+ Has the material been previously edited (in print or digitally)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.2
+
+ Does the edition make use of these previous editions?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.15
+
+ Does the project offer an introduction to the subject-matter (the author(s), the work, its history, the theme, etc.) of the project?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.3
+
+ Does the project offer a bibliography?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.3
+
+ Does the project offer a scholarly commentary (e.g. notes on unclear passages, interpretation, etc.)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.3
+
+ Does the project include or link to external resources with contextual material?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.3
+
+ Does the project offer images of digitised sources?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.6
+
+ Does the project offer images of an acceptable quality?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.3
+
+ Is the text fully transcribed?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.6
+
+ Does the project offer texts of an acceptable quality (typos, errors, etc.)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.5
+
+ Does the project feature compilations indices, registers or visualisations that offer alternative ways to access the material?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 1.3 and 2.1
+
+ Which kinds of documents are at the basis of the project?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 1.3 and 2.1
+
+ What era(s) do the documents belong to?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 1.3
+
+ Which perspective(s) do the editors take towards the edited material? How can the edition be classified in general terms?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.11
+
+ Does the project offer any spin-offs?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.3
+
+ By which categories does the project offer to browse the contents?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.4
+
+ Does the project offer a simple search?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.4
+
+ Does the project offer an advanced search?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.4
+
+ Does the search support the use of wildcards?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.4
+
+ Does the search offer an index of the searched field?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.4
+
+ Does the search offer autocompletion or suggest functionalities?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.4
+
+ Does the project offer help texts for the search?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.3
+
+ Who is the intended audience of the project?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.3 and 5.1
+
+ Which type fits best for the reviewed project?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Method
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.6
+
+ In how far is the text critically edited?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.7
+
+
+ Is the data encoded in XML?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Is the project employing a standardized data model (e.g. TEI)?
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.5.
+
+ Which kinds or forms of text are presented?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.8
+
+ Are there persistent identifiers and an addressing system for the
+ edition and/or parts/objects of it and which mechanism is used to
+ that end?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.9
+
+ Are there technical interfaces like OAI-PMH, REST etc., which allow the reuse of the data of the project in other contexts?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Is the edition Open Access?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.12
+
+ Is the basic data (e.g. the XML) of the project accessible for each part of the edition (e.g. for a page)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.9
+
+ Can the entire raw data of the project be downloaded (as a whole)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.9
+
+ Can you use the data with other tools useful for this kind of content?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.13
+
+ Are the rights to (re)use the content declared?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.13
+
+ Under what license are the contents released?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
The Salzburg Mozarteum Foundation in cooperation with the Packard Humanities Institute, Los
+ Altos (California) has digitized historical letters and documents
+ of the Mozart family. The goal of the project is the online publication of
+ all letters and documents related to the Mozart family as well as related
+ letters and documents spanning from 1740 to 1880. The digital edition has achieved these objectives,
+ but does not fully exploit its potential. This review gives an
+ overview to the presented online publication of Mozarts correspondance, its
+ appearance, a discussion of the editorial content, the projects targets and
+ methods.
+
+
+
+ Einleitung
+
Die digitale Edition „Mozarts Briefe und Dokumente“ wird im Rahmen der
+ Digitalen Mozart Edition (DME) durch die Stiftung
+ Mozarteum Salzburg herausgegeben. Die Edition ist erreichbar unter:
+ .
+ Zum Zeitpunkt des Verfassens dieser Rezension war die Website nur unter
+ erreichbar. In der Zwischenzeit wurde zwar die
+ Website der Stiftung überarbeitet, nicht aber die digitale
+ Edition an sich. Die digitale Edition kann von verschiedenen
+ Seiten der Stiftung aufgerufen werden, u.a. auch über eine zusätzliche Adresse
+ , dabei stellt sie sich
+ mal ohne mal mit umgebenden Frame der Stiftungsseite dar.
+ Für die Besprechung hat dies aber keine Auswirkungen,
+ Inhalte und Funktionalitäten sind grundsätzlich gleich
+ geblieben. Aus dem Impressum geht
+ hervor, dass das Projekt seit 2006 besteht, zur Entstehung und dem Verlauf
+ des Projektes bzw. zum zeitlichen Horizont werden leider keine Angaben
+ gemacht.
+
Gegenstand der Publikation sind Briefe und Dokumente zur Mozart-Familie aus
+ der Zeit zwischen 1740 und 1880 in Bild und Text. Die Stiftung Mozarteum
+ Salzburg verwahrt die größte Sammlung an Dokumenten der Mozartfamilie
+ weltweit. Die Dokumente wurden in den letzten Jahren nach und nach mit den
+ Mitteln der neuesten Technik digitalisiert, um sie einem breiteren Publikum
+ zugänglich zu machen. Neben den eigenen Beständen sollen aber auch weiterhin
+ andere Schriftstücke aufgenommen werden, die gar nicht oder nur teilweise in
+ der gedruckten, von Bauer und Deutsch bearbeiteten, Gesamtausgabe erschienen
+ sind. Es geht hierbei um die Integration von „Schätzen“ Startseite des rezensierten
+ Projekts. in den Onlineauftritt und den damit verbundenen
+ Aufruf an die Besitzer dieser Schätze, jene bereitzustellen und der
+ Öffentlichkeit zur Verfügung zu stellen. Damit soll eine „Lücke“ (zum
+ Beispiel die Edition der Korrespondenz bis zum Jahre 1858, die in der
+ Gesamtausgabe nur in Auszügen vorhanden ist) gefüllt werden und einen
+ größeren Kreis von Interessenten ansprechen.
+
Offizielle Förderer des Projekts sind die Stiftung Mozarteum Salzburg
+ und das
+ Packard Humanities Institute
+ . Als
+ Herausgeber der Briefe-Edition wird die DME genannt,
+ darunter werden sieben Mitarbeiter inklusive Leitung und IT-Entwicklung
+ aufgeführt.
+
+ Ausführlichere Angaben zu den Laufzeiten oder
+ Zuständigkeiten werden in diesem Zusammenhang nicht gemacht. Es wäre zum
+ Beispiel von Interesse, wie das Teilprojekt entstanden ist und in welcher
+ Beziehung es zu anderen Projekten – nicht nur innerhalb der DME – steht.
+
Das Gesamtprojekt Digitale Mozart-Edition „strebt eine interne
+ Vernetzung der digitalen Ressourcen der ISM an und stellt Schnittstellen für
+ externe Services bereit.“
+ ;
+ mittlerweile überarbeitet online unter: .
+ Wie genau diese interne Vernetzung zu verstehen ist, oder
+ wie die Verknüpfung zu anderen Projekten wie zum Beispiel „Mozart im Spiegel
+ des frühen Musikjournalismus“
+
+ oder zur Neuen Mozart-Ausgabe (NMA)
+
+ aussieht, wird nicht weiter ausgeführt.
+
„Die DME zielt darauf ab, das gesamte Schaffen Wolfgang Amadé Mozarts
+ (1756–1791) in digitaler Form weltweit für jedermann über das Internet zum
+ Studium und zu Aufführungszwecken zur Verfügung zu stellen.“
+
+ Die recht kurz gehaltenen Beschreibungen aller Teilprojekte legen nahe, dass
+ es sich bei allen Ausgaben um reine Digitalisierungsprojekte handelt.
+
Die letzte Aktualisierung aller Seiten ist im Mai bzw. Juni 2017
+ Dies war zum Zeitpunkt des Verfassens
+ dieser Rezension der Fall. In der Zwischenzeit wurde ein Update
+ vorgenommen, welches aber nicht anhand eines Datums auf der
+ Seite nachvollziehbar ist. vorgenommen worden.
+ Neuere Beiträge, Aktuelles zum Projektverlauf oder ähnliche Informationen
+ sowie die regelmäßige Pflege der Seiten wären eine positive Bereicherung der
+ Seiten.
+
+
+ Gegenstand und Inhalte der Edition
+
Alle bekannten und zugänglichen Briefe von Leopold und Wolfgang Amadé Mozart
+ sind von Wilhelm A. Bauer und Otto Erich Deutsch herausgegeben und seit 1962
+ im Druck veröffentlicht worden.
+ Abgeschlossen wurde die gedruckte
+ Gesamtausgabe, die im Bärenreiterverlag erschienen ist, im Jahr
+ 2007, vgl.:
+ .
+ Ziel des Projektes ist es, diese digital aufzubereiten und
+ online bereitzustellen.
+ Vgl. ebd.: Die NMA ist die erste
+ Musikergesamtausgabe, die für jedermann online verfügbar
+ ist.
+ Ausgewählt worden sind zunächst die Materialien, die in
+ Salzburg vorhanden sind und mit denen vor einigen Jahren begonnen wurde, sie
+ „auf dem neusten Stand der Technik zu digitalisieren“. Vgl. .
+ . Dabei handelt es sich bei dem Material um Briefe und
+ Dokumente der Mozart-Familie zwischen 1740 und 1880 in Bild und Text. Für
+ wissenschaftliche Editionen, insbesondere für die digitalen, ist dies
+ sicherlich eine Herausforderung, da neben der
+ Fülle der Materialien Digitalisierungsstandards sowie bereits bestehende
+ analoge Editionen berücksichtigt werden müssen. Darüber hinaus ist
+ „langfristig die Neuedition“ die Quellen geplant, was eine neue Zugangs- und
+ Betrachtungsweise der Gegenstände vermuten lässt.
+ Ebd.
+
Die Materialien sind systematisch aufbereitet, indem die Briefe in Gruppen
+ aufgeteilt wurden. Darunter Briefe der Mozart-Familie bis 1791 (in weiteren
+ Rubriken Reisebriefe, Briefe der Wiener Zeit und Briefe von Leopold Mozart
+ an Maria Anna Berchtold zu Sonnenburg 1784 bis 1787), weiterhin Briefe und
+ Dokumente der Mozart-Familie 1792 bis 1858, dann Briefe und Dokumente zur
+ Institutionsgeschichte aus der Zeit 1841 bis 1880 und schließlich das
+ Stammbuch von Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (1801 bis 1812). Zu jeder Gruppe
+ gibt es eine sehr kurze Einführung sowie eine Auflistung der einzelnen
+ Dokumente. Am Ende der Seite bekommt der Leser die Information, es seien
+ derzeit 1128 Dokumente online verfügbar und das letzte Update im Juni 2016
+ vorgenommen worden. Somit stellt sich die Frage, ob bis dahin sämtliche
+ Materialien aus dem Besitz der Stiftung bereits digitalisiert worden sind
+ und es deshalb keine weiteren Einträge geben wird? In diesem Fall wäre eine
+ abschließende Bemerkung wünschenswert.
+
+
+ Ziele und Methoden
+
In der digitalen Edition werden Methoden und Konzepte des Projektes nicht
+ explizit genannt oder dokumentiert. Die Ausgabe habe sich zum Ziel gesetzt,
+ sämtliche Briefe und Aufzeichnungen der Mozart-Familie, die im Besitz der
+ Stiftung Mozarteum Salzburg verwahrt werden, in der Edition online verfügbar
+ zu machen. Darüber hinaus soll ein reichhaltiger Dokumentenbestand
+ (Korrespondenzen, Stammbuchblätter, Quittungen etc.) mit aufgenommen werden,
+ doch werden keinerlei Angaben dazu gemacht, in welcher Form oder mit welchen
+ Mitteln dies umgesetzt wird, bzw. was der Mehrwert der Ausgabe in ihrer
+ digitalen Form ist. Es wird darauf hingewiesen, dass die Digitalisierung mit
+ den neusten technischen Methoden vorgenommen würde und bereits seit längerer
+ Zeit umgesetzt wird, die gedruckten Editionen werden demnach identisch
+ übernommen.
+
+ Abb. 1: Abschnitte der Editionsrichtlinien
+
+
+
Als methodischer Ansatz dienen die für die Edition verfassten
+ Richtlinien (Abb. 1.).
+
+ Darin wird zunächst darauf hingewiesen, dass Texte in einer
+ diplomatischen Transkription erfasst werden. Zu den Editionsrichtlinien gibt
+ es eine eigene Seite, auf der alle Informationen diesbezüglich ausführlich
+ besprochen werden. Dazu gehören Kapitel zu Standardisierungen, Layoutmerkmale, Stempel und Marken, sowie Zusätze
+ fremder Hand, Ergänzungen und Auslassungen durch
+ den Herausgeber und letztlich zur PDF-Druckfassung (siehe Abb.
+ 1). Ferner gibt es ein
+ Abkürzungsverzeichnis, welches eine Übersicht mit den vorkommenden Zeichen
+ und deren Auflösungen enthält. Bedauerlicherweise gibt es keine
+ Informationen darüber, wie und durch wen diese Regeln entstanden sind oder
+ auf welche Begründungen sie zurückzuführen sind. Es wird durch sie zwar
+ deutlich, dass den Editoren an einer größtmöglichen Dokumentennähe gelegen
+ ist, doch wäre es lohnenswert, ein Konzept, Grundüberlegungen des Projektes,
+ Vorbemerkungen dazu, Ideen und Methoden oder sonstige Dokumentationen
+ bereitzustellen.
+
Unter Dokumente werden nun sämtliche Materialien
+ aufgelistet und verlinkt. In dieser Liste wird am unteren Bildrand darauf
+ hingewiesen, dass es sich um 1055 Dokumente handelt, was ein wenig
+ verwirrend ist, da auf der Seite zum Projektstand die
+ Zahl 1128 genannt wird. Die Erschließung der einzelnen Quellen beinhaltet
+ neben Titel, Autor, Adressat, Jahresdaten und Ort, mitunter eine Anmerkung
+ zum Brief insgesamt, außerdem Informationen über den Standort und ggf. einen
+ Link zur Quelle (sofern online verfügbar). Von einer darüber hinaus gehenden
+ kritischen Quellenbegutachtung wird abgesehen. Mögliche Querverbindungen,
+ Erkenntnisse aus den Dokument-Inhalten und sonstige etwaige Informationen
+ zum Umgang mit den Quellen, zu Bearbeitungsstadien etc. werden nicht
+ aufgeführt. Natürlich könnten beschränkte personelle Ressourcen hierfür ein
+ Grund sein, doch wären solche oder ähnliche Informationen über eine
+ physische Quellenbeschreibung hinaus sicher bereichernd.
+
Eine Modellierung der digitalen editorischen Methodik ist insofern nicht
+ möglich, als dass gar kein Bedarf besteht. Die Materialien werden in einer
+ diplomatischen Transkription wiedergegeben, was laut Projektstand
+ ausschließlich im HTML-Format geschieht und innerhalb dieses Formats wird
+ zwischen dem ursprünglichen Dokumenttext und später hinzugefügten
+ Annotationen unterschieden.
+ Damit sind alle Informationen, die von
+ fremder Hand hinzugefügt wurden gemeint, vgl.:
+ .
+ Hier stellt sich bereits die Frage nach dem Grund für die
+ Wahl des Zielformates, zu der es keine weiteren Angaben gibt. Naheliegend
+ wäre zum Beispiel eine Auszeichnung nach den Richtlinien der Text Encoding
+ Initiative, insbesondere da auf eine „Neuedition der Quellen“ hingewiesen
+ wird.
+ Bereits 2009 erläuterte J. Veit die Vorteile einer Briefedition mit TEI, vgl.: Die Codierung digitaler
+ Briefeditionen mit TEI P5, in:
+ Digitale Editionen zwischen Experiment und Standardisierung:
+ Musik- Text- Codierung, hg. v. Peter Stadler und Joachim Veit,
+ in Beihefte zu editio, 2009. HTML besitzt nur ein beschränktes Maß an
+ Auszeichnungsmöglichkeiten und kann nicht die Anforderungen an
+ eine flexibel erweiterbare und ausdrucksmächtige
+ Beschreibungssprache erfüllen, sie beruht eher auf
+ layoutbeschreibenden Konzepten.
+ Datenmodellierung oder die Dokumentation eines Datenmodells sind
+ dementsprechend nicht notwendig. Die Transkriptionen bzw. Materialien sind
+ nicht weiter aufbereitet, anscheinend nicht mit Normdaten zu Personen, Orten
+ etc. angereichert. Allerdings wurde 2016 ein Briefverzeichnis mit
+ 668 Briefen im „Correspondence Metadata Interchange Format“
+ bereitgestellt, dessen Daten im Webservice correspSearch abgerufen
+ werden können (vgl. ).
+ Dafür wurden auch Normdaten-IDs verwendet. In der digitalen Edition
+ selbst sind diese aber nicht sichtbar oder für
+ Vernetzungsmöglichkeiten genutzt worden. Es gibt ferner
+ keine Ansicht zum Quelltext. Da keine Angaben dazu gemacht werden, besteht
+ natürlich die Möglichkeit, dass die Daten bereits in anderen Formaten
+ vorliegen, diese aber (noch) nicht bereitgestellt wurden. Daher sei hiermit
+ die Empfehlung ausgesprochen, dieses unbedingt nachzuholen oder zu ergänzen.
+
+
+
+ Technische Umsetzung und Präsentation
+
Die Oberfläche der Ausgabe ist übersichtlich gestaltet und intuitiv nutzbar.
