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The critic TEI subspec

![NOTE] The definitive rolling version of this file is the one hosted as part of critic-format, the tool used internally by critic to parse XML. The version here will be updated when changes are made in critic-format.

This Document

This document is written as a guideline for the creation and use of TEI documents employed in critic. Some aspects of this document refer not specifically to TEI encoding, but broader aspects of critic, like its file structure.

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.

File Layout

Each page (not folio) of an ancient manuscript MUST reside in a separate TEI file.

File Naming Scheme

The names for TEI files SHOULD be {manuscript name}_{folio}_{recto/verso} for folios.

Manuscripts in scroll form (or other forms without natural pagebreaks) SHOULD be given as an individual TEI file for each image. Their filename SHOULD be {manuscript name}_{image-id}

Directory Structure

critic uses this directory structure. For interchange purposes, you are free to use any directory structure that seems convenient.

  • {manuscript name}
    • page files

Metadata

The TEI Header

This TEI Header MUST be present in every individual TEI file.

titleStmt

The title inside titleStmt MUST be given as {manuscript name} folio {folio number} {recto/verse}. when the manuscript has folios or {manuscript name} page {page number} if it does not (e.g. for scrolls).

publicationStmt

The publicationStmt MUST be given as <p>This digital reproduction is published as part of TanakhCC and licensed as https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0.</p>. In particular, all data that is part of TanakhCC MUST always explicitly be CC0.

sourceDesc

The sourceDesc MUST be given and contain exactly one element msDesc, defined in the next subsection.

Manuscript Description

  • The Body of each file MUST begin with a msDesc.
  • The msDesc MUST have
    • msIdentifier, defining the physical manuscript reproduced:
      • msName MUST be given
      • idno MUST be given and MUST be either {folio number} {recto/verso} or {page number}
      • institution SHOULD be given if relevant
      • collection MAY be given if relevant
  • physDesc MUST be given and contain handDesc and scriptDesc to describe the characteristics of scribal hands or the script used.

Representing the Text itself

As a general rule of thumb, our goal is to reproduce the physical text as closely as possible. If a reconstruction is not obvious, it is preferable to skip it; otherwise we risk corrupting the datapool with reconstructions from other text types. Reconstructions SHOULD be done in the following cases:

  • When characters are difficult but possible to read. Otherwise, reconstructions MAY be done, but SHOULD be avoided, unless their certainty is high. Reconstructions MUST NOT be done to correct scribal errors, including but not limited to:
  • incorrect orthography
  • homoioteleuta / -arkta
  • skipped words, even when alliterations or other markers make a genuine mistake probable All of the above phenomena MUST be represented without emandation. See the later sections for the correct markup to use.

Defining the source Language

  • The source language MUST be defined for each part of the transcription.
  • The source language MUST be defined in the xml:lang attribute.
  • The source language SHOULD be defined on the highest level possible, up to the body tag.
    • When there are different source languages given at different depths, the first language encountered when traversing the manuscript upwards is used.
  • BCP47 Codes MUST be used to define the source language.
    • Common Codes used for the transcription of biblical manuscripts are:
      • hbo-Hebr, hbo-Phnx, smp-Hebr, grc

Text Structure

Text is structured as two levels of nested divs:

  • column (represented by a div with type="column")
    • line (represented by a div with type="line")
    • Every block of normal text MUST be enclosed in <p> unless it is special in some way (see below for special cases). Notice that one page is one OS file, so no folio/page-breaks will ever occur inside one file. For both column and line, the n attribute with the correct number SHOULD be given. If it is not given, the number is supplied sequentially, starting from 1 When lines or columns are missing, n MUST be applied.

Versification

It is the goal of text criticism to be as faithful to each manuscript as possible, and to approach ancient texts on their own merit. Versification is very convenient for everyday use, but it is my opinion that faithfulness to the witness beats convenience. Therefore, physical structure (layout in columns and lines) is given priority over logical structure (versification). Manuscripts that have verse breaks (particularly: sof passuqim in MT manuscripts) SHOULD be transcribed - they are physically extent artefacts, so we want to aknowledge them.

Whenever verse breaks are:

  • physically apperent (sof passuqim, line indentation, actual numbering, ...) OR
  • reconstructable with certainty (comparison with other MSS or standard versions) then the beginnings of verses SHOULD be indicated by <anchor> tags. The <anchor> tag...
  • MUST include type="{the-versification-scheme}".
  • MUST have xml:id="A_V_{the-versification-scheme-shorthand}_{the-verse-ID}".

Considerations when adding Verse anchors

Verse anchors are used to align texts in the collation phase. This means that wrong verse anchors will lead to wrong collation and all sorts of Problems. The strict rule is therefore: When Verse boundaries are uncertain (e.g. words moving between two adjacent verses in different versions), verse anchors MUST NOT be used.

On the other hand, when different versions have text rearranged or differences in verse numbers and the verse boundaries are certain, it is RECOMMENDED that verse anchors be supplied in as many versions as possible. This aids collation and indexing of the data.

