Introduction to Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions: Manuscripts
Prior Reading
LEMDO’s recommended guidelines for semi-diplomatic transcriptions of manuscripts follows
the precepts outlined in
Introduction to Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions (Print).We recommend reading that chapter first, starting with
Semi-Diplomatic Principles, Requirements, and Prohibitions,which outlines the main choices an editor and encoder will have to make before embarking on a manuscript transcription. Please also consult the
Introduction to General Encoding Guidelines.
Rationale
There are multiple ways to encode manuscripts (and, indeed, all documents) in TEI.
LEMDO encoding recommends semi-diplomatic manuscript transcriptions that follow the
DRE Editorial Guidelines. As the
notes, these guidelines are not prescriptive about the length and scope of critical
paratexts and/or annotations, the inclusion of contextual materials, or modernization
guidelines. These, and other decisions, are made by the anthology lead and encoding
team. At present, LEMDO does not support parallel transcription (outlined in 11.2.1 of the TEI Guidelines), that is, transcription that directly points to a location on a facsimile page.
When encoding a manuscript play for LEMDO, the emphasis is on the transcribed text,
the scholarly apparatus, and the value it offers for readers. As the DRE Editorial
guidelines ask:
What are you editing towards? Who are you editing for?
Further Reading
Some useful external resources about encoding manuscripts in TEI include:
Useful resources on manuscript drama and dramatic paratexts in general include:
Purkis, James. Shakespeare and Manuscript Drama: Canon, Collaboration, and Text. Cambridge UP, 2016. WSB aaaf896.
Long, William.
Werstine
Ioppollo
Stern, Tiffany. Documents of Performance in Early Modern England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Estill, Laura. Dramatic Extracts in Seventeenth-Century English Manuscripts: Watching, Reading, Changing
Plays. Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press, 2015.
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 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.
Laura Estill
Laura Estill is a Canada Research Chair in Digital Humanities and Associate Professor
of English at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Canada, where she directs
the digital humanities centre. Her monograph (Dramatic Extracts in Seventeenth-Century English Manuscripts: Watching, Reading, Changing
Plays, 2015) and co-edited collections (Early Modern Studies after the Digital Turn, 2016 and Early British Drama in Manuscript, 2019) explore the reception history of drama by Shakespeare and his contemporaries
from their initial circulation in print, manuscript, and on stage to how we mediate
and understand these texts and performances online today. Her work has appeared in
journals including Shakespeare Quarterly, Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, Digital Humanities Quarterly, Humanities, and The Seventeenth Century, as well as in collections such as Shakespeare’s Theatrical Documents, Shakespeare and Textual Studies, and The Shakespeare User. She is co-editor of Early Modern Digital Review.
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.
Bibliography
Burghart, Marjorie, and Elena Pierazzo. Digital Scholarly Editions: Manuscripts, Texts, and TEI Encoding. DARIAH.
Burghart, Marjorie, ed. Creating a Digital Scholarly Edition with the Text Encoding Initiative: A Textbook
for Digital Humanists. Digital Manuscripts, 2017.
Estill, Laura. Dramatic Extracts in Seventeenth-Century English Manuscripts: Watching, Reading, Changing
Plays. Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press, 2015.
Purkis, James. Shakespeare and Manuscript Drama: Canon, Collaboration, and Text. Cambridge UP, 2016. WSB aaaf896.
Stern, Tiffany. Documents of Performance in Early Modern England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
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 | Introduction to Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions: Manuscripts |
| 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.
|