+ Die Reiter in der oberen Menüleiste geben die Struktur vor, sie erfolgt zwar
+ allgemeinen Mustern, scheint jedoch ein wenig veraltet zu sein. Der Nutzer
+ weiß aber stets, wo er sich befindet und erfährt umgehend, mit welchen
+ Inhalten er sich gerade beschäftigt. Neben der Startseite, gibt es die Seite
+ zu den Dokumenten (also zu dem bearbeiteten Material), Informationen zum
+ Projektstand, zu den Editionsrichtlinien, ein Abkürzungsverzeichnis, sowie
+ das Impressum und die Möglichkeit, die Mitarbeiter des Projektes via E-Mail
+ zu kontaktieren.
+
Die technische Umsetzung der Publikation erfolgt durch das Bereitstellen der
+ Briefe als digitale Faksimiles, verknüpft mit deren Transkriptionen, die in
+ HTML umgesetzt wurden. Allerdings sind diese Ansichten nicht tatsächlich
+ verknüpft, sondern werden beim Öffnen einer Quelle „nur“
+ nebeneinandergelegt. Eine direkte Verbindung der Ansichten scheint nicht
+ vorhanden zu sein.
+ Dies könnte etwa eine Synchronisierung
+ sein, Hervorhebungen, die auf beiden Seiten angezeigt werden
+ oder anklickbare Items, die jeweils im Gegenüber
+ erscheinen.
+
+
+ Abb. 2: Liste der Briefe
+
+
+
+ Abb. 3: Suche
+
+
+
Innerhalb der Dokumentenauswahl erscheinen die Briefe zunächst in einer Liste
+ (Abb. 2), welche nochmals über die Auswahl eines bestimmten Zeitraums
+ gefiltert werden kann. Des Weiteren wird eine Suchfunktion angeboten. Es
+ gibt unterschiedliche Möglichkeiten auch diese Suche einzugrenzen indem nach
+ Autor, Adressat oder auch Freitext gesucht werden kann (Abb. 3). Außerdem
+ können mehrere Such-Felder kombiniert werden. Das Ergebnis erscheint auf der
+ gegenüberliegenden Seite, gekennzeichnet mit einer Identifikationsnummer,
+ deren Funktion jedoch unklar bleibt. Wird die Identifikationsnummer
+ angeklickt, öffnet sich das Dokument in einem neuen Tab. Technisch wird die
+ Suche mit einem integrierten Script und einer jQuery-Abfrage umgesetzt. Eine
+ Beschreibung der Suchfunktion, darüber wie sie zu benutzen ist und wie sie
+ auf orthografische Unterschiede reagiert sowie ggf. eine Erweiterung in
+ Richtung Volltextsuche ist wünschenswert. Zusätzliche Register oder Indizes
+ werden leider nicht angeboten.
Die Dokumente werden auf dem Bildschirm in zwei nicht beweglichen Fenstern
+ nebeneinandergelegt (Abb. 4). Auf der linken Seite befindet sich die
+ Transkription und auf der rechten Seite das originale Dokument mit einem
+ Maßstab (die Abmessungen sind aber nicht ersichtlich). Eine Farbskala
+ befindet sich am unteren Bildrand, dessen Funktion jedoch unklar ist.
+ Gezoomt werden kann leider auch nur einfach. Es gibt keine weiteren
+ Hervorhebungen, Kennzeichnungen, farbliche Markierungen innerhalb der
+ Transkription. Es gibt die Möglichkeit eine Lesefassung im PDF-Format
+ herunterzuladen.
+
+ Abb. 5: Zitationsbeispiel
+
+
+
Die Referenzierbarkeit und somit die Nachnutzbarkeit der Inhalte ist durch
+ das einfache Kopieren des Links gewährleistet, zur Zitation gibt es ein
+ Beispiel auf der Seite des Impressums (Abb. 5).
+
Es werden keine weiteren Schnittstellen oder der Hinweis auf eine mögliche
+ Integration in andere Inhalte bzw. Projekte oder die Verknüpfung zu sozialen
+ Medien oder virtuelle Forschungsumgebungen angegeben. Über das Angebot einer
+ PDF-Lesefassung, deren Druck oder Download möglich ist, geht es leider nicht
+ hinaus. Alle Materialien sind unter der Creative Commons-Lizenz „CC BY-NC-SA
+ 4.0“ lizenziert. Daher dürfen alle Materialien vervielfältigt und
+ weiterverbreitet werden, es soll aber auf angemessene Urheber- und
+ Rechteangaben hingewiesen werden. Außerdem dürfen die Materialien dürfen
+ nicht für kommerzielle Zwecke genutzt werden.
+
Die Inhalte der Edition sind statischer Natur, die gesamte Ausgabe versteht
+ sich als Portal zur Bereitstellung vorhandener Materialien für ein breiteres
+ Publikum und zur besseren Zugänglichkeit. Es gibt keine weiterführenden
+ Materialien, Begleittexte, Hilfestellungen oder sonstige Dokumentationen.
+ Die Brief-Edition ist vermutlich nicht abgeschlossen, doch kann dies nicht
+ mit Sicherheit gesagt werden, da diese Informationen nirgendwo
+ bereitgestellt werden.
+
+
+ Fazit
+
Die Ausgabe hat in dem Sinne ihre selbstgesteckten Ziele erreicht, als dass
+ sie die Dokumenten-Bestände der Stiftung Mozarteum Salzburg digitalisiert,
+ transkribiert und online verfügbar macht. Welche Materialien darüber hinaus,
+ also Quellen aus anderen Sammlungen oder Institutionen bereits dazuzuzählen
+ sind, wird ausschließlich beim Öffnen eines jeweiligen Dokumentes und dessen
+ Quellenbeschreibung ersichtlich. Durch zusätzliche Anmerkungen zu den
+ einzelnen Quellen werden die Materialien angereichert und die Beschreibung
+ der Basisdaten gewährleisten den notwendigen Überblick.
+
Die Einhaltung der zwei „editorischen basics“ ist somit erfüllt. Doch geht
+ die Ausgabe in keinerlei Hinsicht über dies hinaus – einzige Ausnahme ist,
+ dass seit 2016 rund 660 Briefe in correspSearch nachgewiesen sind. Ansonsten
+ wirkt die digitale Edition auch im Hinblick auf die optische Erscheinung
+ veraltet. Gründe hierfür sind nicht ersichtlich und können nur vermutet
+ werden: zum Beispiel mangelnde personelle Ressourcen oder das möglichst
+ rasche Verfügbarmachen von Inhalten und somit der bewusste Verzicht auf
+ tiefergehende Auszeichnung, selbstverständlich aber auch das
+ Erscheinungsdatum der digitalen Edition. Offenbar ist es auch nicht das Ziel der
+ Ausgabe, etwas Anderes als die Digitalisate und deren Transkription bereit
+ zu stellen. Doch das Potential dieser Ausgabe ist meiner Meinung nach längst
+ nicht ausgeschöpft. Als Zusammenschluss mehrerer Projekte unter dem Dach der
+ DME und dem umfangreichen zur Verfügung stehenden
+ Material ist mehr zu erwarten. Die derzeitigen technischen Möglichkeiten zur
+ Umsetzung solcher digitalen Editionen sind äußerst vielfältig und in
+ unterschiedlicher Weise einsetzbar. Die Auszeichnung solchen Materials mit
+ einem flexibleren Datenformat, wie es die TEI anbietet, wäre sehr
+ lohnenswert. Die Möglichkeiten, die diese als Standard etablierte
+ Auszeichnungssprache eröffnet, würde eine tiefergehende Erschließung des
+ Materials gewährleisten. Briefspezifische Eigenschaften könnten deutlicher
+ gemacht werden, sowohl externe als auch interne Verknüpfungen der Quellen,
+ die Einbindung von Metadaten (inhaltliche und technische), Annotationen,
+ Erläuterungen und somit eine detailliertere inhaltliche Erschließung würden
+ somit möglich.
+ Andere Ausgaben gehen mit gutem Beispiel
+ voran:
+ , ,
+ oder .
+
+
Die Vorteile einer digitalen Edition sind neben der Bereitstellung der
+ Materialien in grundsätzlich unbegrenztem Umfang, der jederzeit mögliche
+ Zugriff, verbesserte Such- und Recherche-Möglichkeiten von Quellen,
+ Verlinkung und Verknüpfung von Materialien miteinander und nach außen, eine
+ höhere editorische Transparenz sowie das Anschlussfähig- und nutzbar-machen
+ von Inhalten. Durch sie ergeben sich neue Forschungsfragen, es können
+ Querverbindungen aufgedeckt werden, die in einer „traditionellen
+ Druckausgabe“ vielleicht nicht entdeckt worden wären. Eine digitale Edition
+ auf der Basis von Minimalstandards wäre zwar nicht unaufwändig, bietet aber
+ einen bedeutenden Mehrwert im Hinblick auf die Benutzbarkeit, Nützlichkeit,
+ Transparenz, Erschließung und Zugänglichkeit.
+
+
+
+
+ Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum Salzburg, Wilhelm A. Bauer, Otto Erich Deutsch, Hrsg. 1963-1975. Mozart: Briefe und Aufzeichnungen. Gesamtausgabe. Kassel, Basel: Bärenreiter.
+ TEI Consortium, ed. 2018. TEI P5: Guidelines for Electronic
+ Text Encoding and Interchange. Version 3.4.0 (Letzter Zugriff am 12. Oktober 2018).
+ Veit, Joachim. 2009. „Die Codierung digitaler Briefeditionen mit TEI P5‟ In
+ Digitale Editionen zwischen Experiment und Standardisierung: Musik- Text-
+ Codierung, hg. v. Peter Stadler und Joachim Veit. Niemeyer: Tübingen.
+
+
+
+
\ No newline at end of file
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/ps/ps-tei.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,2367 @@
+
+
+
+
+ Bridging edition and corpus: a review of P. S. Post Scriptum: A Digital Archive of Ordinary Writing (Early Modern Portugal and Spain)
+
+ author
+
+
+ Ulrike
+ Henny-Krahmer
+
+
+ Universität Würzburg
+ Würzburg
+
+ ulrike.henny (at) uni-wuerzburg.de
+
+
+
+
+ Institut für Dokumentologie und Editorik
+ June 2019
+ 10
+ https://ride.i-d-e.de/issues/issue-10/post-scriptum-digital-archive
+ 10.18716/ride.a.10.4
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ P. S. Post Scriptum
+ CLUL
+
+ Editor
+
+ Rita Marquilhas
+
+
+
+ Contributor
+
+ Ana Luísa Costa
+
+
+
+ Contributor
+
+ Ana Rita Leitão
+
+
+
+ Contributor
+
+ Catarina Magro
+
+
+
+ Contributor
+
+ Elisa García Prieto
+
+
+
+ Contributor
+
+ Fernanda Pratas
+
+
+
+ Contributor
+
+ Guadalupe Adámez Castro
+
+
+
+ Contributor
+
+ Laura Martínez Martín
+
+
+
+ Contributor
+
+ Gael Vaamonde
+
+
+
+ Contributor
+
+ Víctor Pampliega Pedreira
+
+
+
+ Contributor
+
+ Carmen Serrano Sánchez
+
+
+
+ Contributor
+
+ Catarina Carvalheiro
+
+
+
+ Contributor
+
+ Clara Pinto
+
+
+
+ Contributor
+
+ Leonor Tavares
+
+
+
+ Contributor
+
+ Mariana Gomes
+
+
+
+ Contributor
+
+ Tiago Machado de Castro
+
+
+
+ Programmer
+
+ Maarten Janssen
+
+
+
+ Programmer
+
+ Iris Hendrickx
+
+
+
+ Programmer
+
+ Michel Généreux
+
+
+
+ Programmer
+
+ Sérgio Gomes Cláudio
+
+
+
+ Advisor
+
+ Teresa Rebelo da Silva
+
+
+
+ Advisor
+
+ Maria Teresa Oliveira
+
+
+
+ Advisor
+
+ Rosabel San Segundo
+
+
+
+ Advisor
+
+ José Miguel Escribano Páez
+
+
+
+ Advisor
+
+ Sandra Antunes
+
+
+
+ Advisor
+
+ Raïssa Gillier
+
+
+
+ Advisor
+
+ Liliana Romão Teles
+
+
+
+ 2014
+
+
+ http://ps.clul.ul.pt
+
+
+
+ 2019-01-22
+
+
+
+
Auf der Basis von http://www.i-d-e.de/publikationen/weitereschriften/criteria-version-1-1
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 1.2
+
+ Is it easily possible to describe the project bibliographically along the schema "responsible editors, publishing/hosting institution, year(s) of publishing"?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 1.4
+
+ Are the contributors (editors, institutions, associates) of the project fully documented?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 1.5
+
+ Does the project list contact persons?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.1
+
+ Is the selection of materials of the project explicitly documented?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.1
+
+ Is the selection by and large reasonable?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.16
+
+ Does the documentation include information about the long term sustainability of the basic data (archiving of the data)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.1
+
+ Are the aims and purposes of the project explicitly documented?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.1
+
+ Are the methods employed in the project explicitly documented?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.7
+
+ Does the project document which data model (e.g. TEI) has been used and for what reason?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.15
+
+ Does the project offer help texts concerning the use of the project?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.8
+
+ Does the project supply citation guidelines (i.e. how to cite the project or a part of it)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.16
+
+ Does the editon regard itself as a completed project (i.e. not promise further modifications and additions)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.13
+
+ Does the project provide information about institutional support for the curation and sustainability of the project?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.2
+
+ Has the material been previously edited (in print or digitally)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.2
+
+ Does the edition make use of these previous editions?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.15
+
+ Does the project offer an introduction to the subject-matter (the author(s), the work, its history, the theme, etc.) of the project?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.3
+
+ Does the project offer a bibliography?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.3
+
+ Does the project offer a scholarly commentary (e.g. notes on unclear passages, interpretation, etc.)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.3
+
+ Does the project include or link to external resources with contextual material?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.3
+
+ Does the project offer images of digitised sources?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.6
+
+ Does the project offer images of an acceptable quality?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.3
+
+ Is the text fully transcribed?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.6
+
+ Does the project offer texts of an acceptable quality (typos, errors, etc.)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.5
+
+ Does the project feature compilations indices, registers or visualisations that offer alternative ways to access the material?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 1.3 and 2.1
+
+ Which kinds of documents are at the basis of the project?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 1.3 and 2.1
+
+ What era(s) do the documents belong to?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 1.3
+
+ Which perspective(s) do the editors take towards the edited material? How can the edition be classified in general terms?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.11
+
+ Does the project offer any spin-offs?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.3
+
+ By which categories does the project offer to browse the contents?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.4
+
+ Does the project offer a simple search?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.4
+
+ Does the project offer an advanced search?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.4
+
+ Does the search support the use of wildcards?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.4
+
+ Does the search offer an index of the searched field?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.4
+
+ Does the search offer autocompletion or suggest functionalities?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.4
+
+ Does the project offer help texts for the search?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.3
+
+ Who is the intended audience of the project?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.3 and 5.1
+
+ Which type fits best for the reviewed project?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Method
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.6
+
+ In how far is the text critically edited?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.7
+
+
+ Is the data encoded in XML?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Is the project employing a standardized data model (e.g. TEI)?
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.5.
+
+ Which kinds or forms of text are presented?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.8
+
+ Are there persistent identifiers and an addressing system for the
+ edition and/or parts/objects of it and which mechanism is used to
+ that end?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.9
+
+ Are there technical interfaces like OAI-PMH, REST etc., which allow the reuse of the data of the project in other contexts?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Is the edition Open Access?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.12
+
+ Is the basic data (e.g. the XML) of the project accessible for each part of the edition (e.g. for a page)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.9
+
+ Can the entire raw data of the project be downloaded (as a whole)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.9
+
+ Can you use the data with other tools useful for this kind of content?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.13
+
+ Are the rights to (re)use the content declared?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.13
+
+ Under what license are the contents released?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
The project P. S. Post Scriptum (2012–2017) was
+ aimed at the collection, edition, and analysis of Spanish and Portuguese private
+ letters from the 16th to the early 19th
+ century. As a result, a digital text collection and edition of the letters is
+ presented on the project website. P. S.
+ Post Scriptum can be classified both as a scholarly edition and a
+ diachronic linguistic corpus and can be considered pioneer work in combining
+ procedures from textual criticism together with the linguistic preparation of the
+ corpus, serving the needs of both historians and linguists. Valuable basic work has
+ been done in encoding approximately 5,000 letters which can be downloaded in
+ different formats on the website. Only an open licence for reuse of the data remains
+ desirable and at times the project could have benefitted from an even more
+ advantageous presentation of the results on the website.
+
+
+
In the P. S. Post Scriptum project, private
+ letters written in Spain and Portugal between the 16th and the early 19th century
+ were collected, edited, and analyzed. Almost all of the letters were previously
+ unpublished, so a digital collection and edition of them was one of the main goals
+ of the project. Another priority was the historical and linguistic study of the
+ letters in this diachronic corpus. The P. S. Post Scriptum project was
+ funded with an ERC Grant between 2012 and 2017 and was hosted at the faculty of arts
+ and humanities of the University of Lisbon.For more information about the EU-funded project see “P. S.” CORDIS. Community Research and Development Information Service. Last
+ updated on November 20, 2017. .
