Introduction to Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions

The documentation in this chapter is for editors and encoders working on semi-diplomatic transcriptions. Its contents are relevant to those encoding either print or manuscript plays; it is the starting point for all those working on semi-diplomatic transcriptions.

Introduction

Whether or not an edition includes a semi-diplomatic transcription of a single copy of an early printed or manuscript text is an anthology-level decision. If an anthology decides to include transcriptions, LEMDO strongly recommends that the anthology prescribe a semi-diplomatic transcription. Given the increasing availability of open-access digital surrogates of copies of early publications, as well as LEMDO’s ability to host those surrogates and embed links from the semi-diplomatic transcription to those surrogates, anthologies need to think carefully about what users most need. LEMDO’s position is that most users of a digital transcription will be far more interested in the transcription than in the mise-en-page of the book, which will always be better understood by looking at the digital surrogate or, better yet, the material object itself.
Note that LEMDO is moving away from the legacy term old-spelling and using the term semi-diplomatic transcription instead.

Learning Outcomes

The Semi-Diplomatic Transcription documentation is designed to support you through encoding your semi-diplomatic transcription. By the time you have worked through this chapter, you will:
Understand what LEMDO allows in its semi-diplomatic transcriptions.
Know how LEMDO styling works in semi-diplomatic transcriptions and what your options are for modifying style in your semi-diplomatic transcription.
Be able to encode key features of your playbook including speeches, stage directions, pages, and columns.

Contents

Section Description
Semi-Diplomatic Principles, Requirements, and Prohibitions Read about the required and optional tagging
Encode Page Beginnings Learn how to capture page beginnings in your encoding
Encode Columns Learn how to indicate the beginning of columns on early modern pages in your encoding
Introduction to Style in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions Learn about CSS and options to encode style
Default Style in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions Read about the basic styling that you can expect to see applied to your semi-diplomatic transcription
Encode File-Wide Style in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions Learn how to apply styling across your semi-diplomatic transcription
Encode Inline Style Using Pre-Formed Values in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions Learn how to encode inline style using the @rendition and @style attributes
Encode Inline Style Using CSS and CSS Flex in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions Read about how you may choose to capture advanced styling such as long braces
Encode Title Page of Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions Learn how to encode the title page of your text
Encode Front Matter in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions Learn how to encode epistles, dedicatory poems, and other preliminary paratextual matter
Encode Back Matter in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions Learn how to encode paratextual matter that follows the play
Encode Literary Divisions (Acts, Scenes, and Speeches) in Transcriptions Learn how to encode act and scene headers
Encode Character Lists, Actor Lists, and Cast Lists in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions Read about LEMDO’s practice for encoding cast lists in semi-diplomatic transcriptions
Encode Speeches in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions Learn how to encode speeches in your semi-diplomatic transcription
Know how to encode speech prefixes in your semi-diplomatic transcription, including information on encoding speeches without speech prefixes
Encode Stage Directions in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions Learn to encode and categorize stage directions
Encode Lineation of Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions Learn how to encode and number compositorial lines
Encode White Space in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions Learn how to capture vertical and horizontal white spaces
Encode Corrections in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions Learn how to encode compositorial errors in early modern playbooks and your corrections of them
Encode Abbreviations in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions Learn how to encode abbreviations in early modern playbooks and your expansions of those words
Encode Supplied Text in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions Read about when and how to encode supplied materials in your semi-diplomatic transcription
Encode Glyphs and Ligatures in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions Learn how to encode glyphs and ligatures
Point to online facsimiles of manuscripts Learn how to link from your semi-diplomatic transcription to facsimiles of your copytext
Template for Semi-Diplomatic Transcription of a Quarto Playbook: Body View a template for the body of a semi-diplomatic transcription

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.

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 Introduction to 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.