LEMDO is interested in capturing some key bibliographic features of early modern playbooks
and mimicking them in our online rendering of semi-diplomatic transcriptions. We do
this using three levels of style: the default style written by the LEMDO team that applies to all semi-diplomatic
transcriptions, file-wide style that you edit to apply across your entire semi-diplomatic
file, and inline style that you add to capture peculiarities in your sourcebook. Many
semi-diplomatic transcriptions will require all three levels. This documentation will
introduce our principles for styling semi-diplomatic transcriptions as well as providing
some information about when you will use each level of style.
Principles
LEMDO follows the Endings Principle for Digital Longevity for all of our encoding. For styling in semi-diplomatic transcriptions, we must keep
the following principles in mind:
Massive redundancy: every page contains all the components it needs, so that it will
function without the rest of the site if necessary, even though doing so means duplicating
information across the site.
(Endings Project, Principles 4.6)
Graceful failure: every page should still function effectively even in the absence
of JavaScript or CSS support.
(Endings Project, Principles 4.7)
For our semi-diplomatic transcriptions, this means that:
Each file must be able to exist on its own and contain all necessary information.
No key information about what our sourcebook looks like should be captured in our
SCSS file (default styling) alone.
We use TEI to describe and CSS to prescribe; if something is not described in the
TEI file, its style should not be prescribed in the SCSS file.
Additionally, we do not expect to exactly recreate the mise-en-page of our sourcebooks.
Instead, we normally provide facsimile images of the books side-by-side with our semi-diplomatic
transcriptions so that those interested in detailed bibliographic features can see
how the page is laid out. We are interested in capturing some key bibliographical features, as outlined in Semi-Diplomatic Principles, Requirements, and Prohibitions.
Practice: Update Your Encoding Description
To ensure that we describe style in every TEI file for semi-diplomatic transcriptions
before we style them in our SCSS file, we outline our styling assumptions in our encoding
descriptions. To update your encoding description, follow these steps:
Find the
<encodingDesc>
element in the
<teiHeader>
of your file.
Add a child
<p>
element to the
<encodingDesc>
.
Paste the following text into the text node of the
<p>
element:
Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines. The
encoding makes the following assumptions (rendered based on the _semi-dip.scss file):
text is aligned left and set in roman type unless otherwise specified; titlepage components
and running titles are centered; signatures are centered and letterspaced; catchwords
are aligned right; speech prefixes are indented and set in italic type; and stage
directions are set in italic type and aligned left unless the stage element has a
place attribute. Where this playbook differs generally from LEMDO’s default assumptions,
the TEI Header includes one or more tagsDecl elements describing this playbook’s particular
imposition and composition. Where this playbook contains local deviations from its
own general patterns, the encoding includes element-level and inline CSS to describe
the playbook’s unique features.
Add a child
<editorialDecl>
element to the
<encodingDesc>
.
Paste the following text into the text node of the
<editorialDecl>
element:
This semi-diplomatic text has been prepared according to the DRE Editorial Guidelines
and the LEMDO Encoding Guidelines. Long s, rotunda r, and ligatures have not been
transcribed or encoded.
(Note that you and your anthology lead may decide modify this editorial declaration.)
Your
<encodingDesc>
should look as follows:
<encodingDesc> <p>Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines. The
encoding makes the following assumptions (rendered based on the _semi-dip.scss file):
text is aligned left and set in roman type unless otherwise specified; titlepage components
and running titles are centered; signatures are centered and letterspaced; catchwords
are aligned right; speech prefixes are indented and set in italic type; and stage
directions are set in italic type and aligned left unless the stage element has a
place attribute. Where this playbook differs generally from LEMDO’s default assumptions,
the TEI Header includes one or more tagsDecl elements describing this playbook’s particular
imposition and composition. Where this playbook contains local deviations from its
own general patterns, the encoding includes element-level and inline CSS to describe
the playbook’s unique features.</p> <editorialDecl> <p>This semi-diplomatic text has been prepared according to the DRE Editorial Guidelines
and the LEMDO Encoding Guidelines. Long s, rotunda r, and ligatures have not been
transcribed or encoded.</p> </editorialDecl> </encodingDesc>
Terms for Working on Style
It is helpful to understand some key terms for styling:
CSS: Cascading Style Sheets is the language that we use to style our Web pages. CSS
is a core language used across the Web.
SCSS: Sassy Cascading Style Sheets is an extension language for CSS that allows us
to nest styling. This extension makes it easier to group style for semi-diplomatic
transcriptions.