Available Versification schemes

In ALL cases, the abbreviation for books from OSIS MUST be used. While this may use book abbreviations foreign to some(or most) schemes, this simplifies crossreferencing drasticly.

Verse IDs in all schemes are formed as: {book_abbr}-{chapter}-{verse}

Common

Shorthand: C Long Form: Common

When all or most versification schemes aggree, you may choose to use the Common scheme instead of entering the same verse number in all the different schemes. This scheme SHOULD be used, when all of the following schemes agree:

  • Masoretic
  • Septuagint
  • ESV
  • Present When the above schemes do not agree, the Common scheme MUST NOT be used. If other schemes disagree on the verse boundary in question, their anchors MAY be given, but it is NOT RECOMMENDED to do so. Instead, disagreement for uncommon versification schemes is best noted in a manuscript for which the uncommon scheme is the natural versification scheme. By way of example: when Aleppo disagrees with BHS, a septuagintal manuscript SHOULD NOT add an anchor for the Aleppo versification.
Present

Shorthand: P Long Form: Present

The verse numbering (explicit or implicit, by counting from the chapter starts) used in the present manuscript.

Masoretic (BHS)

Shorthand: MT Long Form: Masoretic

The Mainline Masoretic Versification Scheme is that used by the BHS.

Masoretic (Aleppo)

Shorthand: MT-Aleppo Long Form: Masoretic-Aleppo

The versification used in the Aleppo Codex.

Septuagint (???)

TODO: prb Rahlfs???

Vulgata
Samaritan Pentateuch
English Standard Version

Shorthand: ESV Long Form: ESV

The versification used in the ESV, 2016 Edition. This Versification scheme is included, since it is commonly used by modern sources.

Abbreviations

When a sequence abbreviates another sequence:

  • The entire part of text MUST be enclosed in <p><choice>
  • The surface form MUST be given in <abbr>
  • The (conjectured) expanded form MUST be given in <expan>

Ligatures

TODO: just use gaiji to represent them as glyphs. Use abbreviation as before for NS and the like

Damaged Characters

This occurs where characters are present, but physically damaged.

  • When a reconstruction is too difficult to make with any certainty, use Lacunous Elements instead.
  • This section does NOT apply when characters are impossible to decipher from their remaining artefacts alone. Reconstructions based on grammar, common words or phrases alone MUST NOT be made. Use Lacunous Elements instead.

The damaged characters MUST be enclosed in <p><damaged>.

  • @agent SHOULD be given
    • good examples of reasons include: smeared, burned, water
    • the @agent MAY NOT contain whitespace
    • If a space would be desired to split words (e.g. smeared diacritica), - SHOULD be used instead (smeared-diacritica)
  • @cert SHOULD be given

Lacunous Elements

This occurs when the existance of characters, lines, columns etc is obvious (for grammatical-, layout- or other reasons), but they are illegible. Whether physical traces of these characters such as illegible smears of ink are present or not is irrelevant. If the characters are hard but possible to read, use Damaged Characters instead.

Instead of missing characters, a <gap> element MUST be used, directly inside the lines <div>.

  • @reason MUST be given
    • good examples of reasons include: lost, smeared, burned, water
  • @unit MUST be given and MUST be one of character, line, column
  • @n MUST be given
  • @cert MAY be given and qualifies both the certainty in assertaining the amount of missing units as well as the proposed reconstruction if any

Ancient Corrections

When multiple ancient surface forms are present in a place, these rules apply. Versions are here considered in (conjectured) temporal order. So when a word was written by Scribe1, struck through by Scribe2 and then another word written atop it by Scribe3, there are three distinct versions.

  • All different ancient versions (the first, and all different corrections) MUST be given separately.
  • The entire passage in question MUST be wrapped in <app>.
  • Every individual version MUST be given in <rdg>.
  • @hand SHOULD be given for all <rdg>s.
  • @varSeq MUST be given for all <rdg>s and mark them in (conjectured) temporal order. @varSeq MUST NOT contain additional semantic information. Normalization MAY turn it into zero-based indices.
  • The text in <rdg> MUST be normal text without additional markup elements.

If part of the text in any of the versions is lacunous, exclude it from its reading. Instead, add a lacuna after the entire correction. If part of the text in any of the versions is damaged but legible, simply add it without markup.

Significant space

When a significant space is left in the ancient manuscript, this MUST be recorded using the <space> element.

  • normal spacing between words MUST NOT be recorded
  • space MUST be recorded if it is both (1) large enough to fit two full-width-characters (i.e. ignoring punctuation or י) and (2) the normal word-spacing of the manuscript is smaller then this space.
  • space MUST be recorded if it spans an entire line or more
  • the @quantity MUST be given
  • @unit MUST be given and MUST be one of character, line, column

Nonstandard Glyphs and Diacritica

Non-Tiberian Niqud

For vocalization that is not tiberian, you MUST transcribe the vowels with the equivalent tiberian niqud. An enclosing element (see above, Source Language) must carry the language tag with the following tags:

  • hbo-Hebr-x-babli-e
  • hbo-Hebr-x-babli-k
  • hbo-Hebr-x-palest