+ This review is about the digital text collection and edition of the letters
+ resulting from P. S. Post Scriptum and published at .This
+ review is written from the perspective of a digital humanist trained in Spanish
+ and Portuguese philology, but not a specialist in the cultural history or the
+ history of these languages in the Early Modern period. Its focus is therefore on
+ general philological aspects of the text collection and edition as well as
+ characteristics relevant to the field of digital humanities.
+
+ Background
+ Fig. 1: Letter written by María de Espinosa to her husband in 1553. .
+ Accessed June 1, 2018.
+
The letters edited in P. S. Post Scriptum
+ are private correspondence written by people of different ages, gender,
+ occupation, and from different social backgrounds. Most of them survived because
+ they were used as evidence in civil, military, ecclesiastical, and inquisitorial
+ courts and preserved in the corresponding archives. The letters served as proofs
+ to convict or absolve their senders, recipients, or persons mentioned in them,
+ and were often accompanied by transcriptions of hearings of witnesses and
+ defendants. Both kinds of materials are of special documental value for the
+ study of everyday history and the history of language, as many everyday issues
+ are covered in the letters and transcripts and presented in a registerA form of language used for a particular
+ purpose or in a particular social setting. close to spoken
+ language.Cf. “Project P. S. Post
+ Scriptum.” CLUL 2014. ,
+ and Vaamonde 2015a: 58. Fig. 1 shows an example of a letter sent from
+ Valladolid to Toledo in 1553, written by a wife to her husband complaining that
+ she hasn’t heard from him over the last years. The letter is kept in the
+ National Historical Archive in Spain and was used in a legal procedure where the
+ husband was accused of bigamy.Cf. “1553.
+ Carta de María de Espinosa para su esposo Francisco de Leguizamo.” CLUL
+ 2014. .
+
+
The collection and edition of private letters of this kind has
+ been at the heart of two predecessor projects closely related to P. S. Post Scriptum. The project CARDS
+ Unknown Letters started in 2007 and was aimed at the online edition and
+ study of Portuguese private letters written between 1500 and 1900.A description of this project, which was
+ sponsored by the national Portuguese funding institution FCT, can be found
+ on the website of the Linguistics Centre of the University of Lisbon (Cf.
+ “CARDS - Unknown Letters.” Centro de Linguística da
+ Universidade de Lisboa. 2018. ),
+ but an individual website for the CARDS project is not accessible anymore,
+ since it segued into the P. S. Post Scriptum project
+ (all the links that the reviewer found are redirected to the P. S. project
+ website). The second related project started in 2010 and is called
+ FLY Forgotten Letters, Years 1900-1974, or FLY Cartas Esquecidas in Portuguese. It has an online
+ presence at .General information about the FLY project
+ can also be found at “FLY - Forgotten Letters 1900-1974.” Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa. 2018. . There is
+ also an umbrella page for all three projects. See . The
+ letters of FLY were written in the 20th century, in the context of war,
+ migration, imprisonment, and exile. Both the predecessor projects and P. S. Post Scriptum were carried out at the Linguistics
+ Department of the University of Lisbon, the latter starting in 2012. While
+ dealing with letters from different periods of time and contexts, and
+ transmitted in different ways, the general goals of the projects CARDS and FLY
+ were the same and also the methodology was shared. The approaches developed in
+ the precursor projects were in principle continued in P. S.
+ Post Scriptum, but with a different linguistic and regional scope. In
+ P. S. Post Scriptum, the corpus was extended to also
+ include letters from Spain from the Early Modern period. In addition, it was
+ announced that further types of linguistic annotation were to be added.Cf. Gomes et al. 2011. In this
+ review, only the results of the P. S. Post Scriptum
+ project are discussed.The results
+ published on the FLY website will only be taken into account occasionally,
+ where they reveal shifts in the methodology and publication strategy when
+ compared to P. S. Post Scriptum.
+
The goals of P. S. Post Scriptum are described on the
+ homepage of the project website as follows:
+
“Within the P. S. (Post Scriptum) Project, systematic research will be developed,
+ along with the publishing and historical-linguistic study of private letters
+ written in Portugal and Spain along the Early Modern Ages. These documents are
+ almost all unpublished epistolary writings made by authors from different social
+ backgrounds. [...] These textual resources often present an (almost) oral
+ rhetoric, treating everyday issues of past centuries in a register that hasn't
+ been easy to study, apart from brief examples. Not only does the P. S. Project
+ present a wide collection of private letters, but it also makes it available as
+ a scholarly digital edition and as an annotated corpus.”
+ “Project P. S. Post Scriptum.” CLUL 2014. .
+
+
What is highlighted here is the relevance of collecting and
+ publishing historical sources that were previously inaccessible to a wider
+ audience, but also their value for the diachronic study of language registers
+ that are rarely documented otherwise. Especially noteworthy is the double goal
+ set for this digital text collection: it is conceived as a scholarly digital
+ edition, but also as a linguistic corpus. This broad scope is reflected in the
+ conception of P. S. Post Scriptum as an inherently
+ interdisciplinary project with a team of linguists and historians from Spain and
+ Portugal. The “Credits” page, which lists members of P. S.
+ Post Scriptum as well as of the CARDS projectFor someone not familiar with the history of the
+ projects, it can be confusing that the credits list is divided into two
+ parts and that it mentions the CARDS project at all. It would be helpful to
+ include a brief explanation of the relationship between the two projects
+ into the website to make it self-contained, because currently this
+ information cannot be found on the credits page, nor anywhere else on the
+ P. S. Post Scriptum
+ website., shows the range of fields involved: historical and
+ computational linguists, a teaching researcher, members responsible for
+ linguistic, historiographic, and paleographic survey, experts in digital
+ scholarly editing, conceptionists, and programmers.“Credits.” CLUL 2014. .
+
Because of its double goal, P. S. Post
+ Scriptum should be reviewed as both a scholarly digital edition and a
+ linguistic corpus. This project is one of many that don’t easily fit into a
+ taxonomy of scholarly digital resources.This review therefore draws on both catalogues of criteria developed
+ by the IDE, the Criteria for Reviewing Scholarly Digital
+ Editions (. Accessed June 1, 2018) and the Criteria for Reviewing
+ Digital Text Collections (. Accessed June 1, 2018), the latter including criteria for the assessment
+ of linguistic corpora. Because the review is published in an issue on
+ scholarly digital editions, the accompanying factsheet is only about
+ editorial aspects, though. Interestingly, P. S. Post
+ Scriptum labels itself “A Digital Archive”, avoiding the terms
+ “edition” and “corpus” and placing the focus on the organizational,
+ institutional, and preservational dimension instead of the methodological
+ orientation of the selection and treatment of documents and texts. Similar
+ observations are made for other digital resources in the editorial of RIDE
+ 6. Cf. Henny-Krahmer and Neuber 2017. It is very laudable that the
+ letters in P. S. Post Scriptum are edited critically in
+ order to lay the foundation for research in various disciplines. The project
+ members themselves reflect their multidisciplinary approach:
+
“The advantages that the new technologies offer to the humanities cannot be
+ denied, even if there is a lack of creation of digital tools that are useful for
+ different scholarly disciplines. In general, the editions designed for the
+ philologist and the historian are not exploited by the linguist in the same
+ manner that an annotated corpus would be; and vice versa, the linguistic
+ corpora, conceived first and foremost to obtain statistics and word
+ concordances, are resources of little utility for historical investigation and
+ textual criticism.
+
In this work we present an already finished research project which incorporates
+ the methodologies of the digital humanities and corpus linguistics to offer an
+ integrative treatment of sources that can be of interest in several fields of
+ study.”
Vaamonde 2018: 140.Translated from Spanish by the reviewer.
+
Vaamonde sees the new technologies as a type of catalyst fostering
+ the development of tools that are useful to various humanities disciplines and
+ at the same time making a lack of such tools visible. A similar spirit of
+ disciplinary reunification emerging from the digital humanities is formulated by
+ Marquilhas and Hendrickx:
Admittedly, the division of the philological method in the past primarily served
+ as an excuse to define the differences between the modalities of edition which
+ the three areas [linguistics, literary history, and textual criticism]
+ respectively demanded. Now the adoption of digital methods and the creation of
+ resources led to a situation where the “walls” between these areas began to
+ fall, in an exemplary dynamic of interdisciplinarity.
Marquilhas and Hendrickx 2016.Translated from
+ Portuguese by the reviewer. Marquilhas and Hendrickx base their observation
+ on McCarty 2005.
+
+
Taking these statements of the project members into account, P. S. Post Scriptum aims to provide fundamental research
+ for the digital humanities as a whole and not just to serve the needs of a
+ single discipline. In this review, P. S. Post Scriptum is
+ thus examined from various perspectives. First, the general structure and
+ contents of the project website are discussed. Following this, the general
+ parameters of P. S. Post Scriptum as a digital text
+ collection are reviewed: the principles of selection of documents and texts, the
+ organization and accessibility of the materials, available metadata and
+ documentation. P. S. Post Scriptum is then assessed as a
+ scholarly digital edition on the one hand and as a linguistic corpus on the
+ other. Finally, the long-term prospects of the entire resource are
+ evaluated.
+
+
+ Website
+
The website of P. S. Post Scriptum is available in three languages:
+ Portuguese, English – the default, and Spanish. What is translated are the main
+ menu, headings and introductory texts on single pages, and search options,
+ except the XPath options and predefined queries for a syntactic search which are
+ only presented in English. Even the metadata for the letters are partially
+ translated. The metadata categories are available in the three languages. For
+ the metadata values, the language of the letter seems to determine their main
+ language.No documentation was
+ found on this aspect of the resource.In the XML files of the letters only the language of translations is marked but the metadata language is not indicated with a language attribute (@xml:lang). Only the language of translations is marked. The letter
+ written from María de Espinosa to her husband, for example, is in Spanish, so
+ the summary, context information, etc. are also given in Spanish. That the
+ metadata is in different languages may complicate a machine-based reuse of the
+ data. Still, the summary and context information of each letter can be switched
+ to English.Once there, the only way to
+ get back to the original language version is the back button of the browser.
+ It would have been nice to also have a button to switch the metadata
+ language back, but this is just a small inconvenience. In some cases,
+ even the text of the letters themselves is translated. Where this is not the
+ case, a hint is given on how to proceed for automatic translation
+ elsewhere.“If there is no
+ translation for the letter itself, you may copy the text (while using the
+ view 'Standardization') and paste it to an automatic translator of your
+ choice.” “1553. Carta de María de Espinosa para su esposo Francisco de
+ Leguizamo.” CLUL 2014. . There seems to be
+ no way to search for translated letters, so they can only be found by chance and
+ it is also not possible to find out how many of them have been translated.See “1756. Carta de José da Costa
+ Martins para o seu pai, Luís da Costa Martins, negociante.” CLUL 2014. for
+ an example of a letter with a translation into English (found by typing “I
+ have” into the Raw corpus search). The translations of the letter
+ metadata and text are not directly linked to the main language option of the
+ website, so it is for example possible to have the website in Portuguese and
+ read a letter in English. It is comfortable that the main language can be
+ switched on every subpage of the site and not only from the homepage. All in
+ all, much effort has been put into translations to make the site accessible to
+ readers from Portugal and Spain as well as to an international audience.
+ Fig. 2: Homepage of the P. S. Post Scriptum project
+ website. . Accessed June 1, 2018.
+
+
The structure of the website is straightforward. On the homepage,
+ an introductory text about the project, its goals and the methodologies used, is
+ given (see Fig. 2). Links to documentation are also placed on the homepage and
+ there is a suggestion for how to cite the whole resource, but there are no
+ citation suggestions for individual subpages. The main menu of the website is
+ placed on the left, is visible on all subpages, and has a single level of
+ entries, making it easy to stay oriented on the website. The first half of the menu
+ entries comprises content-related aspects: “Search”, “Participants” and “Map”
+ are all general access points to the letters, followed by the entry “Tree
+ Search” which constitutes an advanced option. The second half of the menu is
+ devoted to project-related information such as “Credits” and “Related Projects”,
+ and to project outcomes other than the presentation of the letters on the
+ website (“Papers” and “Downloads”). The website seems to have a backendHere, “backend” is understood as a
+ non-public part of the website., as there is a link to a login. As
+ this is not explained further, it is not clear for whom this option has been
+ designed and how it can be used. Regarding the structure of the website, there
+ are a few subpages that cannot be reached directly from the main menu. These are
+ the letters themselves (discussed further below), a “Word Distribution”
+ pageCf. “Word distribution.” CLUL
+ 2014. .
+ which is linked from the introductory text on the homepage, and a “Raw corpus
+ search” pageCf. “Raw corpus search.”
+ CLUL 2014. . which only
+ seems to be linked to from the help section of the general search page.
+
On the page “Related Projects”, a list of links is given which is
+ divided into four categories: “Tools”, “Digital Editions and Historical
+ Corpora”, “Guidelines and tutorials”, and “Networks and Associations”.Cf. “Related Projects.” CLUL 2014. .
+ While this is an interesting list, some explanation would have been helpful to
+ know in what way the listed “projects” are related to P. S.
+ Post Scriptum. The mentioned tools (TEITOK, eDictor, CorpusSearch) have
+ probably been used in the project. It is likely that the project is a member of
+ the associations listed (AHDig and REDaiep). But why is the Digital Archive of Letters written by Flemish authors and composers
+ listed under “Guidelines and tutorials” and in what way is the tutorial “Text
+ Processing with Linux” relevant for users of the P. S. Post
+ Scriptum website? Also for the “Digital Editions and Historical
+ Corpora”, the relationship between P. S. Post Scriptum
+ and these other projects is not clear. The predecessor project FLY is listed,
+ but also for example the Mark Twain Project which has probably inspired the
+ methodology of P. S. Post Scriptum in terms of a digital
+ scholarly edition of letters. Another project mentioned is "En
+ el ojo del huracán": Cartas de Ultramar a España,
+ 1823 - Edición digital. The homepage of that project explains that a
+ cooperation between P. S. Post Scriptum and TEITOK has
+ been established and that the 65 letters of the edition have a second user
+ interface at the Linguistics Centre of the University of Lisbon.See Stangl n.d. and Ultramar. 2014. . As
+ can be seen, there are various reasons for projects to appear on the “Related
+ Projects” page and a few subheadings or sentences would have helped to clarify
+ the relationships.
+
The “Papers” subpage lists publications by type (Books,
+ Guidelines, Book Sections, Journal Articles, Conferences) and by year
+ (2012-2017).Cf. “Publicações /
+ Publicaciones / Papers”. CLUL 2014. .
+ The number of publications produced by the P. S. Post
+ Scriptum team during the project’s funding period is impressive. There
+ are two edited and one authored book, four detailed manuals, 25 book sections,
+ 22 journal articles, and 64 conference papers contributing to various fields
+ such as general linguistics, corpus linguistics, language history, discourse
+ analysis, cultural history, gender studies, and DH.
+
+
+ P. S. Post Scriptum as a digital
+ text collection
+
+ Selection of documents
+ and texts
+ Fig. 3: Homepage of the FLY project website with corpus statistics. . Accessed June 1, 2018.
+
P. S. Post Scriptum can be classified
+ as a primary source collection because it includes descriptions and digital
+ facsimiles of the documents, and as a diachronic corpus because it brings
+ together letters from Spain and Portugal from the 16th up to the 19th
+ century. Unfortunately, there is no information on the website about the
+ overall number of letters included in the archive and of the distribution of
+ the letters over time. On the word distribution page, some statistics are
+ given in numbers of words (by language, gender, and social status). The
+ number of words is almost balanced for letters in Spanish and Portuguese
+ (984,830 and 974,391 words, respectively).Cf. “Word distribution.” CLUL 2014. .
+ The linguistic focus of the project is illustrated by the fact that the size
+ is measured in “words” instead of “documents” or “texts”. A way to get to
+ the number of letters is to use the search functions: there are 2,369
+ letters in Portuguese and 2,446 in Spanish which makes a total of 4,815
+ letters. A search by year also reveals that the earliest letter in the
+ collection dates from 1500 and the latest letters from the 1830s. It would
+ have been easy to provide some general numbers on the homepage or another
+ page of the website to provide the user with a first impression about the
+ size and composition of the corpus. Despite the word counts on the word
+ distribution page, no overview of the temporal distribution of letters is
+ given which would be an important information for a diachronic corpus.
+ Interestingly, the homepage of the predecessor project FLY includes exactly
+ this: a detailed overview of the sample in the form of a descriptive text
+ and tables (see Fig. 3). A similar summary is desirable for P. S. Post Scriptum.
