2.6 Physical Description

2.6.2.1 Layout

The <layout> element is used to describe and document the way in which text and illustration are displayed on the written surface, specifying for example the number of written, ruled, or pricked lines and columns per page, presence or absence of margins, distinct blocks such as glossaria etc. In some cases, the layout will be sufficiently regular for the attributes on this element to convey all that is necessary; more usually however a more detailed treatment will be required. The attributes are provided as a convenient short hand for commonly occurring cases, and should not be used except where the layout is regular. The value NA (not-applicable) should be used for cases where the layout is either very irregular, or where it cannot be characterised simply in terms of lines and columns, for example, where blocks of commentary and text are arranged in a regular but complex pattern on each page

The following examples indicate the range of possibilities:

<layout ruledLines="25-32">
<p>Most pages have between 25 and 32 long lines ruled in lead.</p>
</layout>

2.6.2.2 Writing

The <msWriting> element may contain a short description of the general characteristics of the writing observed in a manuscript as in the following example:

<msWriting>
<p>Written in a <term>late caroline minuscule</term>; versals in a 
form of <term>rustic capitals</term>; although the marginal and 
interlinear gloss is written in varying shades of ink that are 
not those of the main text, text and gloss appear to have been 
copied during approximately the same time span.</p>
</msWriting>

Note the use of the <term> element to mark specific technical terms within the context of the <msWriting> element. Where several distinct hands have been identified, the cataloguer may simply specify the fact using the hands attribute, as in the following example:

<msWriting hands="2">
<p>The manuscript is written in two contemporary hands, otherwise
unknown, but clearly those of practised scribes.  Hand I writes
ff. 1r-22v and hand II ff. 23 and 24. Some scholars, notably
Verner Dahlerup and Hreinn Benediktsson, have argued for a third hand
on f. 24, but the evidence for this is insubstantial.</p>
</msWriting>

Alternatively, or in addition, where more specific information about one or more of the hands identified is to be recorded, the <handDesc> element should be used. Such hand descriptions may contain prose and may also bear particular attributes to facilitate retrieval as in the following example:

<handDesc><p>Written in insular phase II half-uncial
with interlinear Old English gloss in an Anglo-Saxon 
pointed minuscule.</p></handDesc>

The <locus> element discussed in section 2.2.3 References to manuscript locations may be used to specify exactly which parts of a manuscript are written by a given hand where this information is included within the hand description. Alternatively, the standard TEI <handShift> element may be used within the body of a transcription to point to a <handDesc> element. Note that this element replaces the existing TEI <hand> element, which has a more restricted scope of application.

2.6.2.3 Musical notation

Finally, where a manuscript contains music or similar non-verbal notation, the <musicNotation> element may be used to describe the notation employed, as in the following example:

<musicNotation>
<p>Neumes in campo aperto of the St. Gall type.</p>
</musicNotation>

2.6.3.1 Decoration

The <decoration> element may contain simply one or more paragraphs summarizing the overall nature of the descriptive features of the manuscript, as in the following example:

<decoration>
<p>The decoration comprises two
full page miniatures, perhaps added by the original
owner, or slightly later; the original major decoration
consists of twenty-three large miniatures, illustrating
the divisions of the Passion narrative and the start of
the major texts, and the major divisions of the Hours;
seventeen smaller miniatures, illustrating the suffrages
to saints; and seven historiated initials, illustrating
the pericopes and major prayers.</p>
</decoration>

Alternatively, it may contain a series of more specific typed <decoNote> elements, each summarizing a particular aspect of the decoration present, for example the use of miniatures, initials (historiated or otherwise), borders, diagrams, etc., as in the following example:

<decoration>
<decoNote type="miniature" technique="painted" figurative="yes">
<p>One full-page miniature, facing the beginning of the first Penitential Psalm.</p></decoNote> 
<decoNote type="initial" technique="painted" figurative="yes">
<p>One seven-line historiated initial, commencing the first Penitential Psalm.</p>
</decoNote>
<decoNote type="initial" technique="painted" figurative="no">
<p>Six four-line decorated initials, commencing the second through the 
seventh Penitential Psalm.</p></decoNote>
<decoNote type="initial" technique="pen-flourished" figurative="no">
<p>Some three hundred two-line versal initials with pen-flourishes, 
commencing the psalm verses.</p></decoNote>
<decoNote type="border" technique="painted" figurative="no">
<p>Four-sided border decoration surrounding the miniatures and 
three-sided border decoration accompanying the historiated and 
decorated initals.</p></decoNote></decoration>

Where more exact indexing of the decorative content of a manuscript is required, the standard TEI elements <term> or <index> may be used within the prose description to supply or delimit appropriate iconographic terms, as in the following example:

<decoration>
<decoNote type="miniatures">
<p>Fourteen large miniatures with arched
tops, above five lines of text:
<list>
<item><locus>fol. 14r</locus>Pericopes. <term>St. John writing on
Patmos</term>, with the Eagle holding his ink-pot and pen-case;
some flaking of pigment, especially in the sky</item>
<item><locus>fol. 26r</locus>Hours of the Virgin, Matins.
<term>Annunciation</term>; Gabriel and the Dove to the
right</item>
<item><locus>fol. 60r</locus>Prime. <term>Nativity</term>; the
<term>Virgin and Joseph adoring the Child</term></item>
<item><locus>fol. 66r</locus>Terce. <term>Annunciation to the
Shepherds</term>, one with <term>bagpipes</term></item>
<!-- ... -->
</list></p>
</decoNote>
</decoration>

