This lesson is in the early stages of development (Alpha version)

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Introduction to TEI

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Elements and Attributes

Overview

Teaching: 60 min
Exercises: 60 min
Questions

  • How do I mark up a description?

  • How do I validate my markup?

Objectives

  • Describe what content, elements and attributes are in TEI.

  • Mark up a description with TEI by hand and in an editor.

Building on first workshop, getting stuck in to manuscript description.

We will work together at the start, working on paper. When we get to Oxygen, you may work at your own pace.

Discuss homework from previous exercise

Discussion

Look back at the two homework exercises in Episode 1:

  1. Find msDesc (manuscript description)
  2. Find extent

Solution

  1. <msDesc> is nested within <sourceDesc> part of <fileDesc> in the <teiHeader>.
  2. <extent> is nested within <supportDesc>, within <objectDesc> in the <physDesc> element. This sits in the <msDesc> section of the record.

Marking up descriptions (on paper)

Common elements to use

Activity: marking up, on paper

Here is some information to be entered into elements in TEI. Enter the correct information from here into the corresponding TEI elements.

  • Peter Lombard (b. c.1100, d. c.1160), theologian and Bishop of Paris
  • Gloss on the Psalms
  • Parchment
  • Page height and width 355 x 240mm
  • 197 folios
  • Double columns of 48 lines
  • 12th century
  • Written in Germany
  • i8 ii8 (wants 1) iii-xxiv8 xxv4, xxvi2
  • The front cover is plated with gilt metal, apparently, of 13th century. It is thus arranged. The border is composed of six oblong plates of enamel (at the corners and in the middle of the sides) bearing decorative designs: the intervals between these are occupied by six longer strips of filagree work, each of which is set with four stones. The central plate of gilt metal has an incised design of foliage partially surrounding a crucifix. The figure on the cross is in relief, crowned, with loin-cloth, and is fastened by four nails. The cross is set with small turquoises. The head (bearded) inclines to left. The title of the cross bears the letters IHS: above it is the Divine Hand. The interior angles of the cross are filled in, so that there is a disk at the intersection. The field or body of the cross is enamelled. At each extremity are two stones; two more are on the right of the lower part of the cross, and one is opposite to them on left. Nail holes (seven in number) are in various parts of the field. At the angles of the panel are four disks of enamelled metal, bearing decorative designs. The second cover is of wood, covered with green-brown velvet. It can hardly be supposed that the metal plate originally belonged to the manuscript now associated with it. There is some doubt as to whether the binding originally belonged originally to this MS
  • From the Cistercian Abbey of Hunnerode
  • Bought by Lord Lindsay in October 1861 from the London bookseller Thomas Boone of New Bond St. for £80

We will use the following elements and colours:

  • <msContents> (intellectual content): blue
  • <physDesc> (physical description): red
  • <history> (history of the manuscript): green

Solution

<msContents>
  <author>Peter Lombard (b. c.1100, d. c.1160), theologian and Bishop of Paris</author>
  <title>Petrus Lombardus super PsalmosGloss on the Psalms</title>
</msContents>
<physDesc>
  <material>Parchment</material>
  <dimensions>Page height and width 355 x 240mm</dimensions>
  <measure>197 folios</measure>
  <layout>Double columns of 48 lines</layout>
  <collation>i8 ii8 (wants 1) iii-xxiv8 xxv4, xxvi2</collation>
  <binding>The front cover is plated with gilt metal, apparently, of 13th century. It is thus arranged. 
    The border is composed of six oblong plates of enamel (at the corners and in the middle of the sides)
    ...</binding>
</physDesc>
<history>
  <origDate>12th century</origDate>
  <origPlace>Written in Germany</origPlace>
  <provenance>From the Cistercian Abbey of Hunnerode</provenance>
  <provenance>Bought by Lord Lindsay in October 1861 from the London bookseller Thomas Boone of New Bond St. for £80</provenance>
</history>

Transfering markup into TEI XML (in Oxygen)

We have provided some tips and tricks for marking up text in Oxygen. See the bottom of this page.

Activity: transferring markup to a text editor

Now you have marked up a document by hand, it is time to put it into a text editor.

Start with the template we have provided, replace the blanks with your markup.

The XML record is available here to download: MS-LATIN-00006-template.xml (Right-click, “Save Link As…”)

Available under CC BY-NC 3.0 licence.

Partial solution

A partially completed version: MS-LATIN-00006-template-attributes.xml (Right-click, “Save Link As…”).