+
+
On the website itself, no information is given about the
+ selection criteria for the letters. More information can be found in some of
+ the publications presenting the project, but this is not ideal, for several
+ reasons. First, a user of the website is forced to go through the list of
+ publications and look for those which are concerned with the presentation of
+ the project as a whole. In the case of P. S. Post
+ Scriptum, the project descriptions tend to focus either on the
+ Portuguese or on the Spanish subcorpus, depending on the context of the
+ publication, which makes it harder to get information about the whole
+ collection.These are most
+ probably: Gomes et al. 2012, Marquilhas 2012 (about the Portuguese
+ letters and the CARDS and FLY projects), Vaamonde et al. 2014, Vaamonde
+ 2015a, Vaamonde 2015b, Vaamonde 2017a, Vaamonde 2018 (about P. S. Post Scriptum and partly with a focus on the
+ Spanish subcorpus), plus some presentations. Then, these
+ publications were written at different points in time so it is hard to know
+ which ones are in line with the current state of the text collection as it
+ is presented online. Also, not all of the publications are Open Access and
+ directly available.In this case,
+ of the ones concerned with the description of P. S.
+ Post Scriptum or its predecessors, six are freely accessible
+ online, one is not. In the opinion of this reviewer the
+ publications are an important form of scholarly output, but they cannot
+ replace background and context information published directly with the
+ digital text collection. If an external publication is used to document
+ central aspects of the digital resource and can be considered up-to-date,
+ this should be indicated on the website. This is done, for example, for the
+ guidelines describing the data model, the editorial and the annotation
+ procedures, which are all linked to from the homepage, but unfortunately not
+ for the criteria of selection and composition of the corpus.
+ Fig. 4: Distribution of letters found for different centuries. Cf.
+ Vaamonde 2018: 147.
+
Following the latest publication about the project (Vaamonde
+ 2018), it seems that the primary motivation for the creation of the text
+ collection was the scarcity of sources of documenting spoken language for
+ historical linguistics. Archives of courts were chosen as an excellent
+ opportunity to get access to private correspondence, characterized by an
+ immediate, communicative style and not so much influenced by traditional
+ rhetoric. An overview of the consulted archives in Spain shows that most of
+ the letters could be localized in the National Historical Archive. Vaamonde
+ observes that the localization of letters in the archives is a procedure
+ strongly influenced by chance, as systematic catalogues or even databases
+ are rare. In some cases, the process was initiated with random samples.
+ Regarding the chronological distribution of the letters, the author notes
+ that it was hardest to get letters for the 16th century
+ (see Fig. 4 for an overview). Comparing these numbers with the search
+ results above, approximately 70 % of the located letters have been edited in
+ P. S. Post Scriptum.
+
+
+
+ Data model
+
To assess the data model used in P. S. Post Scriptum, an impressively detailed manual
+ can be consulted following a link on the homepage. The “Guía para la Edición
+ Digital de Textos en P. S. Post Scriptum”See .,
+ more than a hundred pages long, was authored by Gael Vaamonde and is also
+ available in an English versionSee
+ ..
+ It is complemented by the “Manual de Edición y Anotación en TEITOK de los
+ Materiales de P. S. Post Scriptum“See .
+ authored by Vaamonde and Catarina Magro, this one only available in Spanish
+ and partly in Portuguese. The data in P. S. Post
+ Scriptum is modelled in XML-TEI and in the first of the two
+ manuals, the entire TEI model is documented, including the TEI header,
+ transcription and editing conventions, changes to the TEI needed for the
+ linguistic annotation, the relationship of the project’s TEI model to
+ TEI-P5, and the separate TEI model for a bibliographic database containing
+ information about the participants of the letters. In the second manual, it
+ is explained how the texts have been treated further as a preparation for
+ linguistic annotation (e.g. modernization and sentence splitting) and how
+ they have been annotated morpho-syntactically. The transcription and editing
+ conventions as well as the linguistic annotations will be reviewed in the
+ corresponding sections on P. S. Post Scriptum as a
+ scholarly digital edition and as a linguistic corpus below. Here, the
+ general data model is discussed.
+
The data model of P. S. Post Scriptum –
+ at least the project internal model – is not a straightforward and plain TEI
+ model for several reasons. As Vaamonde explains, when the project started in
+ 2012, the TEI had not decided to include specific elements for the encoding
+ of correspondence yet.This was
+ finally achieved in 2015 with the TEI-P5 release 2.8.0. Cf. Stadler et
+ al. 2016-2017. It was therefore decided to follow the model of
+ another project concerned with the edition of letters, the Digital Archive of Letters by Flemish Authors and Composers from the
+ 19th & 20th century (DALF)See . Accessed
+ June 1, 2018.. Because the schema used in the DALF project was
+ based on TEI-P4, P. S. Post Scriptum inherited an
+ already outdated version of the standard. In a way, this is an ironic twist:
+ the intention was to take up the ongoing development of a dedicated module
+ for the encoding of correspondence and the project ended up with an older
+ version of the chosen XML standard. A good way out of this dilemma was
+ found, though: the decision to offer a TEI-P5 version as an export format
+ and to use the model adopted from DALF as an internal one. The version of
+ the data model conforming to TEI-P5 was influenced by the schema of the
+ CHARTA (Corpus Hispánico y Americano en la Red: Textos
+ Antiguos) network.Cf.
+ Vaamonde 2017c: 5f. The website of the CHARTA network is available at
+ . Accessed June 1, 2018.
+ It is to be valued positively that the P. S.
+ Post Scriptum project looked for models elsewhere in order to learn
+ from the experiences made in other projects, but especially in the case of
+ the DALF’s TEI-P4 model, the question arises why its innovations in terms of
+ correspondence description were not integrated directly into an own TEI-P5
+ model.
+
The elements specific for the encoding of correspondence were
+ not the only necessary customization of the schema. To add linguistic
+ annotations to the texts, the tool TEITOK (A Tokenized TEI
+ environment) was used, a web-based platform developed by Maarten
+ Janssen in which both rich textual markup and linguistic annotations can be
+ used in combination in single TEI files.See .
+ Accessed June 1, 2018. The TEI format used by TEITOK includes
+ custom elements for the tokenization and annotation of the text. A third
+ component of the family of data models in P. S.
+ Post Scriptum is a TEI-P4 model inherited from the CARDS project and
+ used for biographical information about the letters’ authors and
+ addressees.Cf. Vaamonde 2017c:
+ 83f. and 107-118.
+
On the website, each letter can be downloaded in the “Pure TEI
+ P5 XML” export format and in the “TEITOK XML” version based on the internal
+ TEI-P4 schema. In the P5 version, no schema is declared explicitly, so
+ supposedly the encoding follows the TEI_all schema. In the TEITOK version,
+ the internal DTD is linked. No schema file is offered directly on the
+ website and as the XML of the biographic database is not accessible, its
+ schema cannot be reviewed either.
+
All in all, the combination of different schemas and
+ customizations is a bit confusing for someone not familiar with the project.
+ No explanations are given directly on the website. However, the detailed
+ manual helps the user to follow the history of the project and the
+ complexities of the data model are layed out transparently in these
+ guidelines. Access to all the schema files would have been good to
+ facilitate a formal overview of the structure of the data and especially for
+ reuse scenarios to make consistency checks and schema adaptations
+ possible.
+
However, apart from how the information on the data model is
+ presented, the will to follow best practices developed in similar projects,
+ the orientation towards standards like the TEI, the thorough documentation
+ of the data model and the possibility to view the XML of the letters on the
+ website are all highly commendable.
+
+
+ Metadata
+
Each letter edited in P. S.
+ Post Scriptum includes the general administrative and descriptive
+ metadata that are usually part of the TEI header. In addition, there are
+ metadata which are specific for correspondence. The following example shows
+ the correspondence description of the letter PS7004 including details about
+ the sending and reception (names of sender and recipient, locations, and
+ dating), in the TEI-P5 version:
The situational context of the letters is given in the setting
+ description and a summary of their content in the source description. If
+ there are translations into English, they are stored in the revision
+ description as part of a change element. One would not expect translations
+ there, but it might also have been difficult to add the translations in
+ situ: the setting description could have been doubled, for example, but the
+ summary element is not allowed to occur more than once in the TEI schema.
+ Furthermore, the text is classified according to a project specific taxonomy
+ as can be seen in the following example, also taken from PS7004:
Apparently, the “catRef” elements in the text classification
+ point to the type of category declared in the taxonomy, where the category
+ value is given in the description of the type of category. This seems a bit
+ odd, because a category with the same XML-ID can then have a different
+ category description or value in another letter file (for example, if the
+ type is not “pedición”, but a different pragmatic category. Also, it would
+ be good to have insight into the entire taxonomy.
+
It can furthermore be noticed that some fields are empty (in
+ this example, /location/geo for the destination as well as the category
+ description for “linguisticSource”). It is not clear how many of the
+ metadata fields are empty in the overall collection. In order to know
+ whether empty fields are due to work-in-progress or because a value is not
+ mandatory, the manual has to be consulted as there is no formal schema for
+ the TEI-P5 files available. On the website, no report is given on the state
+ of the XML files.
+
Besides the metadata for the letters, biographic metadata is
+ collected in the separate demographic database. In the edition manual, it is
+ described in detail how the data about correspondence participants is
+ modelled (for example, the role, sex, and age of a person are given, person
+ names, and a description of the events related to a person). In the letters,
+ there are pointers from the senders and addressees to the external
+ biographic data, but this data is not available for insight or download.
+
The metadata in P. S. Post Scriptum is
+ rich and conforms to the standards set by the TEI. Points of criticism which
+ can be raised are the missing access to some external metadata (the
+ biographic database and the complete taxonomy) and a report on the
+ completeness of the data.
+
+
+ Organization,
+ accessibility, and usage possibilities
+ Fig. 5: First page of the biographical data table. See . Accessed June 1,
+ 2018.
+
Access to the letters and additional data related to the
+ correspondence is offered in a number of ways on the P. S.
+ Post Scriptum website. The biographical data, for example, can be
+ assessed via the “Participants” entry in the main menu. It is organized in
+ tabular format with one row per person (see Fig. 5). Overall, there are
+ 5,071 rows which can be clicked through in steps of 100 entries. A
+ possibility to sort the data would have been nice, for example by a selected
+ column. As it is, it is not clear if the data is ordered at all and on what
+ principle. By clicking on one of the names, a detailed view of the entry is
+ shown. The only additional information in the detailed view is a link to the
+ letters written by the person, so the biographic data is a possible starting
+ point to get to the letters.
+ Fig. 6: Document map showing sender addresses. See . Accessed June
+ 1, 2018.
+
The menu entry “Map” leads to a Google Map showing all the
+ places for letters with a known sender address (see Fig. 6). The documents
+ can be looked up by clicking on the icons for the places.
+ Fig. 7: Document search. See
+ and . Accessed June 1, 2018.
+
Besides these two possibilities to browse the text collection,
+ the main points of access are the search functions. There are two different
+ searches: the “Corpus Search” (simply named “Search” in the menu) and
+ “Syntactic Trees” (called “Tree Search” in the menu). The corpus search is
+ divided into the sections “Text Search”, “Document Search”, and “Discourse
+ Search”. The tree search is also divided into sections two of which are
+ specific for syntactic searches (both the “XPath Search” and the “Predefined
+ Queries” allow to search for specific syntactic units, e.g. subordinate
+ clauses or clitics) while the third one is a general “Document Search”. The
+ searches specific for the edited text and the syntactic annotation will be
+ discussed below in the section on P. S. Post Scriptum
+ as a scholarly digital edition and as a linguistic corpus, respectively. The
+ document search is identical in the two search interfaces and is shown in
+ Fig. 7.
+
+
The document search allows to look for letters by language,
+ archive, year (or a range of years), letter code, origin, destination, or by
+ a list of thematic keywords (e.g. “Agriculture”, “Masonry”, “Church”). Only
+ one of the keywords can be chosen. Documents can also be searched for with
+ the names of the author or addressee and the social status and gender of the
+ author. A help section with further information about the search options is
+ available. The search is well-documented and easy to use. When the document
+ search is performed, the results are displayed in tabular format. The query
+ is automatically transformed into a Corpus Query Processor (CQP) string which is shown together
+ with the search results. The following string, for example, represents a
+ search for letters in Portuguese written by female authors up to the year
+ 1600, yielding 55 results:
Beyond the powerful search functions, more browsing options
+ could have been offered. The only ways to browse the collection are the
+ biographic database and the geographic map, but this archive of letters
+ would have had much more to offer. Full indexes of the letters, for example
+ by identifier, year, place, etc., could have been implemented without much
+ additional effort. The search is especially helpful for someone who already
+ knows what she or he is looking for, but for a user interested in the
+ collection as a whole more browsing options would have been helpful to get
+ an overview of what is there. Examples of scholarly digital editions of
+ letters consistently offering both ways of access are Letters of 1916See . Accessed June
+ 1, 2018., where letters can be browsed by category, month, and
+ author’s gender (see Fig. 8) or the Alfred
+ Escher-BriefeditionCf. Jung 2015.,
+ offering timelines, keywords, and several contextual indexes to access the
+ letters.
+
A great asset of P. S. Post Scriptum is
+ the “Downloads” page.See .
+ It is not yet usual that full access to the data underlying an online
+ publication of a text collection is offered, even if it should be expected
+ and is desirable. The RIDE statistics on this topic are still quite
+ disillusioning and fortunately P. S. Post Scriptum
+ raises the bars on the Yes-side.See
+ and The letters can be downloaded in several formats and
+ compositions:
+
+ in text format, the whole corpus distributed by language, century, and
+ format (original text, standardized text, POS annotated text, PSDXThe format suitable for the
+ TEITOK environment.)
+ in text format, the whole corpus distributed by gender, language,
+ century, and format
+ in text format, the whole corpus distributed by social status,
+ language, century, and format
+ in text format, a balancedThe balanced corpus is created by selecting only one letter per
+ author. corpus distributed by language, century, and
+ format
+ in XML-TEI-P5, the whole corpus distributed by language and
+ century
+ in XML-TEI-P5, a balanced corpus distributed by language and
+ century
+
+
With these download options, the data can in principle be
+ reused in multiple ways going beyond the usage scenarios created for the
+ website. The data could for example be prepared for integration into the correspSearch environment, a metadata registry and
+ web service for scholarly editions of letters.See . Accessed June 1, 2018.
+ However, there is no rights declaration on the “Downloads” page where reuse
+ is encouraged.“For the benefit of
+ researchers who want to deal with our data using external tools, we
+ offer them below in a text format.” . The facsimiles, on the
+ other hand, are not offered for a bulk download and the user is asked to
+ request the authorization of the responsable archive for reuse. Despite the
+ download options for the various text- and XML-based formats of the letters,
+ reuse of the data is limited by a copyright statement in the TEI files,
+ reserving the rights on the data for the Linguistics Centre of the
+ University of Lisbon:
With this general rights declaration it is not clear if the
+ copyright applies to all the content of the TEI files or just to parts of
+ it, e.g. the markup, metadata, or annotations which were added to the texts
+ in the project. One would expect the original, historical content of the
+ letters not to be subjected to copyright. With these contradictory
+ statements other researchers are left in uncertainty: Can they download and
+ use all the data in external tools without asking for permission? Is a
+ publication of the plain text files elsewhere not allowed or does this just
+ apply to the TEI files? A more detailed licensing in the TEI files and on
+ the website would help to clarify which types of reuse are in principle
+ allowed and for which cases a special permission is needed.
+
Finally, in terms of accessibility and usability of the text
+ collection as a whole, a note on persistent URLs is indicated. The addresses
+ used for the individual webpages are technical addresses, for example
+ for the corpus search, for
+ the syntactic search, for the
+ biographical data page, and ,
+ , or for the same single letter in different views. Especially for the
+ letters, readable URLs like for example or would be much
+ better as they would be independent of the technical setup (not referring to
+ a PHP script, for instance), easier to read, and easier to cite.
+
+
+
+ P. S. Post Scriptum as a scholarly
+ digital edition
+
+ Representation of
+ documents and texts
+
The text of the letters is transcribed and encoded in the TEI
+ body and a detailed description of the elements used can be found in the
+ edition manual, together with a chapter on the transcription and editing
+ conventions. The following changes and additions are applied to the text of
+ the manuscripts when it is transcribed:
+
+ the punctuation is standardized (// and = are for example transcribed
+ as a full stop)
+ word boundaries are standardized
+ the distribution of “i”, “j”, “u”, and “v” is standardized
+ abbreviations are expanded (not silently)
+ annotations on margins by external hand are not transcribed as part of
+ the text
+ page breaks and line breaks are marked
+ additions, deletions, replacements, unclear text and gaps are
+ marked
+ underlined text is marked
+ necessary conjectures are marked with <supplied>
+ hand shifts are markedSee
+ Vaamonde 2017c, 64ff. for details.
+
+
The project members themselves describe their transcription as
+ conservative, respecting many details of the manuscript, so as to serve the
+ goal of P. S. Post Scriptum as a multidisciplinary
+ edition:
+
“In the case of Post Scriptum, we understand that the collected documents are
+ interesting as a source for linguistic data, but also as a source for
+ historical data, and even as objects representing fragments of a practice,
+ produced manually by hundreds of persons who lived at a certain time in the
+ Early Modern Age and who put their daily preoccupations on paper. We are
+ definitely faced with a kind of documentation that can and must be
+ approached from three different perspectives: as an artefact, understood as
+ a physical object; as a text, understood as linguistic content; and as a
+ context, understood as the entirety of historical circumstances associated
+ with the text and the artifact. [...] our work as editors must be a
+ meticulous work striving to preserve every detail of the manuscript.”