Cascade: Refers to the way that style trickles down from generic files that govern
our project to individual files and elements. When we style something at a high project level, that style applies to our files on the lower level. For example, when we write in our generic stylesheet that stage directions
should render in italic font, that style cascades down through our file structure
to make the stage directions in your semi-diplomatic transcription appear italicized
on the LEMDO site.
Specificity: Refers to how specific a piece of style is. More specific style overrides
less specific style, which is what allows us to use file-wide and inline style to
override default style.
SCSS files: Refers to our lemdo-dev.scss file, which governs project-wide style such as font family, and _semi-dip.scss file, which governs semi-diplomatic transcriptions only. The SCSS files include all
of our default styling.
Selector: The piece in CSS styling that defines which element we are styling.
Declaration: The piece in CSS styling that prescribes what style we are applying.
The declaration is composed of two pieces: the property and the value. Declarations
are always followed by a semi-colon (;).
Property: The property is the first part of a CSS declaration. It gives the category
of style that we want to apply. This is similar to attributes in XML in that it is
a category of adjectives. Properties include things such as font-family and color (note that CSS uses American spellings). Properties are always followed by a colon
(:).
Value: The value is the second part of a CSS declaration. It gives the actual style
that we want to apply. This is similar to values in XML in that it is an adjective.
Values include things such as Times New Roman and red. If a property has multiple values, separate each value with a single space.
LEMDO’s Levels of Style
LEMDO uses three levels of style, each of which fits specific needs:
Default style: Written in our SCSS files, our default style determines how the LEMDO
site should look as a whole (e.g., colours and fonts) and how semi-diplomatic transcriptions
should look. Our default style is meant to mimic what is generally true across early
modern playbooks and includes style that makes stage directions appear in italic font.
File-wide style: Written in your file and encoded with the
<tagsDecl>
element, file-wide style is used for things that are true across your playbook that
are not captured in the default style. This includes things like making labels appear
in italic font.
Inline style: Written on the element that you wish to style, inline style refers to
three things:
Renditions: Style on a specific element that can be captured using one of the values
from LEMDO’s pre-formed Renditions Taxonomy. Includes making a single speech prefix appear in roman font.
Placement: The placement of a specific element that can be captured using one of the
values from LEMDO’s pre-formed Placement Taxonomy. This is typically used for describing the placement of stage directions on the page.
Placement is described using the
@place attribute in your XML file, but styled through the SCSS file.
Style: Specific style on a specific element that cannot be captured using pre-formed
rendition or placement values. This type of styling requires CSS to be written on
an individual element using the
@style attribute, and is most commonly used for styling hungwords and long braces.
Style Specificity
Although our style generally follows the cascade of default styling to file-wide styling
to inline styling, there are some exceptions that come from the complexity and size
of the LEMDO project. As outlined in the chart below, our style specificity is based
on two criteria: location of CSS and specificity of selector.
Location of CSS is a fairly straightforward criterion. The key principle is that the
closer CSS is to the element it styles, the more specific it is. In practice, this
means that our style follows the following pattern from least specific to most specific:
SCSS files:
lemdo-dev.scss
_semi-dip.scss
These are the shared generic files and are the least specific. In both cases, the
bottom of the file is more specific than the top of the file.
Renditions (
@rendition): Because the style for renditions comes from the shared TAXO1 file, renditions are not very specific.
File-wide style (
<tagsDecl>
): This is unique to your file and is more specific than the styling from shared files.
@style: This is the most specific location because it is put directly on the element that
you are styling.
Selector specificity is determined by how you write your selector. In practice, the
specificity varies depending on your CSS, but generally follows this pattern from
least to most specific:
Selectors in the
<tagsDecl>
element with no attributes and pre-formed renditions.
Selectors in the SCSS files and in the
<tagsDecl>
that do have attributes.
Selectors in the SCSS files that include a pathway.
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 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.
Rowan Grayson
Rowan is a BA and MA student in English and Latin American Studies at UNC Charlotte
working on his master’s thesis, a comparative study of the intersections of gender,
sexuality, and race in Brazilian and Dominican science fiction novels. He was a Mitacs
Research Intern with LEMDO at UVic in 2023.
Rylyn Christensen
Rylyn Christensen is an English major at the University of Victoria.
Sofia Spiteri
Sofia Spiteri is currently completing her Bachelor of Arts in History at the University
of Victoria. During the summer of 2023, she had the opportunity to work with LEMDO
as a recipient of the Valerie Kuehne Undergraduate Research Award (VKURA). Her work
with LEMDO primarily includes semi-diplomatic transcriptions for The Winter’s Tale and Mucedorus.
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
Introduction to Style in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions
Type of text
Documentation
Publisher
University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform
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.
