This document proposes the addition of a TEI module for correspondence. It is the product of a Correspondence SIG task force (Marcel Illetschko, Sabine Seifert Peter Stadler) with valuable input from various people.
The aim of the proposal is to define a common set of correspondence-specific meta data, brought together at one place in the TEI header. The lack of special guidelines for encoding letters, postcards, etc. with TEI P5 has been a recurring topic since well before the formation of the Correspondence SIG in 2008. Additionally, there is a growing demand of correspondence projects for linked data facilities. While some of this correspondence-specific information can already be encoded in various sections of the TEI header we believe it to be of greater value for projects dealing with correspondence material to have this information in one place. For the encoding, we suggest two approaches within this set:
A guiding idea has been to only tentatively modify the TEI standard by merely adding a few elements, wrapping them in a special purpose element <ct:correspDesc> and injecting the latter into <profileDesc>. Please note that <ct:correspDesc> is not intended to and can not replace the whole TEI header.
These efforts are supposed to be just a first step in the Correspondence SIG's strive for a complete model of encoding correspondence material.
As required for TEI conformance, non-TEI elements are defined in a distinct non-TEI namespace. In the usage examples and throughout this document that namespace is mapped to the prefix ct: (for ‘correspondence task force’), while TEI elements are not marked by any namespace prefix.
The development of <ct:correspDesc> was inspired mostly but not exclusively by the work of DALF as well as the WeGA.
The DALF project, the Digital Archive of Letters by Flemish Authors and Composers from the 19th & 20th century, was launched by the Belgian Centre for Scholarly Editing and Document Studies (Centrum voor Teksteditie en Bronnenstudie) and is one of the best documented projects in the area of correspondence encoding. In 2003, specific DTDs and guidelines for the description and encoding of modern correspondence material, both intended for use with TEI P4, were published.[1] The practical realization as well as the main features for encoding meta data are discussed in [2]. In August 2013 the DALF guidelines were reworked for the new requirements in TEI P5 as a ‘Preliminary P5 Proposal’; that version served as an important inspiration for this proposal.
Before DALF updated its customization from P4 to P5, the Carl-Maria-von-Weber-Gesamtausgabe (WeGA, Carl Maria von Weber – Collected Works) had developed project-specific guidelines for encoding correspondence material in TEI P5[3] and published recommendations in June 2011.
Both projects define a special wrapper element for correspondence meta data while the depth of its structure and its child elements differ slightly. In each case this wrapper element (<dalf:letDesc> and <wega:correspDesc>, respectively) is part of the <sourceDesc> element. DALF introduces the child element <dalf:letHeading> in which they encode the author and addressee of the letter as well as place and date when it was written, and next to that some other child elements that contain additional information, e.g. the formal classification of the letter, or the presence of an envelope or illustrations. The WEGA, however, groups this information directly within the wrapper element: sender1 and addressee, the place where and the date when the letter was not only written but also received, incipit and position within the thread of correspondence (korrespondenzstelle). Both projects decided to leave all other information on providence, physical appearance, history, etc. in <msDesc> where there are already sufficient TEI elements with which to encode them.
In this proposal, we mainly considered the overlapping of these two projects’ encoding guidelines and merged them into one.
Usually, letters (or any other pieces of correspondence) are considered as having a double nature as object and event.
The aspect of objecthood predominantly, but not exclusively, is tied to materiality. The facets of this materiality are manifold, but they do not differ much between letters and other manuscripts and therfore need not to be discussed here because the TEI Guidelines have elaborated instruments for describing them, especially within the manuscript description <msDesc>.
More important than questions of objecthood and materiality is the aspect of eventness (in a wide ontological sense): Correspondence does not mean merely written messages. Very often the surrounding circumstances - sent works, presents, works of art, other oral messages - show that the letter is embedded within an ensemble of communication media, which enriches the importance of the letter in itself. Sometimes there may be no actual letter at all - still ‘correspondence’ happens.
Hence, the basic assumption in this document is the understanding of correspondence in general as an event - namely an of communication - connected to a document and/or an (electronical) text. The topos of correspondence being a ‘half dialogue’, a ‘conversation amongst absentees’ is very often found in theoretical considerations about epistolography, also ‘the letter’s function as a connector between two distant points, as a bridge between sender and receiver’ (Janet Gurkin Altman). This concept of communication (sender, transmission, receiver) can not yet be expressed with existing TEI elements though. To answer the questions WHO WRITES? - TO WHOM? - WHERE FROM? - WHERE TO? - ANSWERING WHAT? - AT WHAT DATE? - and (very often unknown) AT WHAT DATE IS THE LETTER BEING RECEIVED? a correspondence module needs to provide information about persons (or organisations) as sender, receiver or messenger as well as about the respective dates and places. Additionally, one needs mechanisms for pointing at (or: referencing) preceding and subsequent messages.
With this concept of correspondence = communication in mind a letter (or any other piece of correspondence) has different participants:
Very often these bits of information are evident in the text of the message, in address lines, postmarks, electronically generated sending meta data, etc.
Furthermore a particular message usually is sent in order to trigger an answer (in form of one or more pieces of correspondence). A single piece of correspondence therefore is normally not a secluded entity but a (written) act of communication in a communication continuum, in which it is defined by its relative position between messages sent ‘before’ and ‘after’. Dates can be helpful – but finding out the correct chronology is part of the editing process, and should be given in a specific element.
Information concerning the manuscript description, e.g. (postage) stamps, seals, water marks, form fields, letter heads, and incipits, are not considered part of the proposed correspondence description. These aspects are not necessarily correspondence-specific but rather characteristic for manuscripts in general and are thus best encoded within <msDesc>.
As this proposal deals with the meta data of correspondence, aspects relating to correspondence-specific transcriptional encoding within <text>, e.g. with <postscript>, <opener>, <closer>, or <signed>, are not considered.
The <ct:correspDesc> element provides a detailed description of correspondence-specific metadata. The <ct:correspDesc> element focuses on the communicative function of correspondence, i.e. sender, addressee, and transmission. It is provided as a supplement to the physical description of a correspondence object which is to be encoded within the <sourceDesc>. The description is organized by the following elements
These elements are members of a model class called model.correspDescPart; additional features may be defined by defining new elements and adding them to that class.
After dealing with correspondence-specific meta data, the next steps are: