Digital Scholarly Editing

Abstract

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Technical Topologies of Texts

“…(Siemens, Dobson, et al 2011) The main task in these realms is to transfer historical texts and documents from a physical medium into the digital sphere, for the benefits of automated administration, access and processing. (Siemens, Dobson, et al 2011;Pierazzo 2015) This article starts from the opposite standpoint: Nowadays, even the most simple act of creating a fresh text document with some digital text-processing system is also always an act of "text modelling". Due to the nature of digital technology, even writing a simple "SMS" is indeed the creation of a text model.…”

“…Such a material object is called rendering in the following. Huitfeldt, Vitali, and Peroni (2012) call "manifestation of the (same) document" and Buzzetti (2009) calls "image" ("the text does not have a material nature"; "'the text is only [and] always an image") and what Pierazzo (2015) calls "document". Further our "text" and "rendering" correspond to what FRBR calls "work" and "manifestation" (IFLA Study Group on the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records 1998).…”

“…But indeed it imposes a severe restriction, which can turn out unacceptable in other contexts: The optical appearance of the text is excluded from the model's substance; the concrete graphical layout only serves as a means for representation, as a carrier for the meant contents; it is accidental, not substantial. This is inadequate for many products of fine arts, starting with ancient stone engravings, designed in equal rights as text message and as graphical ornament, ranging over many kinds of medieval manuscripts, up to the Concrete Poetry and Dadaistic poems of the early twentieth century: In her standard textbook, Pierazzo (2015)[pg.51] quotes a "calligramme" graphic by Apollinaire. In all these examples the concrete graphical appearance is part of the meant substance, not only a necessity for transportation.…”

“…The temporal dimension is a further orthogonal axis to that grid; its consideration raises philosophical questions about the essence and identity of text, as discussed by Huitfeldt, Vitali, and Peroni (2012). Most tasks in Digital Scholarship are temporal activities and related to temporal phenomena, see the standard textbook by Pierazzo (2015). The following section is again restricted to the technical questions and analyses few selected important use cases, with similar devices as in the preceding section.…”

Philology: Standards for Digital Editing

“…Next to the question whether all these facts really need recording, we may note that transcription itself is not an objective task but can be considered an editorial task dependent on the editor's erudition. 45 Second, Van Zundert's invitation to make the edition a richer experience with mixed media begs the question: why? Certainly, in scholarly editing of premodern texts, illustrations, sound, and video are hardly ever needed.…”