Encoding the Edge: Manuscript Marginalia and the TEI

Authors

  • Laura Estill Texas A&M University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18113/P8dls1159715

Abstract

<additions>, <label>, <head>, <note>: with over five hundred elements, why can't I find the one I need? By tracing the different TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) elements and attributes available to describe and record marginalia, this paper reveals how the placement and purpose of early modern marginalia require careful consideration by digital editors. Each element that an encoder might consider using for in-text marginalia, and the customization that proscribes that use, carries different semantic weight. This essay considers the options for encoding marginalia using TEI, details practices of existing projects, and then turns to manuscripts written by Archbishop William Sancroft (1617-1693) as test cases. Ultimately, encoding marginalia is a data-modeling question that asks us to rethink the nature and function of our texts and paratexts, questioning where one ends and the other begins.

Author Biography

Laura Estill, Texas A&M University

Laura Estill is an Assistant Professor of English at Texas A&M University, where she edits the World Shakespeare Bibliography. Her book, Watching, Reading, Changing Plays: Dramatic Extracts in Seventeenth-Century English Manuscripts appeared in 2015.  Her research has appeared in, among other places, Shakespeare Quarterly, Huntington Library Quarterly, Studies in English Literature 1500-1900, Early Theatre, Shakespeare, New Ways of Looking at Old Texts, and the The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare. She is currently working on DEx: A Database of Dramatic Extracts.

Downloads

Published

2016-05-05

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2016)

Section

General Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
  4. Digital Literary Studies is freely published at no cost to its contributors.