Greta Franzini (University College London) 'A catalogue of digital editions: Towards a digital edition of Augustine's de Civitate Dei'. Digital Classicist London & Institute of Classical Studies seminar 2013, Friday July 12th. The focus of my doctoral studies at the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities is the creation of a digital edition of the oldest surviving manuscript of S. Augustine's De Civitate Dei. The manuscript dates back to the early fifth century and most of the existing, scarce research we have predates the 1950s. Its much debated provenance and authorship, due to it being contemporary to Augustine himself, are as intriguing as its rare palaeographical features and marginalia. My research seeks to, firstly, examine best practice in the field of digital editions by collating relevant evidence in a detailed catalogue of extant digital editions. The catalogue records features, scope, philological as well as technological aspects of each edition and aims at becoming a collaborative scholarly endeavour for the benefit of the Digital Humanities community. Secondly (and consequently), lessons learnt from the catalogue will inform the production of an electronic edition of De Civitate Dei, which will include transcriptions of the text and the scholia, high-definition images, a short critical apparatus, as well as background information and links to relevant resources. A catalogue of digital editions is greatly beneficial as it provides: an accessible, unique record of which texts have had digital editions created and the historical period they belong to; a data bank of features, tools, licences, funding bodies and locations; an insight into past, present and future projects; the possibility of viewing trends or patterns (e.g. what time periods are most covered or which institutions produce the largest number of digital editions); a platform where collaborators can engage in live discussions and update information as it becomes available; a means of identifying which areas need to be improved. Interesting facts are already beginning to emerge: several projects, for instance, have not set up analytics as a means of studying usage; projects urging the digital reunification of manuscript fragments are often internally fragmented themselves, having split the project between institutions rather than centralising the material for easy retrieval and management; and TEI guidelines are not as widely adopted in the field of digital editions as we might think.

1. A catalogue of digital editions:
Towards an electronic edition of
Augustine’s De Civitate Dei
Greta Franzini
UCL Centre for Digital Humanities
Alexander von Humboldt Chair of Digital Humanities, Universität Leipzig
g.franzini.11@ucl.ac.uk
franzini@informatik.uni-leipzig.de
@GretaFranzini

2. Electronic Editing
Research Questions
The Catalogue
‣ BENEFITS
‣ METHODOLOGY
‣ GOOGLE FUSION TABLES
‣ INITIAL RESULTS
G.FRANZINI.11@UCL.AC.UK
Overview
Digital Edition
Manuscript XXVIII (26)
‣ FEATURES
‣ CONSERVATION STATUS
‣ TRANSCRIPTION
‣ PUBLICATION
‣ FUTURE WORK

3. Content, syntax, morphology
Social & historical contexts
Scribal hand(s)
Manuscript as artefact
Development (e.g. genetic editions)
PROUST PROTOTYPE, COURTESY OF: HTTP://RESEARCH.CCH.KCL.AC.UK/PROUST_PROTOTYPE/INDEX.HTML
Electronic Editing

4. Research questions
Q: What makes a good digital edition?
Q: What features do digital editions share?
Q: What is the state of the art in the field of electronic editing?
Q: Why are there so few electronic editions of ancient texts?
Output
Digital edition of the oldest surviving manuscript of
St. Augustine’s De Civitate Dei

5. http://?!*@#???01=**!.com
Patrick Sahle’s Catalog of Scholarly Digital Editions
arts-humanities.net
Digital Classicist Wiki
Humanities Computing Yearbook
....
URL
DESCRIPTION
FEATURES✘
✔
✔

6. The catalogue
http://sites.google.com/site/digitaleds

7. Benefits
An accessible, unique record of what has already been done and the tools used
An insight into past, present and future projects
The possibility of viewing trends or patterns
A means of identifying which areas need to be improved

8. The catalogue
SCREENSHOT OF THE CATALOGUE

9. Methodology
Features: philological and
technological aspects, find-spot,
repository, funding bodies, etc.
Decimal numbers (0, 0.5, 1) to
measure compliance
Notes, comments, colour coding
ACTIVE: ANALYSIS PASSIVE: CONTACT
Project goals & achievements
User enquiries
User statistics
Main audience
Team size and/or budget
Lessons learnt
Sustainability

10. Google Fusion Tables
MAP RENDITION OF THE CATALOGUE

11. ANG
ARA
BEN
CHU
DAN
DUT
ENG
FRE
GER
GRC
HEB
ITA
LAT
MYN
NOR
OTA
SAN
SGA
SPA
WEL
MIX
0 43 85 128 170
16
2
4
1
1
1
3
1
43
10
2
8
5
12
51
3
1
1
1
1
3
Languages of the source-texts present in the catalogue
Number of Editions
Languages
18%
26%
56%
Ancient (pre-5th cent. AD)
Medieval (6th-14th)
Modern (15th onwards)
Initial results: languages & time period

12. Initial results: encoding practice
Unclear
39%
Other
19%
Custom XML
6%
TEI
36%
Ancient: 7
Medieval: 21
Modern: 38
TOTAL = 66 editions
Ancient: 12
Medieval: 13
Modern: 37
TOTAL = 62 editions
Ancient: 11
Medieval: 8
Modern: 13
TOTAL = 32 editions
Ancient: 0
Medieval: 2
Modern: 8
TOTAL = 10 editions

13. Large, unique, detailed data bank of electronic texts
A platform where collaborators can engage in live discussions and update information
Scholarly resource for the Digital Humanities, Digital Classicist and Digital Medievalist
communities
Collaboration as a means of research development and discovery
The bigger picture

14. Manuscript XXVIII (26)
Biblioteca Capitolare di Verona
TRISMEGISTOS N: 66599

15. Books 11-16 (253 ff.)
Size: 292x190mm
Early 5th cent. (ca. 420)
North Africa
Parchment
Language
Uncial
Marginalia (9th cent.)
Features
FF. 8V, 9R Ⓒ BIBLIOTECA CAPITOLARE DI VERONA

16. Conservation status
ALBERTO CAMPAGNOLO
Damage
Mold
Ink corrosion
Gelatine effect
Ⓒ BIBLIOTECA CAPITOLARE DI VERONA

17. Transcription
XML - TEI P5
Canonical Text Services Protocol
http://chs75.chs.harvard.edu/projects/diginc/techpub/cts

18. Publication
Critical apparatus
Indices
Glossary
Images aligned to text
Context
Links
CTS library
TO DO

19. Future work
Authorship study
Variants
Enrichment and expansion of critical apparatus
Aligned translation
Virtual restoration (e.g. filling lacunae)

20. Thank you!

21. Appendix
Unless otherwise stated, all images used in this presentation are licensed for reuse.
Source: www.pixabay.com