Literary and Linguistic Computing Advance Access originally published online on May 14, 2009
Literary and Linguistic Computing 2009 24(3):329-338; doi:10.1093/llc/fqp021
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The digital edition of the Statuta comunis Vicentie of 1264
Dipartimento di Studi Storici e Geografici, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Florence, Italy
Dipartimento di Discipline Storico Artistiche, Archeologiche e Geografiche, Università degli Studi di Verona, Verona, Italy
Correspondence: Luigi Siciliano, Dipartimento di Studi Storici e Geografici, Università degli Studi di Firenze, via San Gallo, 10, I-50129 Firenze, Italy. E-mail: luigi.siciliano{at}gmail.com
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Abstract |
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This article investigates the issues to be faced while producing a digital edition of a representative medieval text: Statuta Comunis Vicentie (1264). Statuta comunis are collections of civic rules very common in Northern Italy since the twelfth century. We are dealing specifically with the ones of Vicenza, a town near Venice. Statuta were usually organized in a single or multiple codices, including the collection of the civic rules, matched and allotted in big chapters (libri) according to the subject. Another fundamental characteristic is the constant review of the original text in different periods, generally due to changes in the government or in the organization of the city. Therefore, the most relevant matters to deal with are: first, description of metadata; second, structural analysis of the text; third, the markup of the additions and amendments; and fourth; identification of specific semantic values, in particular personal names, organizational names and names of places. This article outlines the reasons for choosing XML/TEI for the project, how to address the four matters listed above and how the chosen standard can be customized to treat the peculiar aspects of this text according to the traditional editing practice.