Vaamonde 2018: 148.Translated from
+ Spanish by the reviewer.
+
+
Another level of the text that is edited are the discursive
+ parts of the letters. In addition to the usual opener and closer, the
+ sentences are classified as either harangue, peroration, or narration, for
+ example the peroration “Que o mesmo Senhor lha conserve [...]” (That the
+ Lord himself shall save her [...]):
+ Presentation of
+ documents and texts
+ Fig. 8: Presentation of a letter on the P. S.
+ Post Scriptum website. See .
+ Accessed June 1, 2018.
+
Each letter is presented on an individual page (see Fig. 8 for
+ an example). The metadata is presented at the top of the page, starting with
+ the autor, addressee, and letter summary. The metadata area can be expanded
+ for more detailed information and switched to English if translations are
+ available. The text of the letter is given on the left side with the
+ corresponding facsimile(s) to the right. The default text view is the
+ diplomatic transcription, but there are several alternatives that can be
+ chosen in the corresponding “View option” bar above the letter text:
+ “Edition”, “Variant form”, and “Standardization”. In the edition view,
+ abbreviations are expanded. The variant forms view shows the edited text
+ where deletions, for example, are excluded, but historical variants (e.g.
+ “cousa” for “coisa”) are kept. In the standardized view, the edited text is
+ given in a modernized form. Especially the last view is very helpful for a
+ user interested in the content of the letters without being familiar with
+ the historical conventions of writing and historical orthography. This is
+ also the text version that forms the basis for the linguistic annotation and
+ is essential for that task, because a modernized, established text version
+ without variants is usually expected by automatic taggers. The standardized
+ forms of single words are also shown in small boxes as a mouse-over
+ effect.
+ Fig. 9: Sentence view of the letter PSCR0669. See . Accessed June 1, 2018.
+
Besides the different text views, there are additional display
+ options grouped into the bars “Show” and “Tags”. With the options in the
+ “Show” bar, abbreviations, variants, and standardized forms can be
+ highlighted, the letter text can be displayed with original line breaks, and
+ the facsimiles can be switched on and off. In the “Tags” bar, the different
+ options serve to activate a tokenized version of the letter, to display the
+ part of speech and lemma of each word as well as additional notes on special
+ linguistic characteristics, for example words with clitic doubling in
+ Portuguese, complex syllables, diphthongs or hiatuses. At the bottom of the
+ page, there is a small legend indicating the colors used to display
+ editorial changes to the text. A “Sentence view” is also offered. In this
+ view, the text is split into sentences and displayed as one sentence per
+ line (see Fig. 9).
+
+
There are two download options at the bottom of each letter
+ page, one for the download of the XML file, either in the TEI-P5 or in the
+ TEITOK version, the other for the download of the current view in a plain
+ text format.
+
Browsing through various letters, it becomes apparent that not
+ all of them have the same options. Some letter texts are not accompanied by
+ a facsimile (e.g. PSCR5513), some don’t have the detailed POS, lemma,
+ linguistic notes and sentence view options (e.g. PSCR5285), or the variant
+ and standardization views (both PSCR5513 and PSCR5285, for example). As for
+ other aspects mentioned before, it would have been good to have an overview
+ of the editing status of the letters in the whole collection. Another way to
+ make the state of progress more transparent would have been to include
+ search options allowing to look for finalized letters.
+
Although most of the functions are self-evident, a help text
+ explaining the meaning of the different text views, for example, would have
+ been helpful. If the view options are not documented exhaustively on the
+ website, a user might miss them if she or he by accident only views letters
+ where a few of them are available. It was not clear to the reviewer how to
+ find a letter where all options are available, if not by chance.
+
Of all the information encoded in the TEI files, the
+ discursive parts of the letters seem to be the only aspect that is not
+ presented. Apart from that, all the different levels of encoding can be
+ assessed via the web interface in a user-friendly manner. In addition, the
+ “Text Search” supports looking for words on the different levels of
+ transcription (provisional transcription, expanded abbreviations, and
+ standardization). Even if the parts of discourse are not taken up into the
+ HTML view, they can still be searched for with the “Discourse Search” which
+ allows to look for letters containing different types of sentences (opener,
+ closer, harangue, peroration, narration, etc.) and for letter types
+ (friendship, love, family, private business and anonymous letters).See .
+
+
+
+ P. S. Post Scriptum as a
+ linguistic corpus
+
The second side of P. S. Post Scriptum’s
+ double face as a digital scholarly resource is its design and capacity as a
+ linguistic corpus, the goal to compile “an electronic resource which facilitates
+ the statistical exploitation and treatment of the textual data” with corpus
+ linguistic methods as the primary approach.Vaamonde 2018: 152. Translated from Spanish by the
+ reviewer.
+
+ Linguistic
+ annotations
+
Before the several layers of linguistic annotation could be
+ added to the letters in P. S. Post Scriptum, the texts
+ had to be normalized. This was achieved through the manual preparation of
+ the standardized, edited text, as described above. The morphosyntactic
+ annotation was then done with the package FreeLing
+ for the Spanish texts and with eDictor for the
+ Portuguese ones.See Padró and
+ Stanilovsky 2012 and Piaxão de Sousa et al. 2012. Vaamonde
+ reports that it was a challenge to work with a range of tools providing
+ different output formats that could not be easily combined, especially the
+ information encoded in TEI with the different tagger outputs, leading to
+ different versions of the corpus that cannot be exploited altogether.Cf. Vaamonde 2018: 153. This
+ is a common problem in projects working at the junction of different
+ disciplines in digital humanities.Similar experiences have been made in the project Computational Literary Genre Stylistics (CLiGS) that the
+ reviewer is part of. In CLiGS, it was decided to keep two versions of
+ the corpora of literary texts: a master version with structural and
+ inline TEI encoding and a linguistically annotated version where
+ FreeLing output in XML format is incorporated into a basic TEI
+ structure. Cf. Schöch et al. (forthcoming) and . Accessed June 1,
+ 2018. In P. S. Post Scriptum, the solution
+ was to centralize the linguistic treatment of the corpus in the tool TEITOK
+ which allows to store and treat both rich textual markup and linguistic
+ annotations in the same XML format.See Janssen 2016. The tokenization, orthographic normalization,
+ lemmatization, and morphosyntactic annotation were all realized in TEITOK
+ after the import of the digitally edited TEI. The result is a format similar
+ to TEI, but with some custom elements and attributes as in the following
+ example from the letter PS7004:
The original form of each token is kept as the content of the
+ “tok” element. In the “nform” attribute, a normalized version of the token
+ is given. The other attributes serve to hold the lemma, dialectal variants,
+ and so on.See Vaamonde and Magro
+ 2018 for details about the meaning of the various attributes used in the
+ linguistic annotation. So the basic unit chosen for the XML
+ version of a letter combining digital edition and corpus is the token or
+ word to which linguistic information is directly added. But the model is
+ also able to keep specific markup from the historical-philological edition.
+ If there is any markup inside a token such as a line break, for example, it
+ is kept. In the case of a span of underlined words, the element to encode
+ the highlighting surrounds several token elements.
+
From the point of view of this reviewer, it is not just a
+ technical question whether different layers of annotation are kept inside a
+ single file or modelled as stand-off markup. Of course a stand-off setup is
+ more difficult to process because units like sentences or words have to be
+ realigned when several layers of annotation are analyzed or presented
+ together. But to find a way to directly integrate both editorial markup and
+ linguistic annotations also contributes to build a rich resource which can be
+ archived in its integrity. In this scenario, the linguistic annotations
+ become part of the edition and are not just another layer which can be added
+ repeatedly in an ad-hoc way, especially if their quality is checked
+ manually. This is not to say that there aren’t any arguments for stand-off
+ markup, but that the editorial decision on the way to model annotations
+ contributes to define the type of resource that is created, in this case a
+ critically edited linguistic corpus.
+
In addition to the tokenization and lemmatization, also
+ morphosyntactic annotations and syntactic trees are included in P. S. Post Scriptum. For the morphosyntactic
+ annotations, the EAGLES tagset was used. EAGLES has been developed by an
+ initiative of the European Commission and aims to cover the morphological
+ features of most European languages.Cf. .
+ Accessed June 1, 2018. In P. S.
+ Post Scriptum, the tagset for Spanish has been used in a slightly
+ modified version which is documented and linked to from the homepage –
+ apparently for both the Spanish and the Portuguese subcorpora.Cf. .
+ For the syntactic annotation, the procedures were inspired by the Penn Parsed Corpora for Historical English, the Tycho Brahe Parsed Corpus of Historical Portuguese,
+ and the CLUL-projects Syntax Oriented Corpus of Portuguese
+ Dialects (CORDIAL-SIN) and Word Order and Word
+ Order Change in Western European Languages (WOCcWEL).See , ,
+ , and . Accessed
+ June 1, 2018. The second manual for P. S.
+ Post Scriptum, the Manual de Edición y Anotación
+ en TEITOK de los Materiales de P. S. Post Scriptum: Edición Modernizada,
+ Anotación Morfosintáctica (POS), Anotación Sintáctica (en portugués)See Vaamonde and Magro 2018. is a
+ comprehensive documentation of the editorial tasks involved in the
+ preparation of the texts for the linguistic annotations, the annotations
+ themselves, and the necessary follow-up works. On the project‘s homepage, it
+ is stated that about 25% of each balanced corpus (a corpus of one letter per
+ author in Portuguese and Spanish, respectively) has been annotated
+ syntactically. For the morphosyntactic annotation, it is not clear to what
+ extent it has been completed. The results of the morphosyntactic annotation
+ are directly incorporated into the XML encoding, as can be seen in the above
+ example, whereas the output formats of the syntactic annotation procedure
+ are in principle text-based. They were converted to the XML-based format
+ PSDX (an XML variant of the Penn Treebank format) and then aligned with the
+ main edition file containing the philological and linguistic information by
+ sentence and token, meaning that the syntactic annotation is kept
+ separately, but correlated.Ibd.:
+ 72-81. The results of both the morphosyntactic and syntactic
+ annotations were revised manually.
+ Fig. 10: “Syntactic Trees” view of the of the letter CARDS3126. See . Accessed June 1, 2018.
+
If a syntactic annotation is available for a letter, a
+ corresponding link is shown at the bottom of the page. Clicking on that
+ link, one gets to another page called “Syntactic Trees” (see Fig. 10). In
+ this view, the text is displayed in sentence rows. At the bottom, the link
+ “More files” leads to a list of letter IDs, supposedly all the letters with
+ syntactic annotation. Via the link “Search in this file”, a “Tree Search”
+ can be performed which is limited to the individual file. From the syntactic
+ trees view, the letter can be downloaded in either the Penn Treebank PSD or
+ in the PSDX format. This download option is not available from the main
+ letter page, so some clicks through the subpages are needed to get to
+ it.
+ Fig. 11: “Syntactic tree visualization of the letter CARDS3126’s first
+ sentence. See . Accessed June 1, 2018.
+
Choosing one of the sentence links, another subpage with a
+ visualization of the syntactic tree opens (see Fig. 11). Hovering over a
+ word in the tree, it is highlighted in the sentence above and additional
+ information (the standardized word form, lemma, and part of speech) is shown
+ in a box. Various formats are offered for the visualization of the syntactic
+ tree: a bracket notation, a tabular format, the table graph (which is the
+ default as in Fig. 11), a vertical graph, and an SVG tree. They are nice to
+ have, for example if one would like to use a specific visual form of a
+ syntactic tree in a presentation or publication, but essentially they all
+ provide the same kind of information.
+
+
+
+ Search options
+ Fig. 12: Using the text search to look for the triphthong “uou”. See
+ . Accessed June 1, 2018.
+ Fig. 13: Search results as KWIC. See . Accessed June 1, 2018.
+
Very much effort has been put into making the linguistic
+ annotations searchable. One way is to use the “Text Search” which is part of
+ the general “Corpus Search”. Fig. 12 shows an example of a search for words
+ in the standardized form containing the triphthong “uou”. Per default, the
+ results are displayed as Keyword in Context (KWIC) as
+ in Fig. 13. The search options are manifold: not only can the different
+ transcription layers of the edition be searched but also word classes,
+ lemmas, POS tags, and linguistic notes. Search queries can also directly be
+ formulated in the corpus query language CQP.
+
+
The results page offers further options to display the
+ findings: by clicking on “context”, it is possible to jump to the text of
+ the whole letter and see the search term highlighted in it. Also, the
+ different textual views can be activated for the search results. A “Direct
+ query URL” is given and can be used to cite the search and its results (at
+ this point the technical character of the URL is understandable because it
+ is meant to reflect complex search queries).
+ Fig. 14: Frequency of the triphthong “uou” by lemma. See . Accessed June 1, 2018.
+
Even more, the results of a query can be used to look for
+ collocations and display frequency tables and visualizations by using the
+ “Frequency Options” below the search results (see Fig. 14 for a bar chart
+ showing the frequency of the triphthong “uou” by lemma).In this case, the lemmas for the
+ words “autuou”, “efetuou”, and “jejuou” were not recognized. “Continuou”
+ occurred five times in the search results, but was only lemmatized in
+ three cases. The results in this example might have been influenced by
+ files where the annotation has not been finished. The frequency
+ calculations are a useful feature and the various visualization options of
+ their results are a convenient extra, but as for the different
+ visualizations of syntactic trees the different types of charts are not
+ essential for their information value, because they all present the same
+ counts. A welcome feature is the possibility to download all the search
+ results in text-based formats for future use.
+ Fig. 15: “Tree Search”, a dedicated search form for syntactic
+ annotations. See .
+ Accessed June 1, 2018.
+ Fig. 16: A subclause with postverbal subject in the letter CARDS0094.
+ See . Accessed June 1, 2018.
+
For the syntactic annotations, there is a dedicated search
+ (“Tree Search”, see Fig. 15), with an XPath Search field and a number of
+ predefined queries. It is possible to choose between several options for the
+ display of the results (brackets, table graph, vertical graph, etc.). The
+ XPath search operates on the PSDX format containing the syntactic
+ annotations in XML. The predefined queries help to get started with the
+ XPath expressions which can be quite complex depending on the structure of
+ interest. A search for adverbial clauses, for example, is formulated as
+ //eTree[@Label="CP-ADV"], a search for indirect questions as
+ //eTree[contains(@Label, "IP") and ./eTree[@Label="CP-QUE"]], and for
+ postverbal subjects //*[eTree[contains(@Label,
+ "NP-SBJ")]/preceding-sibling::eTree[contains(@Label, "VB")]]. The results
+ are displayed per sentence. A search for postverbal subjects, for example,
+ yields 1,700 results. A tree view of one of the resulting sentences (“corre
+ a fama” – “runs the rumour”) is given in Fig. 16.
+
+
Both for the general corpus search and for the syntactic
+ search, basic help texts are offered. Not every search option is explained
+ but the information that is given helps the user to find his or her way
+ through the search forms when using the various access points that are
+ offered to explore P. S. Post Scriptum as a linguistic
+ corpus.
+
Altogether, a remarkable range and amount of linguistic
+ information has been added to the edited texts of the letters and it has
+ been integrated convincingly into the entire text collection. The many
+ possibilities to search for specific linguistic annotations, to view them in
+ the context of the transcribed documents and to download almost all of the
+ generated information (the linguistic data itself, the search results, and
+ visualizations of corpus distributions as well as of linguistic details such
+ as single clauses) must be a great asset for a historical corpus linguist.
+ While the rich user interface supports qualitative as well as quantitative
+ work, the option to download all data in text- as well as XML-based formats
+ is ideal for researchers who would like to integrate the data into their own
+ technical workflow.
+
+
+
+ Long-term prospects
+
Officially, P. S. Post Scriptum is a
+ finished project. On the website, no comments on the future of the data or the
+ maintenance of the project website itself are found. But even though the funding
+ period ended in 2017, the user manual on the linguistic annotations was still
+ updated in March 2018 and this reviewer got an immediate answer and help from
+ the project coordinator when the website was slowing down during the reviewing
+ process. As the project was based at the Linguistics Centre of the University of
+ Lisbon and is also technically hosted there, the prospects are good that there
+ will be institutional support for this digital text collection also in the
+ future. The graphical user interface is generated with the tool TEITOK, a
+ platform that has already been in use for 14 research projects, so it can be
+ assumed that it will also be maintained further on. Even if the website and user
+ interface should be shut down at some point, the underlying data is held in
+ standard formats and could be kept and used in other environments. Nothing is
+ said on the website about external repositories for the data. It would be an
+ option to additionally store the XML and text data in an infrastructure designed
+ for the long-term, for example at a CLARIN centre.See . Accessed June 1,
+ 2018.
+
In terms of documentation, it has already been said that many
+ publications have been produced in P. S. Post Scriptum
+ contributing to a whole range of disciplines. Not only has the project itself
+ been documented meticulously in the publications and manuals, but its results as
+ a digital scholarly edition and historical linguistic corpus have also already
+ been made fruitful in analytic research contributions by members of the project,
+ securing the transfer of knowledge from the project to the relevant
+ disciplines.
+
An open question, which all project-based digital resources face,
+ is how to proceed with changes to the data. In P. S.
