Introduction to LEMDO’s Taxonomies

The documentation in this chapter is for all editors and encoders. It provides information about LEMDO’s categories and taxonomies including those categories needed to trigger specific processing, standard play IDs, and allowed values for placement of stage directions in semi-diplomatic transcriptions.

Types of Categories

LEMDO TEI files are categorized along many different vectors:
Document type (primary source text, born digital information page, etc.).
Editorial treatment (semi-diplomatic, modern spelling, etc.).
Book format (broadside, folio, quarto, etc.).
Work type (play, prose, poetry, etc.).
Original digital source (ISE IML encoding, TCP encoding, XWiki file, etc.).
These taxonomies (along with others) are defined in the TAXO1.xml taxonomies file, and incorporated from there into the project schema. Then every TEI document is assigned a number of <catRef> elements in its <teiHeader> :
<textClass>
  <catRef scheme="tax:emdDocumentTypes" target="cat:ldtPrimaryText"/>
  <catRef scheme="tax:emdEditorialTreatments" target="cat:letModernized"/>
  <catRef scheme="tax:emdWorkTypes" target="cat:lwtPlay"/>
  <catRef scheme="tax:emdDocumentHist" target="cat:edhSourceIML"/>
</textClass>
This example specifies that the text is a modern spelling version of a play, and its original digital source was an IML file from the Internet Shakespeare Editions repository. Many of these categories are assigned automatically when files are converted, but encoders are expected to check that they are correct and add any new categories required. If <catRef> values are incorrect or missing, a document may not render correctly, or the wrong Schematron rules may be triggered.
For full details of all LEMDO’s taxonomies, look at the Taxonomies page.

Additional Taxonomies

In addition to the categories that we use to classify our TEI files, there are a number of other taxonomies that are documented in this chapter. While the categories described above are used in the TEI header to ensure the correct processing is applied to files, our other taxonomies are largely to ensure consistent encoding throughout the LEMDO project.

Learning Outcomes

This chapter gives you all the information that you need to find and use values from LEMDO’s taxonomies. By the time you have worked through every section of this chapter, you will:
Understand and be able to update the categories ( <catRef> elements) in your files’ TEI headers.
Be familiar with the audiences our documentation can be directed towards.
Know where to find our list of authority identifiers for bibliography and citation.
Know what each of our placement and rendition values should be used for in semi-diplomatic transcriptions.
Have access to the lists of glyphs and ligatures that LEMDO has used for semi-diplomatic transcriptions.
Be able to find the DRE IDs for plays.

Contents

Section Description
Document Type Taxonomy Learn about key categories for classifying documents and triggering specific category-based processing
Work Type Taxonomy Learn how to capture the genre of primary documents (e.g., play, mayoral show)
Print Book Formats Taxonomy Learn how to capture the format of the copytext for your semi-diplomatic transcription (e.g., quarto, folio, manuscript)
Editorial Treatments Taxonomy Learn how to classify your editorial treatment of a file
Document Histories Taxonomy Learn how to capture key information about the origin of your file
Audiences Taxonomy Learn about the audiences we write documentation for
Document Status Taxonomy Learn about the values we use to track the progress of a file and to indicate a file’s current status
Responsibilities Taxonomy Learn about the responsibility categories we use to give credit to contributors and collaborators
IDNO Authorities Taxonomy Learn about the authority identifiers that we use to provide stable references in bibliography entries
Prefix Definitions Taxonomy Learn about the prefixes LEMDO has created to simplify linking practices
Placement Taxonomy Learn how to use our placement values to describe the location of stage directions and labels in semi-diplomatic transcriptions
Typographical Glyphs Taxonomy Learn about the glyphs that LEMDO has used in semi-diplomatic transcriptions (note that we no longer encourage encoders to tag glyphs in new files)
Typographical Ligatures Taxonomy Learn about the ligatures that LEMDO has used in semi-diplomatic transcriptions (note that we no longer encourage encoders to tag ligatures in new files)
DRE Play IDs Find the standard abbreviation for each play in the LEMDO repository
Renditions Taxonomy Learn about the standard renditions that LEMDO has created to simplify inline styling in semi-diplomatic transcriptions

Prosopography

Illya

Illya has a BA in English and Sociocultural Anthropology and an MA in English. Prior to joining the HCMC, he was a PhD candidate in English and Book History at the University of Toronto and worked on Records of Early English Drama and on the Modernist Archives Publishing Project. His work at the HCMC focuses on creating web-based applications for research projects led by members of the faculty of Humanities at the University of Victoria. This involves creating schemas for new and existing datasets, writing XSLT and build files to transform datasets into structured TEI and HTML formats, implementing staticSearch, and ensuring that new projects are Endings Principles compliant.

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.

Samuel Seaberg

Samuel Seaberg, a University of Victoria English undergrad, enjoys riding his bike. During the summer of 2025, he began working with LEMDO as a recipient of the Valerie Kuehne Undergraduate Research Award (VKURA). Unfortunately, due to his summer being spent primarily in working to establish an edition of Thomas Heywood’s If You Know Not Me, You Know Nobody, Part 2 and consequently working out how to represent multi-text works in a digital space, his bike has suffered severely of sheltered seclusion from the sun. Note: Samuel now works for LEMDO as the Assistant Project Manager, much to his bike’s chagrin.

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 LEMDO’s Taxonomies
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.