EpiDoc online September 2024
Institute of Classical Studies, London. September 9–12, 2024
- Monday Sep 9, 15:00 BST
- Wednesday Sep 11, 15:00 BST
- Thursday Sep 12, 15:00 BST
Tutors: Gabriel Bodard, Marta Fogagnolo, Tamara Kalkhitashvili, Polina Yordanova
Booking: https://ics.sas.ac.uk/events/epidoc-training (now closed)
We invite applications for a three-day online only, flipped training workshop in the use of EpiDoc (http://epidoc.sf.net/), the de facto standard for encoding ancient epigraphic and papyrological editions in TEI XML for online publication and interchange. The workshop will introduce the encoding of ancient texts in XML, and sources of information and support on EpiDoc. No technical knowledge is required, but participants are expected to be familiar with the transcription conventions for inscriptions and papyri (Leiden System and similar) and either Greek, Latin or other ancient languages.
The workshop will involve asynchronous training materials and exercises, and three hours of real-time support and discussion via video call, on the Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.
- Install the free 30-day demo of the Oxygen XML Editor on your computer.
- You will need to request and activate the 30-day license to open the software. Best not to do this before you are ready to start working!
- Watch the required videos before the first session (and each session)
- NB some are optional; others you may be able to get the gist from the slides if you prefer
- Download the EpiDoc Template (right-click and “save as”) and save into a new folder. Make a copy of this file for every new EpiDoc file you create.
- Download the Quick-reference documents: (Transcription) and (Structure) (right-click and “save as”)
We will not be covering publication or display of EpiDoc files in this workshop. If you want to, you may try out by yourself one of the following methods for viewing your EpiDoc files in a browser:
- iSicily EpiDoc Viewer
- Oxygen Stylesheets Project (see “Running EpiDoc Stylesheets” for instructions)
- EFES (see “Optional publication display tool” below)
Starting with a copy of the EpiDoc Template for each new document, create EpiDoc files for 2–3 inscriptions, papyri, seals or other text-bearing objects of your choice. You may pick your own texts, or use some of the examples below. Focus in particular on the ancient text field (div type=”edition”) for now. Leave aside any complex features you don’t know how to handle, but make sure that all Leiden brackets ( ) [ ] < > etc. are replaced with EpiDoc tags.
- Latin inscriptions: EDH, EDR. Suggestions: HD000063, HD000319, EDR000014, EDR000015.
- Greek inscriptions: PHI, AIUK collections on AIO. Suggestions: PH2302, PH334064, AIUK 2 no. 5, AIUK 2 no. 8.
- Papyri: Papyri.info. Suggestions: BGU 1.4, P.Oxy 5364.
Pick another 3–4 texts and focus on the "Manuscript Description" features of the edition. Encode as many of the features of object description, document history, and other metadata as you can find.
- The EpiDoc Structure Quick Reference (PDF) will be a useful guide to encoding
- For more detail, see EpiDoc Guidelines section on Descriptive and Historical data
- If you want to see some examples of already marked-up inscriptions, you may visit IGCyr, IOSPE or CGRN.
For this exercise it would be particularly useful to use 2–3 of your own texts, or those with which you are most familiar, but feel free to use the sample sites above to find new, complex texts to use. Mark them up as richly as possible. Look for interesting features that you don’t yet know how to encode, and make your best effort at figuring them out. Bring your questions along to the Thursday session so we can try to work them out together.