+ Post Scriptum, the levels of encoding and annotation are not the same
+ for all the data. This has probably various reasons: two different languages
+ that need to be dealt with, data coming from preceding projects, decisions to
+ change annotation procedures, the end of the funding period, and many more.
+ Although the ideal would be to have completely homogenous, completed data, it is
+ even more important to communicate the state of the data clearly to give the
+ users orientation. In addition, an explicit contact address, a contact form, or
+ a ticket system could enable users to report anything that they come across
+ while using the platform. This could even be left unmonitored but would make it
+ possible to collect feedback for those who want to reuse the data or in case
+ there would be a follow-up project.
+
For the long run, a more explicit and detailed licensing of the
+ data is also important to ensure that other researchers take the opportunity to
+ work with the results of P. S. Post Scriptum. As it is, the project‘s strategy to grant free access to
+ the data but to publish the TEI files under copyright can not be considered an
+ overall Open Access policy (see the discussing of rights issues above).
+
+
+ Conclusion
+
P. S. Post Scriptum can certainly be
+ classified both as a scholarly digital edition and a diachronic linguistic
+ corpus. It can be considered pioneer work in combining procedures from textual
+ criticism with the linguistic preparation of the corpus — on the levels of the
+ data model, the use of an integrated research environment, and the presentation
+ and possibilities of interaction with the results on the website.
+
Valuable basic work has been done in collecting, transcribing, and
+ encoding the approximately 5,000 historical private letters kept in archives all
+ over the Iberian Peninsula and making them available to researchers and to the
+ public. The decision to make all basic data available for download is exemplary.
+ An open licence for would have been desirable for data reuse, but still it is
+ very useful to have insight into the data.
+
The project has followed community standards and advice from
+ similar editorial undertakings, thereby making its data reusable and prepared
+ for the future. The detailed documentation makes up for a partly complex
+ combination of data standards and tools, originating from the project’s history
+ and its double goal to edit the corpus critically and prepare it
+ linguistically.
+
The site’s usability would have benefitted from more context
+ information directly presented on the website to guide a user not familiar with
+ the project and also to have the latest information about the selection, amount,
+ distribution, and state of the data in one place. It would have been good to
+ include filters for the availability of annotation layers into the search forms
+ (e.g. to only show letters with completed linguistic annotation). On the other
+ hand, some of the many visualization options for statistics and syntactic trees
+ could have been skipped. Still, the range of search options that have been
+ implemented for the graphical user interface is impressive. It could only have
+ been enhanced by more options to browse through the collection of letters.
+
It is to be hoped that this carefully edited and comprehensively
+ prepared corpus of private correspondence will be maintained and used by many
+ linguists, historians, and digital humanists to come.
+
+
+ CLUL (ed.). 2014. P. S. Post Scriptum. Arquivo Digital de
+ Escrita
+ Quotidiana
+ em Portugal e Espanha
+ na
+ Época
+ Moderna. . Accessed
+ June 1, 2018.
+ Gomes, Mariana, Ana Rita Guilherme, Leonor Tavares, and Rita Marquilhas. 2012.
+ “Projects CARDS and FLY: two multidisciplinary projects within Linguistics.” In
+ Proceedings of the Language Resources and Evaluation
+ Conference (LREC 2012). Istanbul: ELRA, 2833-2837. .
+ Accessed June 1, 2018.
+ Henny-Krahmer, Ulrike and Frederike Neuber. 2017. “Editorial: Reviewing Digital
+ Text Collections.” RIDE 6. doi: 10.18716/ride.a.6.0.
+ Accessed June 1, 2018.
+ Janssen, Maarten. 2016. “TEITOK: Text-Faithful Annotated Corpora.” In Proceedings of the Language Resources and Evaluation
+ Conference (LREC 2016). Portoroz: ELRA, 4037-4043.
+ Accessed June 1, 2018.
+ Jung, Joseph (ed.). 2015. Digitale Briefedition Alfred
+ Escher. Zürich: Alfred Escher-Stiftung. . Accessed: June 1,
+ 2018.
+ Marquilhas, Rita, and Iris Hendrickx. 2016. “Avanços nas humanidades digitais.”
+ In Manual de Linguística Portuguesa, edited by A. M.
+ Martins and Ernestina Carrilho, 252-277. Berlin: De Gruyter.
+ Marquilhas, Rita. 2012. “A Historical Digital Archive of Portuguese Letters” In
+ Letter Writing in Late Modern Europe, edited by
+ Marina Dossena and Gabriella Del Lungo Camiciotti, 31-43. Amsterdam: John
+ Benjamins.
+ McCarty, Willard. 2005. Humanities Computing. Basingstoke:
+ Palgrave Macmillan.
+ Padró, Lluís, and Evgeny Stanislovsky. 2012. “FreeLing 3.0: Towards Wider
+ Multilinguality.” In Proceedings of the Language Resources and
+ Evaluation Conference (LREC 2012). Istanbul:
+ ELRA, 2473-2479. .
+ Accessed June 1, 2018.
+ Paixão de Sousa, Maria Clara, Fábio Natanel Kepler, and Pablo Picasso Feliciano
+ de Faria. 2012. “E-Dictor. Novas perspectivas na codificação e edição de corpora
+ de textos históricos.” In Caminhos da linguística de
+ corpus, edited by Tania Shepherd, Tony Berber Sardinha, and Marcia
+ Veirano Pinto, 191-224. Campinas: Mercado de Letras.
+ Schöch, Christof, José Calvo Tello, Ulrike Henny-Krahmer, and Stefanie Popp. "The
+ CLiGS textbox: Building and Using Collections of Literary Texts in Romance
+ Languages Encoded in XML-TEI." Journal of the Text
+ Encoding Initiative (jTEI) (forthcoming).
+ Stangl, Werner (ed.). N.d. "En el ojo del huracán": Cartas de
+ Ultramar a España, 1823 - Edición digital.
+ .
+ Stadler, Peter, Marcel Illetschko, and Sabine Seifert. 2016-2017. “Towards a
+ Model for Encoding Correspondence in the TEI: Developing and Implementing
+ <correspDesc>.” Journal of the Text Encoding
+ Initiative 9. . Accessed June 1,
+ 2018. doi: 10.4000/jtei.1433.
+ Vaamonde, Gael. 2018. “Escritura epistolar, edición digital y anotación de
+ corpus.” Cuadernos del Instituto
+ Historia de la Lengua 11, 139-164. . Accessed June 1, 2018.
+ Vaamonde, Gael. 2017a. “Cartas olvidadas, fuentes explotadas. Edición y anotación
+ de un corpus histórico epistolar.” In Congreso HDH2017. Libro
+ de resúmenes, edited by Nuria Rodríguez Ortega. Málaga: Universidad de
+ Málaga, 212-215.
+ Accessed June 1, 2018.
+ Vaamonde, Gael. 2017b. Guía para la Edición Digital de Textos
+ en P. S. Post Scriptum. Lisboa: Centro de
+ Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa. . Accessed June 1,
+ 2018.
+ Vaamonde, Gael. 2017c. Userguide for Digital Edition of Texts
+ in P. S. Post Scriptum. Translated by Clara
+ Pinto. Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa. . Accessed June
+ 1, 2018.
+ Vaamonde, Gael. 2015a. “P. S. Post Scriptum: Dos corpus diacrónicos de escritura
+ cotidiana.” Procesamiento del Lenguaje Natural 55: 57-64.
+ . Accessed June 1, 2018.
+ Vaamonde, Gael. 2015b. “Limitaciones en el uso de corpus diacrónicos del español.
+ Nuevas aportaciones desde el proyecto de investigación Post Scriptum.” E-Aesla 1, [1-10]. . Accessed
+ June 1, 2018.
+ Vaamonde, Gael, Ana Luísa Costa, Rita Marquilhas, Clara Pinto, and Fernanda
+ Pratas. 2014. “Post Scriptum: Archivo Digital de Escritura Cotidiana.” In Humanidades Digitales: desafíos, logros y perspectivas de
+ futuro, edited by Sagrario López Poza and Nieves Pena Sueiro. Janus,
+ Anexo 1, 473-482. .
+ Accessed June 1, 2018.
+ Vaamonde, Gael, and Catarina Magro. 2018. Manual de Edición y
+ Anotación en TEITOK de los Materiales de P. S. Post Scriptum: Edición
+ Modernizada, Anotación Morfosintáctica (POS), Anotación Sintáctica (en
+ portugués).
+ . Accessed June
+ 1, 2018.
+
+
+
+
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+++ b/twain/twain-tei.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,1677 @@
+
+
+
+
+ Review of Mark Twain's
+ Letters, 1853–1880 of the Mark Twain Project Online
+
+ author
+
+
+ Elise
+ Hanrahan
+
+
+ Freie Universität Berlin
+ Berlin
+
+ hanrahan.elise@gmail.com
+
+
+
+
+ Institut für Dokumentologie und Editorik
+ June 2019
+ 10
+ https://ride.i-d-e.de/issues/issue-10/mark-twains-letters
+ 10.18716/ride.a.10.2
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Mark Twain's Letters, 1853–1880
+ Edgar Marquess Branch, Michael B. Frank, Kenneth M. Sanderson, Harriet Elinor Smith, Richard Bucci, Victor Fischer, Lin Salamo, Sharon K. Goetz
+
+ Editor
+
+ Edgar Marquess Branch
+
+
+
+ Editor
+
+ Michael B. Frank
+
+
+
+ Editor
+
+ Kenneth M. Sanderson
+
+
+
+ Editor
+
+ Harriet Elinor Smith
+
+
+
+ Editor
+
+ Richard Bucci
+
+
+
+ Editor
+
+ Victor Fischer
+
+
+
+ Editor
+
+ Lin Salamo
+
+
+
+ Editor
+
+ Sharon K. Goetz
+
+
+
+ 1988-2010
+
+
+ http://www.marktwainproject.org/xtf/search?category=letters;rmode=landing_letters;style=mtp
+
+
+
+ 2018-01-12
+
+
+
+
Auf der Basis von http://www.i-d-e.de/publikationen/weitereschriften/criteria-version-1-1
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 1.2
+
+ Is it easily possible to describe the project bibliographically along the schema "responsible editors, publishing/hosting institution, year(s) of publishing"?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 1.4
+
+ Are the contributors (editors, institutions, associates) of the project fully documented?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 1.5
+
+ Does the project list contact persons?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.1
+
+ Is the selection of materials of the project explicitly documented?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.1
+
+ Is the selection by and large reasonable?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.16
+
+ Does the documentation include information about the long term sustainability of the basic data (archiving of the data)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.1
+
+ Are the aims and purposes of the project explicitly documented?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.1
+
+ Are the methods employed in the project explicitly documented?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.7
+
+ Does the project document which data model (e.g. TEI) has been used and for what reason?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.15
+
+ Does the project offer help texts concerning the use of the project?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.8
+
+ Does the project supply citation guidelines (i.e. how to cite the project or a part of it)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.16
+
+ Does the editon regard itself as a completed project (i.e. not promise further modifications and additions)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.13
+
+ Does the project provide information about institutional support for the curation and sustainability of the project?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.2
+
+ Has the material been previously edited (in print or digitally)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.2
+
+ Does the edition make use of these previous editions?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.15
+
+ Does the project offer an introduction to the subject-matter (the author(s), the work, its history, the theme, etc.) of the project?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.3
+
+ Does the project offer a bibliography?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.3
+
+ Does the project offer a scholarly commentary (e.g. notes on unclear passages, interpretation, etc.)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.3
+
+ Does the project include or link to external resources with contextual material?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.3
+
+ Does the project offer images of digitised sources?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.6
+
+ Does the project offer images of an acceptable quality?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 2.3
+
+ Is the text fully transcribed?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.6
+
+ Does the project offer texts of an acceptable quality (typos, errors, etc.)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.5
+
+ Does the project feature compilations indices, registers or visualisations that offer alternative ways to access the material?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 1.3 and 2.1
+
+ Which kinds of documents are at the basis of the project?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 1.3 and 2.1
+
+ What era(s) do the documents belong to?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 1.3
+
+ Which perspective(s) do the editors take towards the edited material? How can the edition be classified in general terms?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.11
+
+ Does the project offer any spin-offs?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.3
+
+ By which categories does the project offer to browse the contents?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.4
+
+ Does the project offer a simple search?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.4
+
+ Does the project offer an advanced search?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.4
+
+ Does the search support the use of wildcards?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.4
+
+ Does the search offer an index of the searched field?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.4
+
+ Does the search offer autocompletion or suggest functionalities?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.4
+
+ Does the project offer help texts for the search?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.3
+
+ Who is the intended audience of the project?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.3 and 5.1
+
+ Which type fits best for the reviewed project?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Method
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.6
+
+ In how far is the text critically edited?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.7
+
+
+ Is the data encoded in XML?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Is the project employing a standardized data model (e.g. TEI)?
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 3.5.
+
+ Which kinds or forms of text are presented?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.8
+
+ Are there persistent identifiers and an addressing system for the
+ edition and/or parts/objects of it and which mechanism is used to
+ that end?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.9
+
+ Are there technical interfaces like OAI-PMH, REST etc., which allow the reuse of the data of the project in other contexts?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Is the edition Open Access?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.12
+
+ Is the basic data (e.g. the XML) of the project accessible for each part of the edition (e.g. for a page)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.9
+
+ Can the entire raw data of the project be downloaded (as a whole)?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.9
+
+ Can you use the data with other tools useful for this kind of content?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.13
+
+ Are the rights to (re)use the content declared?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ cf. Catalogue 4.13
+
+ Under what license are the contents released?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
The Mark Twain Project Online (MTPO) provides digital critical editions of
+ Mark Twain’s writings for the purpose of scholarly study. The edition
+ project creates a foundation for in-depth research on Mark Twain’s person
+ and texts, as well as contributes greatly to this research itself. All the
+ editions and resources from the MTPO are available free of cost and without
+ registration. The goal of the edition is to publish all of Mark Twain’s
+ writings and this review concentrates particularly on their digital edition
+ of Mark Twain’s letters. This edition project achieves a great deal of
+ transparency regarding editorial principles and practices, making it easy
+ for the reader to follow the editorial decisions. The amount of scholarly
+ work put into the editing and commentary is commendable and offers a vast
+ amount of information for research and analysis. The technical aspects of
+ the digital edition are satisfactory, providing for a digital edition that
+ is easy to read and use, however does not reach the same level of
+ excellence as the critical text and commentary. Considering however that
+ the MTPO went online over ten years ago, in 2007, its usability has stood
+ the test of time.
+
+
+
+ Introduction
+
I am sorry to ever have to read anybody’s MSS, it is such
+ useless work—the Great Public’s is the only opinion worth having
+
+ SLC to Orion Clemens, 15–18 March 1871
+ Buffalo, N.Y. (UCCL 00592). In Mark Twain’s Letters, 1870–1871.
+ Edited by Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, and Lin Salamo. Mark
+ Twain Project Online. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of
+ California Press. 1995, 2007.
+ .
+ I was asked to review an online edition of Mark Twain's letters, about which the Great
+ Public has already spoken, one which has been an ongoing success for the past ten years.
+ Despite this fact, and despite Twain’s stance on individual opinions, I was happy to
+ take on the job of delving into the edited text of the Mark Twain Project Online and
+ examining the website, if only because this edition project is unfinished and has many
+ more years of work ahead of it. It is an ever-growing and evolving effort; thus it is
+ hoped that a review even at this stage may shed new light.
+
Samuel Langhorne Clemens(1835-1910), better known as Mark Twain, In this review he will be referred to as Mark Twain
+ is one of the USA's most famous authors. His novels The
+ Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry
+ Finn are well-known throughout the world and his bold, satiric, and often pithy
+ writings make headlines even today. Two recent headlines of many: or
+ For more than a century, his works have remained entertaining, challenging, and relevant.
+ Fig. 1: Home page for MTPO
+
The Mark Twain Project Online (MTPO) provides digital critical editions
+ of Mark Twain’s writings for the purpose of scholarly study. The edition
+ project creates a foundation for in-depth research on Mark Twain’s person
+ and texts, as well as contributes greatly to this research itself. All the
+ editions and resources from the MTPO are available free of cost and without
+ registration. The project created print editions before going digital in 2007
+ with the launch of MTPO, and today they continue to publish both online and
+ in print. This review will concentrate on the digital edition of Mark Twain’s
+ letters. The full titles and bibliographic information of the eight letter editions can be found on the project’s electronic title page:
+
+
The MTPO aims to publish everything that Mark Twain wrote, no small task.
+ On its website Twain’s texts are split into two categories,
+ Letters and Writings. Under the latter category,
+ five critical editions are available, including his most famous works, The
+ Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry
+ Finn, as well as the long-awaited Autobiography of Mark Twain.
+ Under the category Letters there
+ are over 2,600 edited letters and about 30,000 records of letters
+ (metadata). Considering all that Mark Twain
+ wrote, there
+ still remains much to be edited and published. Under the heading ‘Coming
+ Soon’ one finds the titles
+ Notebooks & Journals, Volumes 1–3 and
+ Early Tales & Sketches, Volumes 1–2.
