About this document
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:
- an elaborate structure for detailed data capture,
- a basic structure for easy data interchange (CIF).
The CIF format is not part of the
[official
feature request](https://sourceforge.net/p/tei/feature-requests/510/) but will be maintained by the SIG.
As of November 2014 the work on CIF has been postponed until
the official request is in a more stable state.
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.
Conventions used
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.
Preceding work
The development of ct:correspDesc was inspired mostly but not
exclusively by the work of [DALF](http://www.kantl.be/ctb/project/dalf/) as well as the [WeGA](http://www.weber-gesamtausgabe.de).
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. The practical
realization as well as the main features for encoding meta data are discussed in
. In August 2013 the DALF guidelines were
reworked for the new requirements in TEI P5 as a [Preliminary P5 Proposal](http://ctb.kantl.be/project/dalf/P5/DALF_P5-p0.1.zip); 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 and published
[recommendations](http://wiki.tei-c.org/index.php/File:CorrespondenceProposal.zip) 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: senderIn regard to the person who wrote
the letter or other piece of correspondence, there is a conceptual
difference. Thus, it is author in DALF and sender
in WeGA. 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.
Theoretical Considerations
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.
What is correspondence-specific information (in terms of the TEI)?
With this concept of correspondence = communication in mind a letter (or any other
piece of correspondence) has different participants:
- a sender of the message, who is not necessarily identical to the
author of the text of the message (imagine sending a Shakespeare poem
instead of writing an original love letter). He sends the piece of
correspondence generally at a certain time (though it may
be unknown or indeterminate) from a certain place
(which may or may not be the same as the place of writing).
If author and sender are the same person - which in most letters
will be the case - one can use a pointer to another part of the
TEI-header to indicate this:
- one or more (intended, perhaps fictional) addressees,
spoken
to by the piece of correspondence (and generally no
unknown audience/unspecified recipient), who receives the piece of
correspondence at a certain time at a certain
place (though it may be unknown or indeterminate).
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.
And what is left out?
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.
Implementation of the correspondence description
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.
A simple example might be encoded as follows:The namesdates module needs to be included to support this encoding.
Adelbert von Chamisso
Vertus
29 January 1807
Louis de La Foye
Caen
[Previous letter of Adelbert von Chamisso to Louis de La Foye:
16 January 1807](http://tei.ibi.hu-berlin.de/berliner-intellektuelle/manuscript?Brief023ChamissoandeLaFoye#1)
[Next letter of Adelbert von Chamisso to Louis de La Foye: 07
May 1810](http://tei.ibi.hu-berlin.de/berliner-intellektuelle/manuscript?Brief025ChamissoandeLaFoye#1)
Actors, places and dates of correspondence
The very basic information about correspondence consists of the participating
actors, their respective locations and dates (of writing/sending and
reception). While there is a semantic difference between the sender of a
message and the author of the corresponding text, in most cases those two
will be identical. To reduce the redundancy of markup and error-proneness,
[standard linking mechanisms](http://www.tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/SA.html#SAIE) can be applied to connect the
author element within titleStmt to the appropriate name within the
ct:correspAction element.
Letter of Weber to his wife. Dresden, January 1,
1817
Carl Maria von Weber
In other cases,
there might as well be a clear distinction of the intellectual author of the
text and the sender of the message, be it in disguise or frankly. Examples
include pre-formulated greeting cards, forced dictated messages, or copied
love letters.
The detailed information about names, places and dates of each participant
are to be encoded with the standard TEI elements
provided by the namesdates module described in [13
Names, Dates, People, and Places](http://www.tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/ND.html)
under the respective correspAction element.
It is possible to differentiate those declarations further with the
type attribute, e.g. to distinguish the intended place of the
addressee (as noted on the address) from the actual place of reception; or
to capture several places of writing when the letter was produced over
several days at several places. If an (external) placeography or personography is
present or authority files are available it is also highly recommended to
identify those names via unique URIs.
Adelbert von Chamisso
Vertus
29 January 1807
Louis de La Foye
Caen
As with other information compiled within ct:correspDesc, the
spatial information is supposed to be editorial, normalised data, not
necessarily the exact reproduction of the original address which should
rather be encoded within text. However, it is possible to provide
more address-like detail:
SubMarine Telegraph Company
58 Threadneedle Street
London
EC
Future Work
After dealing with correspondence-specific meta data, the next steps are:
- restructuring correspondence-related transcriptional elements, as
there are several problems with elements like postscript,
opener, closer, etc.
- developing best practice recommendations, with examples, for the
encoding of correspondence material.
Bibliography
[DALF
guidelines for the description and encoding of modern correspondence
material, version 1.0](http://ctb.kantl.be/project/dalf/dalfdoc/index.html)
Edward Vanhoutte, Ron Van den Branden: Describing,
transcribing, encoding and editing modern correspondence material: a
textbase approach. In: Literary and Linguistic Computing 24,1 (2009), pp.
77-98.
[Editionsrichtlinien zur Ausgabe der Briefe, Tagebücher und Dokumente
Webers](http://www.weber-gesamtausgabe.de/de/Editionsrichtlinien)
Anne Bohnenkamp, Elke Richter (Ed): Brief-Edition
im digitalen Zeitalter. Berlin:DeGruyter 2009
Klaus Hurlebusch: Divergenzen des Schreibens vom Lesen. Besonderheiten der
Tagebuch- und Briefedition. In: editio 9 (1995), pp.18-36.
Hans-Gert Roloff (Ed.): Wissenschaftliche Briefeditionen und ihre
Probleme. Berlin: Weidler 1998
Winfried Woesler: Vorschläge für eine Normierung von Briefeditionen. In:
editio 2 (1988), pp. 8-18.
Formal Specification
groups together metadata
elements for describing correspondence
groups elements which may
appear as part of the correspContext element
groups elements which define the
parts (usually names, dates and places) of one action related to the correspondence.
correspondence
description
contains a description
of the actions related to one act of correspondence
Adelbert von Chamisso
Vertus
29 January 1807
Louis de La Foye
Caen
[Previous letter of Adelbert von Chamisso to Louis de La
Foye: 16 January 1807](http://tei.ibi.hu-berlin.de/berliner-intellektuelle/manuscript?Brief023ChamissoandeLaFoye#1)
[Next letter of Adelbert von Chamisso to Louis de La
Foye: 07 May 1810](http://tei.ibi.hu-berlin.de/berliner-intellektuelle/manuscript?Brief025ChamissoandeLaFoye#1)
contains a structured description of the place,
the name of a person/organization and the date related to the sending/receiving of a message or any other action related to the correspondence
describes the nature of the action
identifies a/the sending action of the message
identifies a/the receiving action of the message
identifies a/the transmitting action of the message
identifies a/the redirecting action of the message
identifies a/the forwarding action of the message
Adelbert von Chamisso
Vertus
29 January 1807
correspondence context
Korrespondenzstelle
provides references to
preceding or following correspondence related to this piece of
correspondence
[Previous letter of Carl Maria von Weber to Caroline Brandt: December 30, 1816](http://weber-gesamtausgabe.de/A040962)
[Next letter of Carl Maria von Weber to Caroline Brandt: January 5, 1817](http://weber-gesamtausgabe.de/A041003)
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