Available under CC BY-NC 3.0 licence.

Validating markup

To check that your markup is valid (in other words, there are no syntax errors), tick the “Validate” box. Look for any red lines under markup to identify invalid code. Look for a message at the bottom of screen to say “Validation Successful”.

Homework: Adding attributes

If you are comfortable working in Oxygen, you should add these attributes to the XML file you created (for Latin MS 6).

If you have less experience with Oxygen and XML, use the partially completed version MS-LATIN-00006-template-attributes.xml (Right-click, “Save Link As…”). Available under CC BY-NC 3.0 licence.

You might find it helpful to look at the XML for Latin MS 98 (from the homework the previous episode) or the Draft Style Guide for Cambridge Digital Library (pdf) FIXME URL.

Replace attribute values

The element <msDesc> has three attributes. For the attribute xml:id, replace the value "UkMaJRU-Latin-MS-00" with "UkMaJRU-Latin-MS-06"

Add attributes and values to elements

For <supportDesc>:

  • add attribute name: material
  • add attribute value: parchment

For <measure>:

For <height> and <width>:

  • add attribute quantity="nnn" (i.e. 355 and 240).

For <binding>:

  • add attribute calendar with value gregorian
  • attributes notBefore and notAfter with years (YYYY)
  • add certainty (attribute cert choose value from drop-down list).

For <origPlace>:

  • add attribute ref (value isURL of the VIAF entry - find Germany in VIAF, or see LatinMS98)

For <origDate>:

  • add dating attributes as for binding <item><ref target="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/"/>Religion</item>

Extra bits

In <provenance>, markup Lord Lindsay within a <persName> element within a <name> element.

Add to the <persName> element the attribute type=”display”.

Add to the <name> element the attributes type (person) and subtype (fmo – i.e. former owner), and ref (value is URL of the VIAF entry)

Within <profileDesc> add a suitable subject index term from the Library of Congress Subject Headings (within <item>) <ref target=”http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh9999”>term</ref>

Tips and tricks for working with Oxygen

Oxygen shortcut keys

To insert a £ sign, click on “Edit” > “Insert from Character Map” and select “£”, “Character Entity: Decimal” then click “Insert”.

Oxygen has dozens of keyboard shortcuts, under “Options / Menu Shortcut Keys”. These are some of the most useful ones:

Select some text, and press Control + E. You can choose an element to put around the text.

Place the cursor in an element, press Alt + Shift + D. This splits the element in two (e.g. to turn a long paragraph into two paragraphs, or one list item into two).

Put the cursor in an element and press Control + Alt + X. The tag disappears leaving its contents.

Put your cursor in an element, and press Control + Shift + ,. The tag will be commented out. Press the same thing again, and the comment will disappear.

Press Control + Shift + V to validate your file.

Press Control + Shift + W to check well-formedness.

Press Control + Shift + Y to toggle Line Wrap. Mostly, when editing TEI documents, we want to have line wrap turned on, but it’s off by default in Oxygen.

There are lots of things that you can set up a keyboard shortcut for. Here’s an example:

  • Go to “Options / Menu Shortcut Keys”.
  • Type ‘maximize’. You should see Maximize/Restore Editor Area.
  • Click on the description, and then on Edit.
  • Type the F11 key, and press OK.
  • Now hit F11 a couple of times while you’re editing. It hides then restores all the surrounding panels. This can be very handy if you’re editing a large document on a small screen.

Other useful features in Oxygen

Oxygen has a very rich feature set, but here are a couple of features you’ll find useful:

Find All. Press “Find / Find Replace” (or Control + F) to see the find box. Try Find All. You get a list of hits in the window at the bottom. Clicking on each hit will take you to it in the document.

Tip: If you’re using this to make changes, then make your changes from the bottom up. If you make changes from the top of the document, the other hits will no longer point at the right location in the document, because the offsets have changed.

Find / Replace in Files. Right-click on a folder in your Project panel and click on Find / Replace in Files. You can search the entire folder, and get back a list of results just like Find All, but grouped into files. Double-click on a hit to open the file and jump to the hit location.

The XPath box. In the top left, near the “File” menu, is a text box labelled “XPath 2.0”. Type //p in this box and press Return to find all the tags, or //@type to find all the type attributes.

Key Points

  • You can mark up a manuscript using fewer than 20 different elements. FIXME

  • Use a combination of elements and attributes to effectively mark up a manuscript. FIXME

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