+
The MTPO has already been reviewed multiple times, by The
+ New Criterion, the Times Literary
+ Supplement, and many
+ others. The
+ reviews are overwhelmingly positive and print editions published by the Mark Twain
+ Project have received numerous awards Winner of the Morton N. Cohen Award for a Distinguished Edition of Letters (for Letters, volume 6 [1874–75]) for Letters, volume 6 [1874–75], winner of the 1993–94 Modern Language Association Prize for a Distinguished Scholarly Edition for Roughing
+ It (1993), winner of the 2010 PROSE Award for Excellence in Humanities and the 2010 California Book Awards’ Gold Medal for Autobiography of Mark
+ Twain, Volume
+ 1 (2010);
+ additionally, the entire project has the seal of approval from the Modern Language
+ Association. This review will concentrate on the MTPO’s digital collection of Twain’s
+ letters and will focus particularly on the editorial practice and the edition’s
+ characteristics as a digital publication.
+
The archival material, originally bequeathed from Mark Twain to his daughter Clara
+ Clemens Samossoud, came to its current home at the University of California,
+ Berkeley, in 1942 and is now part of an archive entitled The Mark Twain Papers,
+ housed at the University's Bancroft Library. A research team produces the critical
+ editions, which are published by the University of California Press. The first
+ critical print edition was published in 1967, and the first digital edition followed
+ in 2007 with the launch of the MTPO.
+
The project has been funded since 1966 primarily by the National Endowment
+ for the Humanities (NEH), a grant for which they must re-apply every two
+ years, as well as by matching private donations and through other public
+ support (including that of the Bancroft Library itself). The MTPO website
+ states that the amount of private donors must grow in order for the project
+ to continue. It should also be noted that President Donald Trump has attempted
+ to eliminate the NEH
+ and the MTPO is just one of countless projects that would struggle for
+ survival were such a measure enacted.
+
The digital publications have not completely replaced the paper versions,
+ as some of the editions still appear both online and in print. For instance The
+ Adventures of Tom Sawyer was printed first in 2010 in paper form
+ by the project (three years after the MTPO's inception) and only after
+ this initial print publication was it made available online for the MTPO
+ in 2017. A slightly befuddling aspect of the project is the relationship
+ and differences between the texts online and those in print. It would be
+ helpful if there were a few lines on the website to clarify their correlation.
+ Ideally the connection would be detailed between texts that are a digitized version
+ of editions printed in the past (before MTPO existed), between texts created
+ concurrently for both digital and print publication, and the plan for texts
+ published in the future.
+
Most of the above information for this introduction was found on the
+ project’s website.See
+ ,
+
+ and
+
+ Transparency is a key factor that this review will be examining,
+ and easily-accessible project information is an important part of this.
+ The MTPO has clearly made an effort to share details about the project
+ and its history. This review will also examine the transparency of the
+ critical text as well as the digital aspects of the edition. In terms
+ of the critical text this means documentation of the decisions made by
+ the editor, as well as their reasoning behind those decisions. In terms
+ of the digital aspects this means access to encoded texts and an
+ explanation of the technical infrastructure.
+
This review, as mentioned above, examines specifically MTPO’s critical
+ edition of Mark Twain’s letters. In the following section some basic
+ information about the digital collection of letters will be given and
+ the relationship between the print and online editions will be examined.
+ Additionally, the Guide to Editorial Practice, which is
+ published on the website as part of the letters edition, will be examined.
+ In order to see the ‘guide’ in action, a letter from the edition will be
+ studied alongside a facsimile of the original. For those researchers not
+ just interested in close readings, but also in more general questions that
+ can be asked of the data, a test search will then be run. Some of the more
+ general resources on the website will be looked at, and finally, there will
+ be comments on the technical aspects of the project.
+
+
+ The Letters, Introduction
+ Fig. 2: Letters Main Page for MTPO
+
Under the navigational heading
+ Letters is the main page for the critical edition of Mark
+ Twain’s letters. There one finds multiple avenues by which to begin an
+ exploration of the texts (simple search, advanced search, list by date,
+ list by name, etc.), as well as links to the title page and the Guide
+ to Editorial Practice. There are 2,691 edited
+ letters available and 29,402 letter metadata. There are 2,691 edited letters
+ available and 29,402 letter metadata. Of the edited letters, 98 include a
+ facsimile. Some additional letter facsimiles are available, these are however not linked to their corresponding edited letters. These facsimiles originate from the printed volumes’ section Photographs and Manuscript
+ Facsimiles and are displayed as they are found in that chapter of the printed volumes. See for example
+ Each letter has an ID number and is encoded in TEI-XML. The edited letters
+ date from 1853, when Twain was 17 years old and had recently left home, and
+ reach up until year 1880, when he was 45 and a well-established writer and
+ celebrity. The cataloged letters cover a much wider range of dates and persons,
+ and on the website it states that more edited letters will be added.
+
+
+ Print and Digital
+
Before going digital with the launch of MTPO in 2007, six volumes of Mark Twain’s
+ letters had already been published by the project in print form between 1988 and
+ 2002. These six volumes were transformed into TEI-XML and made available online
+ as part of the MTPO. It can be inferred (although an explicit remark from the
+ editors would be helpful) that the letters and accompanying editorial information
+ found in the digital versions does not differ from the print editions, which are
+ still available for purchase. I compared one letter from the printed edition to
+ its digital counterpart and found this (at least in this random sampling), to be
+ true. I compared the print and digital version of letter ‘SLC to Malcolm Townsend, 22 Apr 1867, New York, N.Y. (UCCL 02444)’, In Mark Twain’s Letters,
+ 1867–1868.
+
+
In the section on the website titled Recent Changes
+ one sees changes of all kinds made to the website and edition texts. It is a
+ relatively short list: 50 entries spanning a decade, but theoretically one
+ could find here significant alterations to any letters in the digital
+ edition. Here are two examples of the information recorded there: UCCL is part of the letter identification number and stands for Union Catalog of Clemens
+ Letters
+
+ 2009-04-02: Minor corrections to layout (inline salutations) entered for 36 letters, 1853–1880; recipient identified for UCCL 12963
+ 2011-05-16: Corrections to annotation entered for
+ five letters, four of which now recognize Frank Fuller’s second
+ wife, Mrs. Annie Fuller: UCCL 02768, 02785, 01041, 01071,
+ 01107 https://web.archive.org/web/20180109131237/http://www.marktwainproject.org/about_recent.shtml
+
+
This documentation of changes includes not only alterations made to letters since
+ they were published online but would also by its nature document differences in
+ the digital and print versions. This is, however, based on the assumption that
+ the initial digital publication of the letters contained no significant deviations
+ from the previously printed editions.
+
There are also letters on the website that were not previously printed by the project.
+ These are the letters that would have made up a printed seventh volume
+ (Mark Twain's Letters, 1876–80) as well as a small collection titled
+ Mark Twain’s Letters Newly Published 1. As both of these are only available online,
+ it would appear that, for the letters at least, everything produced after 2007 is
+ published exclusively on the digital platform and is no longer produced in printed
+ volumes.
+
Interestingly enough, despite originating from different volumes spanning
+ many years, all of the letters on the website are linked to the same title
+ page and to the same Guide to Editorial Practice.
+ This guide will be looked at in detail in the following section. Here it can
+ be noted that it was written by Robert H. Hirst, who is now the general
+ editor of the letters, in 1987 This date was not found on the website, but by looking in the first printed volume of the letters (Mark Twain’s Letters,
+ 1853–1866) where the Guide to Editorial
+ Practice first appeared .,
+ and that he revised it for the MTPO in 2007.
+ Fig. 3: ’The Guide to Editorial Practice’ for MTPO
+ Fig. 4: ’The Guide
+ to Editorial Practice’ as it appears in the first printed volume of ‘Mark
+ Twain’s Letters’ in 1988
+
I was skeptical as
+ I saw that the editorial guide was altered in 2007 and yet claims to be
+ applicable to all edited letters post-1988. I examined the printed volumes
+ and found that each volume, except volume four (which simply refers to the
+ guide in volume three), includes this Guide to Editorial
+ Practice. When one compares the content of the guide between the
+ printed volumes one sees that there are differences between the volumes, but
+ nothing substantial—the editorial principles do not change. The 2007 version
+ of the guide mentions digital aspects, different editorial symbols used for
+ the online publication, and so forth, but it remains essentially the same as
+ the original guide published in 1988. This can only be possible with extreme
+ consistency in the editorial practice, despite spanning an extensive time
+ period and multiple editors working on the project. Undoubtedly this is partly
+ due to the fact that Hirst has been part of the project since its foundation.
+ In conclusion it seems indeed unproblematic to have one guide, revised in 2007,
+ for all the letters on the website
+
+
+ The Editorial Practice
+
Fundamentally, the text of any letter is a matter of
+ historical fact, determined for all time by the original act of sending
+ it.
Mark Twain Project Online, Guide to Editorial Practice
+ As mentioned above, the Guide to Editorial Practice
+ for Twain’s letters was first written in 1987 by Hirst, and has since been
+ the method used for all of Twain’s letters in the edition project. The
+ editorial practice for the letters is explained herein wonderfully and it
+ offers a commendable amount of transparency. The facts that these guidelines
+ are available to the reader, are well-written, and can be found with ease,
+ earns it much praise. The guide is a pleasure to read—no small feat for a
+ text that describes in detail an edition’s editorial philosophy and its practical
+ implications. Here I will look at some of the principles expounded on within the
+ guide and a few detailed examples of the editorial practice as described therein.
+ As the guide is quite long, only a few aspects will be mentioned. The goal is to
+ gain insight into the editorial principles and how they are explained, allowing
+ an evaluation of both and later a more informed evaluation of the edited text.
+
According to the guide, the editors are providing letters which are extremely
+ faithful (‘maximally faithful’) to the original
+ handwriting. They write, ‘We must begin, in fact, with the
+ assumption that almost any aspect of an original letter might be
+ significant, to either the writer or the recipient, or both—not to
+ mention those for whom the letters are now being published’. ‘Guide to Editorial Practice, (MTDP 00005).’ In Mark Twain Project Online. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press. 2007.
+ Thus the editors strive to emend the text only when absolutely necessary for
+ legibility or intelligibility. The editors exclude in the
+ transcription any deletions or revisions that were made after the letter was
+ already sent and received, even if alterations were made by the original
+ writer or recipient. We will see a practical example of this below with the
+ examination of an actual letter.
+
The editors call the result of their method, i.e. the edited text, ‘plain text’, a
+ term of their own creation. In doing so they wish to differentiate their
+ result from Fredson Bowers ‘clear texts’ and ‘genetic texts’.
+ Fredson Bowers, ‘Transcription of
+ Manuscripts: The Record of Variants’
+ Studies in
+ Bibliography 29 (1976)
+ Clear texts being those for which textual phenomena are described in the apparatus,
+ and genetic texts being those in which textual phenomena are found represented in
+ the text itself, displayed through editorial symbols (such as a diamond for
+ obscured letters, etc.). ‘Plain text’ aims to be a kind of combination of these
+ two methodologies, with some editorial symbols used in the text as well as some
+ information found in the textual apparatus. This approach should serve the editors’
+ goals of ‘maximum fidelity’ and ‘maximum legibility’. Exact details of how ‘plain
+ text’ achieves this combined aim is not clearly stated, but presumably it is because
+ through the choice of either in-line editorial markings or information being placed
+ in the apparatus, the option can be chosen which is least obtrusive to reading the
+ text (legibility), yet without compromising the information itself (fidelity). This
+ is however my own inference. For more information about this method and result, one
+ is referred in a footnote in the guide to Mark
+ Twain’s Notebooks and Journals. This edition, however, is not available
+ on the website, and exists only in printed form. To this end, a few more salient
+ lines in the online guideline about the theory of ‘plain text’ and how it is created
+ would have been appreciated.
+
As it is impossible to transcribe everything from the original handwriting, a
+ key part of the editor’s job is to decide what
+ not to include in the edition.
+ The MTPO editors state:
+
Like all diplomatic transcription except type facsimile,
+ plain text does not reproduce, simulate, or report the original
+ lineation, pagination, or any other formal aspect of the manuscript,
+ save where the writer intended it to bear meaning
[…]‘Guide to Editorial Practice, (MTDP 00005).’ In Mark Twain Project Online. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press. 2007.
+
+
+
Thus it has been decided that most line breaks, minimal differences in
+ indentations, etc., should not be depicted in the transcription. This is
+ reasonable and to be expected of a critical edition and is an important
+ qualification of the earlier quote, which stated that
+ almost any aspect of the
+ original letter might be significant. The ‘almost’ here is expounded upon - there
+ are aspects of the text that the editors deem
+ not to be significant, such as line
+ breaks that occur due to the size of the paper.
+
The section of the guide headed Emendation of the
+ Copy-Text includes further insights into the editorial philosophy,
+ as well as itself being an exemplary text showcasing the laudable determination
+ of the editors to be as transparent as possible. This section goes into extensive
+ detail to describe when and for what reasons a letter might be emended by the
+ editor. For instance, when a letter is available only as a newspaper printing
+ (there is no handwritten original), errors are classified by the editors as either
+ originating with the typesetter (thus emended in the edition text) or from Mark
+ Twain himself (thus not emended). It seems as though this distinction could have
+ a large and nebulous gray area that is not mentioned in the guide. Despite this
+ qualm, however, it is certainly true that some errors are without question
+ typographical errors, such as transpostion or incorrect font, of which they give
+ examples. Emendation decisions can often be argued with, but of real importance
+ is whether or not the principles behind the decisions are clearly stated for the
+ reader to understand, and this guide makes every effort to do so.
+
The editors explain that, although they in principle do not correct or change
+ Twain’s original text, exceptions are made. Essentially, to be avoided is
+ anything deemed liable to cause further confustion in its transciption. They
+ cite the example of Twain’s unique usage of a dash to justify a line, which we
+ will see below when examining an actual letter. Transcribing this dash does not
+ add any meaning to the transcription but instead would add confusion, especially
+ since the original lineation is not usually reflected in the edited text. It is
+ important to note that such alterations from the editor are not silent emendations,
+ but recorded in the apparatus. Similarly, ambiguities such as hyphenated compound
+ words which are split due to a line break are necessarily emended. The exact line
+ breaks are usually not recreated in the edition text and it is impossible to know
+ if for instance (using the example from the guide) Mark Twain meant waterwheel or
+ water-wheel in such a case as when the word is split due to a line break. The
+ editors summarize this nicely in the following quote, which also nicely represents,
+ in my opinion, their general editorial philosophy:
The question posed by such details is not simply whether
+ including them would make the text more reliable or more complete (it
+ would), but whether they can be intelligibly and consistently included
+ without creating a series of trivial puzzles, destroying legibility,
+ while not adding significantly to information about the writer’s choice
+ of words or ability to spell. There are, in fact, a nearly infinite
+ variety of manuscript occurrences which, if transcribed, would simply
+ present the reader with a puzzle that has no existence in the
+ original.
‘Guide to Editorial Practice, (MTDP 00005).’ In Mark Twain Project Online. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press. 2007.
+
In this quote the editors explain once again their loyalty to the concept of maximum
+ fidelity and maximum legibility, and their refusal to create unnecessary puzzles. It
+ is a philosophy that does not forget that in the end the texts are intended to be read,
+ and their job is to facilitate that act. Overall, the guide does an excellent job of
+ sharing the general principles behind the creation of the edition, as well as describing
+ in detail how the text is transcribed and edited, and the reasoning behind those
+ decisions.
+ Fig. 5: About Textual Editing at MTPO
+
In addition to the Guide to Editorial Practice, one also
+ finds on the website a link under About MPTO called Textual Editing at the Mark Twain
+ Project.
+ This leads to a text, also from Robert H. Hirst, which is something like an introduction to
+ scholarly editing, using practical examples from Mark Twain texts. It is a fantastic resource
+ to offer on the website. It focuses on the main concepts of editing and does not shy away
+ from addressing difficult questions, such as those pertaining to the nature of a dynamic
+ authoritative text, for which Hirst uses the word ‘unstable’. This is the concept that a
+ particular critical edition is never the last word on the author’s text, but part of a continuing
+ conversation. For instance, one editor could interpret something differently than another
+ editor, or new discoveries could be made which altered a text or even disproved a previous
+ editor’s hypothesis.
+
One can also gather in this piece more about the edition’s particular editorial principles.
+ Author intention and the attempt to recreate the original text are at the core of their
+ editorial philosophy. This becomes more relevant for editions of Twain’s published works
+ rather than his letters, but is interesting nonetheless. The slippery nature of author
+ intention is not addressed by Hirst. He does not mention that Twain's wishes regarding
+ his writing might have changed during his lifetime, perhaps even from one day to the next,
+ let alone the fact that claiming to know any form of author intention can be extremely
+ difficult and must sometimes involve speculation. This philosophy is however typical for
+ the style of editing found in the United States and United Kingdom, based on editing
+ Shakespeare’s plays, which Hirst himself explains. ‘As with most scholarly
+ editions of American authors, the editorial policies of the Mark
+ Twain Project grew out of editorial methods and theories
+ developed originally for editing Shakespeare's texts.’