- Origins, goals and contributions to EpiDoc (slides) (Gabriel Bodard) (27 min)
- Why Publish inscriptions with XML? (slides) (Charlotte Tupman) (18 min)
- Reminder of the Leiden System (slides) (Irene Vagionakis) (20 min)
- Introduction to EpiDoc Guidelines (guidelines) (Irene Vagionakis) (13 min)
- EpiDoc Transcription Quick-Reference (QuickRef) (Gabriel Bodard) (10 min)
- Structure QuickReference (PDF) (Irene Vagionakis) (5 min)
- Semantic Markup example (slides) (Irene Vagionakis) (9 min)
- The Rules of XML (slides) (Gabriel Bodard) (19 min)
- Introduction to Oxygen XML Editor (Gabriel Bodard) (19 min)
- Structure of an EpiDoc Edition (slides) (Irene Vagionakis) (18 min)
- Abbreviations (slides) (Irene Vagionakis) (8 min)
- Complex lacunae (slides) (Gabriel Bodard) (14 min)
- [Optional] Latin inscription example in Oxygen (Irene Vagionakis) (17 min)
- [Optional] Greek inscription example in Oxygen (Gabriel Bodard) (34 min)
- Symbols (slides) (Irene Vagionakis) (10 min)
- Fragments and sections of text (slides) (Gabriel Bodard) (19 min)
- Repository and identifier (slides) (Irene Vagionakis) (6 min)
- Description of Object (slides) (Irene Vagionakis) (9 min)
- Description of campus or layout (slides) (Gabriel Bodard) (5 min)
- Description of Hands, Lettering and Script (slides) (Gabriel Bodard) (10 min)
- Origin date (slides) (Gabriel Bodard) (18 min)
- Origin and locations of object (slides) (Irene Vagionakis) (12 min)
- Edition metadata (slides) (Gabriel Bodard) (16 min)
- Recording responsibility and revisions (slides) (Polina Yordanova) (5 min)
- Certainty and precision (slides) (Gabriel Bodard) (17 min)
- Verse Inscriptions (slides) (Gabriel Bodard) (13 min)
- Names and persons (slides) (Gabriel Bodard) (15 min)
- Editorial corrections (slides) (Gabriel Bodard) (13 min)
- Apparatus Criticus (slides) (Gabriel Bodard) (26 min)
- Bibliography (slides) (Gabriel Bodard) (16 min)
- Displaying EpiDoc files using EFES (Gabriel Bodard, Irene Vagionakis & Polina Yordanova) (18 min)
- EFES instructions and documentation at: https://github.com/EpiDoc/EFES/wiki/User-Guide
- With an EpiDoc file open, try pressing the "validate" button on the Oxygen toolbar. (The button with a red check mark.)
- If a security message pops up (possibly complaining about an insecure, external schema file), it should give you the options "accept", "accept and remember" or "reject". Select "accept and remember".
- If this doesn't fix the issue, try downloading the schema (right click on this link and Save as…), and put it in the same folder on your computer as your XML files.
- Change the second and third lines of your XML file so they list only the file name, not the full URL. I.e. change
<?xml-model href="http://epidoc.stoa.org/schema/latest/tei-epidoc.rng"to<?xml-model href="tei-epidoc.rng"— twice.
- Oxygen is an excellent XML editor, especially for TEI and EpiDoc, and good value for money. However if you want to work with a free tool, any "code editor" (such as Atom, Sublime, jEdit, or even Notepad++ etc. will also work (although without most of the features that make us love Oxygen).
- One advanced option, including plugins for XML validation and content completion is Visual Studio Code; installation instructions follow:
- Download and install Visual Studio Code, and check that you are able to open and edit text files.
- Within VSC, please go to the Extensions button on the left bar (5th button down) and in the "Search Extensions in Marketplace" field enter XML. Of the many plugins offered, install the plugin "XML (XML Language Support by Red Hat)". Then in the same field enter tei and install the plugin "tei-publisher-vscode (Visual Studio Code extension to support TEI editing)".
- You will need to restart your computer (not just the software) after installing these plugins.
- First call: EpiDoc Guidelines
- A friendly place to ask humans for help: Markup mailing list
- Good starting bibliography: EpiDoc | Wikipedia
- Technical information: EpiDoc | Digital Classicist Wiki
- If you're really keen to read more about EpiDoc and digital epigraphy:
- Gabriel Bodard & Polina Yordanova. 2020. "Publication, Testing and Visualization with EFES: A tool for all stages of the EpiDoc editing process." Studia Digitalia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai 65.1 (2020), pp. 17–35. Available: https://doi.org/10.24193/subbdigitalia.2020.1.02
- Hugh Cayless & Charlotte Roueché. 2009. "Epigraphy in 2017." Digital Humanities Quarterly 3(1). Available: http://digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/3/1/000030/000030.html
- Julia Flanders & Charlotte Roueché. 2006. "Introduction To Markup For Epigraphers." Stoa Review 2021-08-19. Available: https://blog.stoa.org/archives/4084
- Lisa Anderson & Heidi Wendt. 2014. "Ancient Relationships, Modern Intellectual Horizons: The practical challenges and possibilities of encoding Greek and Latin inscriptions." In ed. M.T. Rutz & M.M. Kersel, Archaeologies of Text: Archaeology, Technology, and Ethics. Oxbow Books. Pp. 164–175.