SV: SV: [tei-council] damage - what is it good for?

Matthew James Driscoll mjd at hum.ku.dk
Mon Sep 3 12:57:25 EDT 2007


Sorry, should have mentioned (I mean "history of the object" could be my
middle name): there is a place in <msDesc> for describing the state of the
artefact, in practice (I assume) mostly used for a description of damaged
bits, in particular as they affect the text.

I certainly take your point, though, that as a pointer to a fuller
description (i.e. this bit of damage starts here), it could be useful. Which
I suppose means that I agree with Lou (again; how boring).

Matthew 

-----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
Fra: Arianna Ciula [mailto:arianna.ciula at kcl.ac.uk] 
Sendt: 03 September 2007 18:51
Til: Matthew James Driscoll
Cc: Lou Burnard; TEI Council; Gabriel Bodard
Emne: Re: SV: [tei-council] damage - what is it good for?

mh...I think that if you are interest only in the transcription as 
'pure' text, you are not really worried about causes of damage or 
suspected stains, but if you are interested in the history of the object 
then those stains may become important clues and you may want to record 
them carefully.

Given the difficulty in defining a damage though, it may be better to 
use <damage> to point to a better description in the physical 
description section if you have included the MS module (as I am sure 
someone interested in the object would do) or in a taxonomy.

I would be in favour of keeping it myself.

Arianna

Matthew James Driscoll wrote:
> Well, for what it's worth, I've never used <damage>, nor really understood
> why anyone would. If you can read what it says, no problem; if you can
read
> enough of it to make a reasonable guess at the missing bits use <supplied
> type="illegible">; and if you can't read anything at all use <gap>. 
> 
> Come to think of it, I've never really understood what <unclear> was for
> either.
> 
> Matthew
> 
> -----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
> Fra: Lou Burnard [mailto:lou.burnard at oucs.ox.ac.uk] 
> Sendt: 03 September 2007 16:36
> Til: TEI Council; Gabriel Bodard
> Emne: [tei-council] damage - what is it good for?
> 
> As I proceed through PH wreaking havoc, I have come upon the <damage> 
> element. This is allegedly used to mark a part of a manuscript within 
> which there has been some damage to the carrier, e.g. by rubbing or 
> singeing or spilling marmalade, but not so much as to make the 
> transcriber unsure of what the writing actually says (if that were the 
> case, the <unclear> element should be used), nor so extensive as to make 
> the writing (or the carrier) actually disintegrate or disappear (for 
> which the <gap> element is available).
> 
> As defined, <damage> respects textual structures even less than the 
> other elements. If it is to be kept, it should probably be given a 
> sister <damageSpan> (analogous to <delSpan>) so that it can point across 
> div boundaries for example.  Though even then there isn't any really 
> satisfactory way of dealing with things like circular spots of damage in 
> the middle of the page, which have to be split up into numerous <damage> 
> elements.
> 
> But since it is really about the state of the carrier, not the text, why 
> would you want to record it anyway? I am sorely tempted to just remove 
> it and see who protests....
> 
> 
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-- 
Dr Arianna Ciula
Research Associate
Centre for Computing in the Humanities
King's College London
Strand
London WC2R 2LS (UK)
Tel: +44 (0)20 78481945
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/cch



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