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Master Project |
The MASTER Document Type Definition: reference manual2.1 Overview |
Up: 2 The Manuscript Description Element Next: 2.2 Phrase-level elements
An <msDescription> element may reasonably appear either within the body or the header of a TEI conformant document. In the former case, where the document being encoded is essentially a collection of manuscript descriptions, the <msDescription> element may be placed anywhere that a paragraph might appear. In the latter case, where the description forms part of the metadata to be associated with a digital representation of some manuscript original, whether as a transcription, as a collection of digital images, or as some combination of the two, then the <msDescription> should appear within the <sourceDesc> element of the header.
The <msDescription> element has the following components, of which only the first is mandatory. They are listed here, and discussed in the associated section below.
| <msIdentifier> | groups information that identifies a manuscript or manuscript fragment; mandatory; 2.3 The Manuscript Identifier | |
| <msHeading> | contains a brief structured description of a manuscript. ; 2.4 The Manuscript Heading | |
| <msContents> | an itemised list of the intellectual contents of a manuscript or manuscript part, with bibliographic descriptions etc. as appropriate; 2.5 Intellectual Content | |
| <physDesc> | groups information providing a detailed descriptions of all physical aspects of the manuscript or manuscript part (e.g. its material, script, component parts, illustration, binding); 2.6 Physical Description | |
| <history> | summarizes the known history of a manuscript or manuscript part: its origin and provenance; 2.7 History | |
| <additional> | groups other related information about a manuscript, in particular, administrative information relating to its current location, additional materials associated with it, etc.; 2.8 Additional information | |
| <msPart> | contains a nested description for a manuscript fragment which is now regarded as forming part of the manuscript being described, although physically distinct; 2.9 Manuscript Parts | |
In addition to the global attributes rend, id, lang etc. available to all TEI elements, the <msDescription> element carries a special purpose attributes status and type:
| <msDescription> | contains a description of a single identifiable manuscript or manuscript part | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Attributes include |
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Here is a very simple example of a complete manuscript description:
<msDescription status="uni"> <msIdentifier> <settlement>Oxford</settlement> <repository>Bodleian Library</repository> <idno>MS. Rawlinson poet. 149</idno> </msIdentifier> <msHeading> <author>Geoffrey Chaucer</author> <title>The Canterbury Tales</title> <origDate notBefore="1450" notAfter="1475">1450-1475</origDate> <origPlace>?Pembrokeshire (Wales)</origPlace> </msHeading> </msDescription>
Here is a slightly more ambitious description for the same manuscript, using elements described in more detail in the following sections.
<msDescription status="uni"> <msIdentifier> <settlement>Oxford</settlement> <repository>Bodleian Library</repository> <idno>MS. Rawlinson poet. 149</idno> </msIdentifier> <msHeading> <author>Geoffrey Chaucer</author> <title>The Canterbury Tales</title> <origDate notBefore="1450" notAfter="1475">1450-1475</origDate> <origPlace reg="Wales: Pembroke">?Pembrokeshire (Wales)</origPlace> <textLang langKey="ENG">Middle English</textLang> </msHeading> <msContents> <msItem> <title>The Canterbury Tales</title> <rubric>The Tales of Canterbury</rubric> <author>Geoffrey Chaucer</author> <note>Mutilated at beginning and end: contains A431-I1092 in the Riverside edition numbering</note> </msItem> </msContents> <physDesc> <form> <p>Codex. </p> </form> <support> <p>Parchment.</p> </support> <extent>136 folios <dimensions><height>28</height><width>19</width></dimensions> </extent> <collation> <p>Twenty-three quires of eight, of which only nine are not defective, and a final (defective) quire of six.</ps></collation> <layout ruledLines="38-74"> <p>Margined and ruled with crayon through fol. 51v , then in drypoint. Single columns of 38-74 lines per page. </p></layout> <msWriting hands="4"> <p>Four hands, varying between cursive anglicana (the first hand) and mixed secretary (the fourth hand). The fourth hand is responsible for around two-thirds of the manuscript, from fol. 45 to the end; the third hand wrote only three lines and a few words on fol. 38r; the other two hands divide the remainder of the manuscript up to fol. 45 between them. </p></msWriting> <additions><p> A fifteenth-century note in the margin of fol. 114v. </p> </additions> </physDesc> <history> <origin> <p>On fol. 91r is a smudged copy of a bill or document with names of people and places in Wales (Pembrokeshire, Bangor) and the date 1607</p> </origin> <acquisition> <p>Left to the Bodleian by Richard Rawlinson in 1755.</p> </acquisition> </history> <additional> <adminInfo> <recordHist> <source><p>This description is derived from that made by Daniel W. Mosser for the Canterbury Tales Project.</p></source> </recordHist> </adminInfo> <surrogates> <p>A rotograph copy of the manuscript was made for John Manly in the 1920s, and a copy of this rotograph is available in microfilm as part of the Manly/Rickert collection from the University of Chicago library. The manuscript has been microfilmed more recently by the Bodleian. Digital images derived from this microfilm have been published on the CDROMs prepared by the Canterbury Tales Project.</p> </surrogates> </additional> </msDescription>
The formal definition for the <msDescription> element is as follows:
Up: 2 The Manuscript Description Element Next: 2.2 Phrase-level elements
(revised 21 Jun 01) Edited by Lou Burnard for the MASTER Work Group.
Copyright TEI Consortium 2001