LEMDO: Encode Back Matter in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions

Encode Back Matter in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions

Prior Reading

Encode Front Matter in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions

Disambiguation

Labels such as Finis are not considered back matter in semi-diplomatic transcriptions. See Encode Finis in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions.

Rationale

Back matter is non-spoken text that appears in a playbook after the spoken text. While some digital documentary editions exclude some or all of the back matter, LEMDO considers the entire playbook to be significant. Our semi-diplomatic texts are meant to reflect a specific copy-text and all that it contains, including blank pages.

The most likely types of back matter are colophons and imprints (which LEMDO treats the same way) and cast lists. Many LEMDO semi-diplomatic transcriptions contain no back matter at all.

You will include all paratexts in your semi-diplomatic transcription. Before you transcribe the paratext, check with the LEMDO Team or the Early Modern Dramatic Paratexts team (EMDP) to see if EMDP already has a transcription of it. If they do, copy and paste it into the correct location of your semi-diplomatic transcription. Add a


                                       @resp

attribute with a value of "org:EMDP1" to give credit for the transcription to the EMDP project. Check that the transcription matches what is in your copy-text.

In the case of plays in collections (e.g., the 1616 Ben Jonson folio and the 1623 folio of Shakespeare’s plays), the anthology containing those plays will decide on how to handle the back matter of the collection.

Practice

The


                                          <back>

element may contain one or more


                                          <castList>

and


                                          <docImprint>

elements, in whichever order they appear in your playbook. Cast lists require more complex encoding than other types of front/back matter. See Encode Character Lists, Actor Lists, and Cast Lists in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions. You will treat a colophon and an imprint line the same way: both are encoded with the


                                          <docImprint>

element. For more information on encoding the


                                          <docImprint>

element, see our documentation on encoding the imprint in title pages: Practice: Encode the Imprint.

If there is other text that you think belongs in back matter, use


                                          <ab>

, which can contain other elements like


                                          <label>

Capture line beginnings (


                                          <lb>

), column beginnings (


                                          <cb>

), page beginnings (


                                          <pb>

), forme works (


                                          <fw>

), and horizontal/vertical spaces (


                                          <space>

) exactly as you would in any other part of your semi-diplomatic transcription. You will also add


                                       @rendition


                                       @style

attributes to capture typography and placement on the page.

Examples

This first example gives a simplified version of the setting given at the end of the folio Measure for Measure, followed by the cast list so that you can see how a


                                          <label>

and a


                                          <castList>

can be coordinated in the


                                          <back>

element. Column beginnings have been omitted from this example.

<back>
  <lb/>
  <ab>
    <label type="heading">The Scene Vienna.</label>
  </ab>
  <castList>
    <lb/>
    <head>The names of all the A<g ref="lig:ct">ct</g>ors.</head>
    <lb/>
    <castItem>Vincentio: the Duke.</castItem>
    <lb/>
    <castItem>Angelo, the Deputie.</castItem>
    
    <lb/>
    <castItem>Mistris Ouer-don, a Bawd.</castItem>
  </castList>
</back>

This example shows the encoding of a simple colophon from Q2 of Jack Juggler:

<docImprint>
<lb/>¶Imprinted at London in <pubPlace ref="mol:LOTH1">Lothbury</pubPlace> by me <persName ref="pros:COPL3">Wyllyam Copland</persName>. </docImprint>

See London Toponyms to learn how to link to the Map of Early Modern London.

This next example gives you a simplified example of an encoded imprint. Notice that the stationers are tagged with the


                                          <persName>

element and linked to the Prosopography (PROS1). We tag London with the


                                          <pubPlace>

element but do not add a link:

<back>
  <docImprint>
    <lb/>Imprynted at <pubPlace>London</pubPlace> by <persName ref="pros:PICK2">Wyllyam Pickerynge</persName>
    <lb/>and <persName ref="pros:HACK3">Thomas Hacket</persName>, and are to be solde at <lb/>theyre shoppes. </docImprint>
</back>

This full example from the 1594 quarto of Henry VI, Part I includes figures, spaces, and entity tagging:

<back>
  <docImprint>
    <figure type="device" rendition="rnd:centre"/>
    <space dim="vertical" unit="line" quantity="1"/>
    <lb/>
    <pubPlace>LONDON</pubPlace>. <lb/>Printed by <persName ref="pros:CREE1">Thomas Creed</persName>, for <persName ref="pros:MILL2">Thomas Millington</persName>, <lb/>And are to be sold at his shop vnder <pubPlace ref="mol:STPE3">Saint Peters <lb/>Church in Cornwall</pubPlace>. <lb/>
    <docDate>1594</docDate>. </docImprint>
</back>

Prosopography

Isabella Seales

Isabella Seales is a fourth year undergraduate completing her Bachelor of Arts in English at the University of Victoria. She has a special interest in Renaissance and Metaphysical Literature. She is assisting Dr. Jenstad with the MoEML Mayoral Shows anthology as part of the Undergraduate Student Research Award program.

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.

Thomas Creede

Thomas Hacket

Printer in London, 1557–1590. BBTI 29582.

Thomas Millington

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.

William Copland

Printer; active 1545–1569 16058

William Pickering

Printer and bookseller in London, 1557–1571. BBTI.

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	Encode Back Matter in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions
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.