2.6.3.2 Binding

The <bindingDesc> element contains a description of the state of the present and former bindings of a manuscript, including information about its material, any distinctive marks, and provenance information. This may be given as a series of paragraphs, if only one binding is being described, or as a series of distinct <binding> elements, each describing a distinct binding, where these are separately described. For example:

<bindingDesc>
<p>Sewing not visible; tightly rebound over
19th-cent. pasteboards, reusing panels of 16th-cent. brown leather with
gilt tooling &agrave; la fanfare, Paris c. 1580-90, the centre of each
cover inlaid with a 17th-cent. oval medallion of red morocco tooled in
gilt (perhaps replacing the identifying mark of a previous owner); the
spine similarly tooled, without raised bands or title-piece; coloured
endbands; the edges of the leaves and boards gilt.Boxed.</p>
</bindingDesc>

Within a binding description, the element <decoNote> is available, as an alternative to <p>, for paragraphs dealing exclusively with information about decorative features of a binding, as in the following example:

<binding>Bound, s. XVIII (?), in 
<material>diced russia leather</material>
retaining most of the original 15th century 
metal ornaments (but with some replacements) 
as well as the heavy wooden boards; 
<decoNote>on each cover: alternating circular stamps of the 
Holy Monogram, a sunburst, and a flower;</decoNote> 
<decoNote>on the cornerpieces, one of which is missing,
a rectangular stamp of the Agnus Dei;</decoNote> 
rebacked during the 19th (?) century.
</binding>

2.6.4.1 Foliation

The <foliation> element describes one or more pagination schemes applied to the manuscript. It should be used to indicate the scheme of page numbers, folio numbers or column numbers provided in the manuscript, as in the following examples:

<foliation>
<p>Folio numbers were added by &amp;Aacute;rni Magn&amp;uacurte;sson 
ca. <date>1720-1730</date> with brown ink in the upper right corner 
of all recto-pages.</p></foliation>

<foliation><p>Page numbers have been written with pen in the late 
19th century on top of every ten recto-pages, to the right: 11, 
21, 31, etc. Later, folio numbers have been written between 
columns on top of every recto-page, in pencil.</p></foliation> 

It may also include discussion of such features as original signatures or catchwords, where relevant, as in the following example:

<foliation>
<p>Quire and leaf signatures in letters, [b]-v, and roman
numerals; those in quires 10 (1) and 17 (s) in red ink and different
from others; every third quire also signed with red crayon in arabic
numerals in the center lower margin of the first leaf recto: "2" for
quire 4 (f. 19), "3" for quire 7 (f. 43); "4," barely visible, for
quire 10 (f. 65), "5," in a later hand, for quire 13 (f. 89), "6," in
a later hand, for quire 16 (f. 113).</p>
</foliation>

2.6.4.2 Additions and marginalia

The <additions> element is used to record and discuss any written or drawn additional text found in a manuscript, such as marginalia, scribblings, etc. which the cataloguer considers of interest or importance. Such topics may also be discussed or referenced elsewhere in a description, for example in the <history> element where the marginalia provide evidence of ownership, but the <additions> element is particularly useful for this purpose.

<additions>

contains a description of any significant additions found within a manuscript, such as marginalia or other annotations.

Here are some examples of the use of this element

<additions><p>In most parts of the codex the text has been quite
extensively corrected in a contemporary hand from the manuscript GKS
3270 4to.</p>
</additions>

<additions>
<p>The text of this manuscript is not interpolated with
sentences from Royal decrees promulgated in 1294, 1305 and 1314. In
the margins, however, another somewhat later scribe has added the
relevant paragraphs of these decrees, see pp. 8, 24, 44, 47
etc.</p>
<p>As a humorous gesture the scribe in one opening(?) of the
manuscript, pp. 36 and 37, has prolonged the lower stems of one letter
f and five letters  &amp;thorn; and has them drizzle down the
margin.</p>
</addition>

2.6.4.3 Condition

The <condition> element may be used to summarize the overall physical state of a manuscript, in particular where such information is not recorded elsewhere in the description. It should not however be used to describe changes or repairs to a manuscript; these are more appropriately described as a part of its custodial history.

<condition>
<p>The text begins and ends defective, and there are two lacunae toward
the end. What was originally the first leaf of the first quire,
numbered 1a, has been cut away, leaving a strip approximately 15 mm
wide; one to two letters, in some places on the verso up to four,
remain of each line.  The manuscript contains a large number of
erasures, possibly by the scribe, possibly by a later hand, but in any
case for the most part unfilled in; for example on f. 3ra, lines 15-6
there are two erasures, the first of perhaps 16 the second of six
characters, and four lines of text have been erased on f. 5vb
following l. 21.  In addition, there are several spaces that appear
never to have been filled in, e.g. f. 13vb, l. 24, where enough space
for about eight letters has been left blank by the scribe.
</p></condition>