LEMDO: Handography (HAND1)

Handography (HAND1)

Introduction

The Handography is a sitewide database file in the data directory of the Subversion repository. It contains the xml:ids and brief descriptions of the hands that wrote manuscript texts for which we have semi-diplomatic transcriptions. Since many people occasionally edit HAND1.xml, make sure no one else is working in the file before you make any changes. If you are in HCMC, talk to the other LEMDO team members. If you are not in the lab, send an email to all repository users with the subject Working in HAND1. When you have finished, validated, and committed your work, send out another email with the subject Finished working in PERS1.

Structure

The Handography is unique in structure compared to our other sitewide data files. Its content is nested in the


                                          <teiHeader>

rather than the


                                          <text>

element. HAND1.xml is structured as follows:

<teiHeader>
 <fileDesc></fileDesc>
 <profileDesc>
 <handNotes xml:id="HAND1_projectXMLid">
 <handNote xml:id="HHHH1">
 <name>Hand Name 1</name>
 Brief description of the hand.
 </handNote>
 <handNote xml:id="HHHH2">
 <name>Hand Name 2</name>
 Brief description of the hand.
 </handNote>
 </handNotes>
 <textClass>
 <catRef scheme="tax:emdDocumentTypes" target="cat:ldtBornDigDatabase"/>
 </textClass>
 </profileDesc>
 
</teiHeader>

Encode Hand Notes

Each manuscript project in LEMDO that identifies hands in its semi-diplomatic transcription(s) will have a


                                          <handNotes>

element containing a child


                                          <handNote>

element for each hand that they identify. Here is an example of a


                                          <handNotes>

element with a child


                                          <handNote>

entry:

<handNotes xml:id="HAND1_DOUAI">
 <handNote xml:id="DOUH1">
 <name>Douai MS Hand 1</name>
 The primary scribal hand used in the Douai MS, which is MS 787 in the Bibliothèque Marceline Desbordes-Valmore repository. The scribe made changes and additions at a later stage.
 </handNote>
</handNotes>

We will break down this entry below.

Encode the Container for Hand Notes

The


                                             <handNotes>

element contains all entries for a manuscript project in the Handography. It requires a unique xml:id so that we can link to the collection of a project’s Handography entries. The value of the xml:id should be "HAND1" followed by an underscore and then a unique identifier comprised of four letters and one or more digits. Search the A–Z Index file on the LEMDO-dev site (available under the Resources menu) to find the next unused ID.

Nested within the


                                             <handNotes>

element should be one or more


                                             <handNote>

element.

Encode the Root Hand Note Element

Each Handography entry is rooted on the


                                             <handNote>

element. Like the


                                             <handNotes>

element, it requires a unique xml:id so that each individual hand can be linked to from edition files. The value of the xml:id should be comprised of four uppercase letters followed by a number identifier. Again, you must search the LEMDO A–Z Index file on the LEMDO-dev site to find an unused xml:id.

Nested within the


                                             <handNote>

element should be the following child elements:


                                             <name>

and

<p>

Encode Hand Names

We use the


                                             <name>

element to give a human-readable name to each hand. Add a child


                                             <name>

element to the


                                             <handNote>

element. Give the hand a name in the text node of the


                                             <name>

element.

<handNote xml:id="DOUH1">
<name>Douai MS Hand 1</name>
</handNote>

Encode the Description for a Hand

We use the

<p>

element to write a description of each hand. Add a child

<p>

element to the


                                             <handNote>

element. Give the hand a brief description or, if possible, biography in the text node of the

<p>

element.