+
+ However and more importantly, one can safely say that the MTPO critical editions hold up
+ to the standards and principles expounded and presented in this text.
+
+
+ Example Letter
+
The example letter used for this review was chosen under the conditions that a
+ facsimile of the original handwriting be available, and that the letter have editorial
+ commentary. I chose a lower quality facsimile of the kind found originally in the printed volumes (https://web.archive.org/web/20180110100803/http://www.marktwainproject.org/xtf/view?docId=letters/MTDP00366.xml;style=letter;brand=mtp). This is because I had trouble finding a letter with a more recently made facsimile that also included editorial commentary.
+ The letter is from Mark Twain to his wife Olivia, written about three years
+ after their marriage in 1873, while he was away travelling to London,
+ England and she was at their home in Hartford, Connecticut.
+ SLC to OLC, 11 and 12 Dec 1873, London,
+ England (UCCL 01000).” In Mark Twain Project Online. Berkeley,
+ Los Angeles, London: University of California Press. 2007.
+
+ We will look at the transcription of the letter, the editorial commentary,
+ and the usability and readability of the text as a digital publication.
+ Fig. 6: Manuscript page 2,’SLC to OLC, 11 and 12 Dec 1873’
+ Fig. 7: Manuscript page 6, ‘SLC to OLC, 11 and 12 Dec 1873’
+ Fig. 8: Part of the MTPO transcription of ‘SLC to OLC, 11 and 12
+ Dec 1873’
+
The most interesting transcription decision in this letter pertains to the
+ crossed-out lines, on which we will concentrate, as found on pages two and
+ six of the letter (see Fig. 6 and 7). One can see on the facsimile that the
+ last lines on the second page as well as the lines at the end of the letter
+ are heavily cancelled. According to the Guide to Editorial
+ Practice a cancellation should be depicted in the edition’s text
+ with a rule (a horizontal line through the words), but in both of these cases
+ there is no depiction of the crossed out words in the edition text at all.
+ Why not? As explained in the letter’s footnote, the editors think that these
+ lines were crossed out later, after the letter was received by
+ Olivia. Their reasoning for this is, among others, that the ink is of a
+ different color and density as the ink otherwise used in the leter. The
+ editors explain that the manner of the strike seems to be in Twain’s
+ looping style, implying that he probably crossed the words out himself
+ at a later time, after Olivia had already received the letter. The
+ cancellation is not depicted in the edition because according to the
+ editorial practice (as mentioned above) the letters are always transcribed
+ to reflect their state when they were sent. In this case the
+ letter was likely sent without these words crossed out.
+
And yet why would Twain cross these words out later (if that is what happened)? The
+ first, not crossed out sentence reads: ‘If I’m not
+ homesick to see you, no other lover ever was homesick to see his
+ sweetheart.’ ibid.
+ Followed by the crossed out text: ‘And when I get there,
+ remember, ‘Expedition’s the word![‘]’ ibid.
+ At the end of the letter again crossed out is ‘(when I
+ come) Expedition’s the word’ ibid..
+ The editors suggest in the footnote that these words had a special meaning
+ for Mark Twain and Olivia and that they did not want anyone, even in the
+ future, guessing at it.
+
The decision to not depict the strike in the edition text remains consistent
+ with the editors' principles. Whether or not the text was crossed out before
+ or after it was sent is however nearly impossible to establish. The editors
+ base their decision on the change of ink and pen, as well as on the content
+ of the lines. As the editors suggest, the words read as though they may have
+ had an intimate meaning for Mark Twain and Olivia. One can understand that
+ the couple might have wanted to eliminate those lines before filing the
+ letter away in storage, in order to keep it private. This is however obviously
+ a bit of a supposition on the editor’s part, but in the end the editors have
+ to decide one way or another, either for depicting the cancellation or not doing
+ so. The reader may disagree with the conclusions drawn, but such is the process.
+ It is crucial that the reader be able to see that which was omitted in the
+ transcription, as well as the editors' reasoning behind that decision.
+
There are two more small examples of the editorial principles in practice which
+ one can observe here. Firstly, in the original, the word ‘was’ is underlined, and
+ in the edited text ‘was’ is in italics. This is in keeping with their guidelines
+ for depicting emphasis, for which they even have a convenient chart. See ‘Emphasis Equivalents’ in ‘Guide to Editorial Practice, (MTDP 00005).’ In Mark Twain Project Online. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press. 2007.
+ Secondly, Twain’s dash after 'sweetheart' is omitted in the transcription (the emendation
+ of which is of course noted in the apparatus). As explained in the Guide to
+ Editorial Practice and mentioned above, this
+ dash falls under the category of his usage of a dash to justify the line, and thus is
+ not transcribed in order to avoid unnecessary confusion. ‘On the other hand, Clemens
+ often did use the period and dash combined when the sentence
+ period fell at the end of a slightly short line in his
+ manuscript (‘period.— | New line’), a practice copied from the
+ typographical practice of justifying short lines with an em
+ dash. These dashes likewise do not indicate a pause and, because
+ their function at line ends cannot be reproduced in a
+ transcription that does not reproduce original lineation, are
+ always emended, never
+ transcribed.’ from ‘Guide to Editorial Practice, (MTDP 00005).’ In Mark Twain Project Online. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press. 2007.
+
+
The editorial commentary of this letter (called 'explanatory notes' in the edition)
+ is spectacular, and generally when one reads through the letters, one sees that
+ the commentary is one of the aspects which contribute to elevate this edition.
+ The commentary is thorough, helpful, interesting, well-written and could make a
+ fascinating volume in its own right. It is an unfortunate tendency for many digital
+ editions of letters to provide little commentary, or even to include none at all.
+ This is most often due to lack of funding and time; while students or junior editors
+ can transcribe and edit, commentary is often the task of a senior editor and can be
+ an enormous and intimidating job. The amount of research, and the facts thusly
+ uncovered are always many times more than those which actually end up in the edition,
+ and so oftentimes hours - or even days - of work could be invested in the footnote
+ of a single sentence.
+
The letters written between 1877 and 1880 (about 600 letters in all) are unfortunately
+ without commentary. It is a small amount compared to the over 2,600 total letters
+ which do include commentary, but they also comprise those most recently published.
+ Hopefully MTPO will continue to prioritize editorial commentary, and it will be
+ added for these letters at a later date.
+ Fig. 9: Critical text of the letter for MTPO
+
As far as the presentation goes, the letter is easy to read, with the commentary
+ and apparatus in a separate section on the right-hand side. It is possible to jump
+ to the relevant commentary or apparatus entry through links in the edited text. There
+ is a print view as well as a details link which shows how to cite the letter. By no
+ means is it a particularly dynamic edition with lots of linked data and many
+ manipulable viewing options, etc., but it is satisfactory. The design and functions
+ are relatively simple and sleek and all together make for a pleasant reading
+ experience.
+
+
+ Example Search
+
One can enjoyably browse through the letters as though in a book, but a scholar looking
+ to do research will make use of additional tools on the website, especially the search
+ function. As an example research quest, I will do a little investigating within the
+ letters using the search functions, to see how successfully I can find what I’m
+ looking for. I am interested in learning more about Twain’s stance on women’s
+ suffrage, an important issue during his lifetime, so that's where I'll begin my
+ search.
+ Fig. 10: Letter Search Mask for MTPO
+ Fig. 11: Search Results Page for MTPO
+
Simply searching for ‘suffrage’ in the letters yields 18 results, with a nice overview
+ of the individual letters on the results page. On the left side of the page one can
+ filter the search results (by incoming or outgoing epistles, name, etc.). Through
+ the ‘keyword in context option’ one can, without opening the letter, see the context
+ of the keyword. This is important in my example case, because Twain sometimes wrote
+ of suffrage more generally and not just as it pertained to women.Universal suffrage, for instance, was also a debated issue of
+ the time. Some quite intriguing-looking letters between Twain and diverse
+ suffrage organizations are not yet edited and available, but one can see their metadata.
+ Of the 18 letters, ten were both relevant to my inquiry and had been edited and published,
+ and thus available to read online.
+
+
When looking at the ten letters the commentary is, unsurprisingly, incredibly helpful
+ and offers a much-appreciated springboard for more detailed research. The commentary
+ refers to other letters that are relevant to women’s suffrage, to lectures from Twain,
+ etc., and references to other letters are linked directly so one can easily click on
+ and peruse them. This letter from March 12, 1874>
+ is just one example of such excellent commentary. There was however a small oversight
+ at the end of one comment of this letter. The comment refers to specific pages in
+ volumes four and five of the letters. There is no way to locate such particular pages
+ (most likely additional commentary) on the website. One would have to actually procure
+ the printed letter volumes to find the exact pages, which is neither a practical
+ nor always a feasible option. In a digital edition it would be more appropriate to
+ reference for exmaple a link rather than specific page numbers.
+
Separately, under the navigation head
+ Resources one can also find the
+ link Reference and Source Interface
+ where there is a database comprising about 8000 titles. I searched for ‘suffrage’
+ in this mask as well and found some highly interesting and relevant titles.
+
From this simple search and short perusal of the relevant letters I was surprised to
+ learn that at least for some time Mark Twain was not an avid supporter of women’s
+ right to vote. Twain is known today as having been a progressive with regards to
+ many topics, including women’s rights. The wikipedia page for
+ Twain has just two sentences on the topic which state, ‘Twain was also a staunch supporter of women's rights and an active
+ campaigner for women's suffrage. His ‘Votes for Women’ speech, in which
+ he pressed for the granting of voting rights to women, is considered one
+ of the most famous in history’. One sees however from our search in the
+ MTPO letter edition and through the editor’s comments that there was personal evolution
+ over the course of Twain’s lifetime, such that he ultimately became a ‘staunch supporter’
+ for women’s rights and made such an historic speech. Only in a letter from 1874, written
+ when he was 39 years old, could I find a really positive outlook from Twain on the issue: ‘Both the great parties have failed. I wish we might have
+ a woman’s party now, & see how that would work. I feel persuaded
+ that in extending the suffrage to women this country could lose
+ absolutely nothing & might gain a great deal.’
+ ‘SLC to Ed., London Standard, 12 March 1874, Hartford, Conn. (UCCL 11880).’ In Mark Twain’s Letters,
+ 1874–1875. Edited by Michael B.
+ Frank and Harriet Elinor Smith. Mark Twain Project Online.
+ Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press.
+ 2002, 2007. <http://www.marktwainproject.org/xtf/vi
+ ew?docId=letters/UCCL11880.xml;style=letter;brand=mtp>
+ And the footnote from the editor mentions ‘This was Clemens’s most unequivocal endorsement to date of women’s
+ suffrage[...]’.
+ SLC to Ed., London Standard, 12 March
+ 1874, Hartford, Conn. (UCCL 11880), n. 1.
+
+ The letters from later in his life are not available in the current edition, but those letters
+ must show the full development of his viewpoint, and the viewpoint that he is better known for
+ (he was 72 years old when he made his famous ‘Votes for Women’ speech). Looking at the letters
+ one can better appreciate the complexities of Twain as a person and gain a glimpse at the man
+ behind the mythical character he has since become in the eyes of history. It is refreshing to
+ learn that someone famous for their progressive mindset had to grow into some of those views,
+ and was not a static intellectual figure, but rather an organic and evolving one. Altogether
+ this small test search in the letters proved fruitful and showed that the edition is ideal for
+ this kind of research into Mark Twain’s life. The only shame is that more letters are not yet
+ edited, preventing us from gaining a truly full picture of the man and his opinions.
+
+
+ Additional Resources
+ Fig. 12: A
+ Brief Chronology of Mark Twain’s Life from MTPO
+
Under the navigational heading
+ Resources is a list of internal
+ supplementary material for all the editions on the website. Most of the
+ links lead to pages that belong to particular editions of MTPO and are
+ displayed with the same book-like, static presentation. Here one can find for
+ instance a brief chronology of Mark Twain’s life that was included with the
+ publication of the Autobiography, a biographical
+ directory included with the edition of Huck Finn and Tom
+ Sawyer among the Indians and Other Unfinished Stories, as well as
+ multiple links under the heading Photographs and
+ Manuscripts that are from different volumes of letters.
+ Fig. 13: Simile Exhibit from MTPO
+
Of particular note within
+ Resources is the simile exhibit,
+ a publishing framework that creates interactive maps and timelines. The
+ simile offers a great way to visualize Mark Twain’s extensive touring
+ engagements. Using the map view one sees in a glance just how far he
+ travelled (Australia!), and that he was in the city in which I live and work, Berlin, Germany,
+ in 1892.
+
Outside the Resources section
+ there is an image database, where 250 images are available from the Mark
+ Twain Papers archive, and 550 catalog records of images from other sources.
+ Additionally there is a lot of project information to be found under the
+ navigational heading About MTPO, for example the
+ extensive and helpful User Guide or information about
+ copyright and permissions.
+
To summarize, the MTPO offers a substantial amount of supplementary material,
+ mostly in the form of explanatory texts and additional documents. With the
+ exception of the databases and the simile exhibit, the academic resources
+ are presented in a static, immovable manner. They are not searchable or
+ linked. They appear as if they were pulled from printed editions, which is
+ often essentially what they are. Such an approach emphasizes the likeness to
+ the form of a traditional book. The amount and quality of the information,
+ however, is excellent.
+
+
+ Technical Foundation and Design
+
The website was launched in 2007 and due to that fact the design is understandably
+ outdated. Although this is occasionally distracting, it does not hinder either the
+ reading of the letters or the use of the edition for research. There are also some
+ nice touches, for example the clever, witty quotes from Twain which are peppered
+ throughout the website, At the top of the page titled Peer Review there is a quote from Twain: ‘One mustn't criticise other
+ people on grounds where he can't stand perpendicular
+ himself.’ (From A Connecticut Yankee in
+ King Arthur's Court, Chapter XXVI) and the two letters with
+ facsimiles displayed on both the home and main pages of the website. The design of
+ the edited text itself and the editorial commentary is appealing and easy to read.
+ The structure and organization of the website could use improvement, but this is most
+ likely the result of an older navigational style. There are some links that do not work
+ and unfortunately the citations tool sometimes generates error messages, among other
+ small technical flaws, so some technological upkeep seems warranted. In conclusion,
+ the display of the edition is not at the same outstanding level as the scholarly work
+ of the edition’s content and ideally the whole website would be revamped. That said,
+ the website is more than adequate for the usage of the edition.
+
It looks as though MTPO has four main databases: one for XML files and images found in
+ the printed editions, one for images of facsimiles amd photographs from their archive,
+ one for metadata, and one for long term preservation. They use the open-source software
+ eXtensible Text Framework (XTF) for the display of the edition and for the search functions.
+ XTF was created by the California Digital Library and is a well established platform used
+ by numerous projects. Generally the MTPO has implemented highly standardized technologies
+ wherever possible, which has served the over ten-year old project well. It is unclear
+ exactly which kind of databases they use and if any data migration was necessary over
+ the years, but considering how much development there has been in the last ten years
+ for digital editions, the MTPO seems quite up to date regarding their backend processes.
+ They also have a system of long-term preservation in place through the California Digital
+ Library’s Merritt service.
+
The technical information for this review could be gathered from the
+ project’s very extensive Technical
+ Summary,
+ found under About MTPO. The summary offers a great deal of transparency for
+ the backend technologies. Especially impressive are the details about how TEI P4 is extended
+ for their particular schema as well as how they have solved the problem of authorial symbols
+ that encompass multiple lines of texts (like large brackets), which they call graphic groups.
+ As someone who has had to deal with precisely this problem before, such information is of
+ great interest. My only criticism here is that the quality of writing is not at the same level
+ as the other editorial texts on the website. However, the technical summary is well-organized
+ and includes helpful graphics and examples. To be even more transparent the project should offer
+ the XML files for the editions as well as the schema. It is regrettable that these files are not available. I did stumble upon this xml file from the Autobiography. It is however buried in the Recent Changes list and in no way displayed to be actually found if desired.
+ MTPO also has an active Twitter account where they publish relevant news articles about
+ Mark Twain and the project, and ancillary of updates. It is a great way to maintain relevance
+ and visibility with users of the edition and other involved parties.
+
+
+ Conclusion
+
The digital edition of Mark Twain’s Letters 1853-1880
+ of the Mark Twain Project Online accomplishes its aims well and is undeniably an essential
+ edition for Mark Twain researchers, as well as an important source for historians. The level
+ of scholarly work, the thorough commentary, and the admirable transparency make this an
+ exemplary critical edition. The supplementary material found on the website, such as the
+ extra resources and texts about the project, are well written with great attention to detail,
+ and allows for various levels of knowledge. This makes the edition highly-accessible to all
+ varieties of reader, even while being optimized for academic research.
+
While the content of the letter edition and supplementary texts on the website are of the highest
+ quality, the ‘digital’ part of the digital edition appears somewhat lacking. It would be
+ ideal if the website were re-organized and re-designed and if a more dynamic concept were used for
+ the digital edition and supplementary texts. To conclude, it would be thrilling if the thoroughness,
+ modernity and meticulousness found in the text were also found in the technical execution of the
+ edition. It is a momentous project with many writings and letters of Mark Twain still to be published,
+ and it will be interesting to see how it develops in the coming years.