LEMDO: Stable Entities

Stable Entities

A stable entity always has an xml:id—an alphanumeric string that is unique in the ecosystem of the project. In some cases, the stable entity is a function of our file system (e.g., file names). In other cases, the stable entity is a logical structural feature of the text (e.g., acts, scenes, speeches, paragraphs, figures), or an entity that we have captured in one of LEMDO’s sitewide shared databases. We can also create a stable entity in the form of an anchor, precisely so that we can link to strings of text that don’t have a logical container to which we can link.

Stable entities include:

XML files

Divisions within an XML file (acts and scenes in the primary texts, or sections in born-digital files)

Paragraphs within an XML file (prose passages in primary non-dramatic texts, or paragraphs in born-digital files)

Speeches

Figures

Entities (contributors, historical people, bibliography items)

Anchors (arbitrary strings you want to annotate, collate, or link to for some other reason)

XML Files as Stable Entities

All XML files in the LEMDO system have a unique xml:id. This id can be found on the root element of the file (i.e., the


                                          <TEI>

element). You will also note that the xml:id of the file is the final part of the URL when you view the file on the site. You can also look for the xml:id of any file in the LEMDO A–Z Index. Note that XML files are stable only within your own anthology.

Divisions as Stable Entities

We use the


                                          <div>

element for a variety of purposes at LEMDO.

In modern primary texts; acts, scenes, and other units of text are wrapped in the


                                          <div>

element. See Literary Divisions in Modernized Texts: Acts, Scenes, and Speeches.

In born-digital texts (e.g., about pages, critical paratexts), sections are wrapped in


                                          <div>

elements and paragraphs in

<p>

elements.

LEMDO has a Schematron rule that


                                          <div>

elements must be given an xml:id. That makes it possible to link to any div element using its xml:id, a hash tag, and the xml:id of the division.

Paragraphs as Stable Entities

We use the

<p>

element for a variety of purposes at LEMDO. We always assign xml:ids to the following types of paragraphs:

Primary non-dramatic texts (usually supplementary texts): prose paragraphs

Critical paratexts: prose paragraphs

About pages (if the page offers information that others might like to cite, such as the pages on the Queen’s Men company on the QME site): prose paragraphs

The xml:id on a

<p>

element ends with the pattern _p1, _p2, _p3, and so on (where p1 is paragraph 1). You can link to any

<p>

element using its xml:id and the


                                          <ref>

element or the


                                          <ptr>

element.

Note that the paragraphs in documentation files are not numbered because we are constantly adding new material.

Canonical References in Modernized Texts as Stable Entities

Canonical References in Semi-Diplomatic Transcriptions as Stable Entities

Speeches as Stable Entities

Speeches are tagged with the


                                          <sp>

element in all primary texts.

In semi-diplomatic primary texts: speeches are wrapped in the

<p>

element and numbered consecutively from the first


                                             <sp>

element to the last. Their xml:ids always end with this pattern: _sp1, sp2, and so on (where sp1 is speech 1).

In modern primary texts, speeches are wrapped in the


                                             <sp>

element. Numbering is consecutive through each scene. Their xml:ids always end with this pattern: _a2_s1_sp1 (where a2 is act 2, s1 is scene 1, and sp1 is the first speech in the scene). See Number Speeches for more information on speech numbering.

Figures as Stable Entities

All figures are given xml:ids once the file is stable. Doing so allows you to link from your prose to a figure in the same file, or to a figure in another part of your edition. The classic case is the parenthetical (i.e., See Figure 1). You may also want to link from an annotation to a figure in your critical introduction.

The xml:id of a figure always ends with this pattern: _f1, _f2, and so on (where f1 is figure 1).

Formal Entities

LEMDO has a number of shared databases upon which all contributors can draw and to which we all collectively contribute. (Read more about them in the chapter on Introduction to Sitewide Data Files.) Each contributor, historical figure, bibliography item, production, organization, and witness has a unique, pre-assigned xml:id. These xml:ids consist of four letters + a number, following this pattern: ABCD1. You will find all of these in the LEMDO A–Z Index, but it will be much faster to search the individual database files, all of which are linked from Resources on the LEMDO-dev site.

Anchors as Stable Entities

Sometimes we want to link to things that do not have xml:ids or a parent element on which we could add a meaningful xml:id (e.g., lemmas we want to collate, passages we want to annotate, and passages we want to quote in critical paratexts). In these cases, we can add anchors to the target file.

All anchor elements have an


                                       @xml:id

ending with this pattern: _anc_1, _anc_2, and so on. We use the


                                          <ptr>

element to point to those anchors. See Create Anchors for information on how to create anchors and point to anchors.

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.

Kate LeBere

Project Manager, 2020–2021. Assistant Project Manager, 2019–2020. Textual Remediator and Encoder, 2019–2021. Kate LeBere completed her BA (Hons.) in History and English at the University of Victoria in 2020. During her degree she published papers in The Corvette (2018), The Albatross (2019), and PLVS VLTRA (2020) and presented at the English Undergraduate Conference (2019), Qualicum History Conference (2020), and the Digital Humanities Summer Institute’s Project Management in the Humanities Conference (2021). While her primary research focus was sixteenth and seventeenth century England, she completed her honours thesis on Soviet ballet during the Russian Cultural Revolution. She is currently a student at the University of British Columbia’s iSchool, working on her masters in library and information science.

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.

Nicole Vatcher

Technical Documentation Writer, 2020–2022. Nicole Vatcher completed her BA (Hons.) in English at the University of Victoria in 2021. Her primary research focus was women’s writing in the modernist period.

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	Stable Entities
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.