<handNote xml:id="DOUH1">
<name>Douai MS Hand 1</name>
The primary scribal hand used in the Douai MS, which is MS 787 in the Bibliothèque Marceline Desbordes-Valmore repository. The scribe made changes and additions at a later stage.
</handNote>

Prosopography

Janelle Jenstad

Janelle Jenstad is a Professor of English at the University of Victoria, Director of The Map of Early Modern London, and Director of Linked Early Modern Drama Online. With Jennifer Roberts-Smith and Mark Beatrice Kaethler, she co-edited Shakespeare’s Language in Digital Media: Old Words, New Tools (Routledge). She has edited John Stow’s A Survey of London (1598 text) for MoEML and is currently editing The Merchant of Venice (with Stephen Wittek) and Heywood’s 2 If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody for DRE. Her articles have appeared in Digital Humanities Quarterly, Elizabethan Theatre, Early Modern Literary Studies, Shakespeare Bulletin, Renaissance and Reformation, and The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. She contributed chapters to Approaches to Teaching Othello (MLA); Teaching Early Modern Literature from the Archives (MLA); Institutional Culture in Early Modern England (Brill); Shakespeare, Language, and the Stage (Arden); Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate); New Directions in the Geohumanities (Routledge); Early Modern Studies and the Digital Turn (Iter); Placing Names: Enriching and Integrating Gazetteers (Indiana); Making Things and Drawing Boundaries (Minnesota); Rethinking Shakespeare Source Study: Audiences, Authors, and Digital Technologies (Routledge); and Civic Performance: Pageantry and Entertainments in Early Modern London (Routledge). For more details, see janellejenstad.com.

Joey Takeda

Joey Takeda is LEMDO’s Consulting Programmer and Designer, a role he assumed in 2020 after three years as the Lead Developer on LEMDO.

Mahayla Galliford

Project manager, 2025-present; research assistant, 2021-present. Mahayla Galliford (she/her) graduated with a BA (Hons with distinction) from the University of Victoria in 2024. Mahayla’s undergraduate research explored early modern stage directions and civic water pageantry. Mahayla continues her studies through UVic’s English MA program and her SSHRC-funded thesis project focuses on editing and encoding girls’ manuscripts, specifically Lady Rachel Fane’s dramatic entertainments, in collaboration with LEMDO.

Martin Holmes

Martin Holmes has worked as a developer in the UVic’s Humanities Computing and Media Centre for over two decades, and has been involved with dozens of Digital Humanities projects. He has served on the TEI Technical Council and as Managing Editor of the Journal of the TEI. He took over from Joey Takeda as lead developer on LEMDO in 2020. He is a collaborator on the SSHRC Partnership Grant led by Janelle Jenstad.

Navarra Houldin

Training and Documentation Lead 2025–present. LEMDO project manager 2022–2025. Textual remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA with a major in history and minor in Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. Their primary research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America. They are continuing their education through an MA program in Gender and Social Justice Studies at the University of Alberta where they will specialize in Digital Humanities.

Tracey El Hajj

Junior Programmer 2019–2020. Research Associate 2020–2021. Tracey received her PhD from the Department of English at the University of Victoria in the field of Science and Technology Studies. Her research focuses on the algorhythmics of networked communications. She was a 2019–2020 President’s Fellow in Research-Enriched Teaching at UVic, where she taught an advanced course on Artificial Intelligence and Everyday Life. Tracey was also a member of the Map of Early Modern London team, between 2018 and 2021. Between 2020 and 2021, she was a fellow in residence at the Praxis Studio for Comparative Media Studies, where she investigated the relationships between artificial intelligence, creativity, health, and justice. As of July 2021, Tracey has moved into the alt-ac world for a term position, while also teaching in the English Department at the University of Victoria.

Orgography

LEMDO Team (LEMD1)

The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators, encoders, and remediating editors.

Metadata

Authority title	Handography (HAND1)
Type of text	Documentation
Publisher	University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform
Series	Linked Early Modern Drama Online
Source	TEI Customization created by Martin Holmes, Joey Takeda, and Janelle Jenstad; documentation written by members of the LEMDO Team
Editorial declaration	n/a
Edition	Released with Linked Early Modern Drama Online 1.0
Encoding description	Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines
Document status	prgGenerated
Funder(s)	Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
License/availability	This file is licensed under a CC BY-NC_ND 4.0 license, which means that it is freely downloadable without permission under the following conditions: (1) credit must be given to the author and LEMDO in any subsequent use of the files and/or data; (2) the content cannot be adapted or repurposed (except in quotations for the purposes of academic review and citation); and (3) commercial uses are not permitted without the knowledge and consent of the editor and LEMDO. This license allows for pedagogical use of the documentation in the classroom.