Additions and Varia

Additions

An "addition" is a neutral term to indicate that something is "later added" or secondary from the viewpoint of the cataloguer: it should never be used to mark a content, that presupposes another perspective.

Additions (or additiones) are very often written in a secondary hand, and they are later than the main text(s) of the manuscript. They mark the "secondary life" of the manuscript as the latter is used as a repository of documentary information, i.e. a true archive. These values are provided for the @type in the <desc> element.

<additions> must be used only for elements added later to the text! Therefore, they do not include subscriptions or supplications written at the same time as the main texts. See colophons, titles and supplications.

When describing an addition, please provide if possible:

  1. language;
  2. hand (by a recent/old hand, by the same hand as that of the main text, by the same hand as that of another addition, etc.); "in a secondary hand" should be avoided: it is obvious;
  3. ink (in recent ink, hardly legible because of the faded ink, etc.).
  4. readability (hardly readable, washed/scratched out etc.);
  5. whether the addition is rhymed.

When you cannot decide if the text is a main content or an addition, follow the criteria identified by Andrist in the COMSt book (p. 512) to identify strata. Additions would always be the so-called quaternary strata (independent content, not-independent material, autonomous writing project). A donation note which is an "added written element", being a small writing project without full material independence and preserving the integrity of its content, is an addition, and we encode it as such. If instead, a textual unit, being part of a primary writing project, is a copy of a donation note, this does not change the fact that it is an <msItem> in a <msPart> or <msDesc>.

The example of the Liber Aksumae compilation should be encoded as <msItem>s.

These additions are encoded in an <additions> element in <physDesc>, which will contain a <list> of additions. A general note on all additions can be added before <list> within a <note> element.

Each <item> will have a structure as follows:


                    <list>
                    <item xml:id="a1">
                        <locus target="#1r"></locus>
                        <desc type="OwnershipNote">Crude ownership note in pencil.</desc>
                        <q xml:lang="gez">ዘ<persName ref="PRS11944GabraM" role="owner"><roleName type="title">አባ፡</roleName> ገብረ፡ ማርያም፡</persName></q>
                    </item>
                    </list>
                

Example 1

The @xml:id of additions will use "a" and a consecutive number.

If the language of the addition is known but no excerpt is copied, use an empty <q> as in the following example from BLAdd16187 .


                    <q xml:lang="am"></q>
                

Example 2

You can specify the type of addition in the <desc> element, using one of the values provided for the @type.

If the addition is written in the margin or on a guard leaf, add to <item> also a @rend with value marginal or guardLeaf.

If the type of document is known, then there should be a value in the @type of the element <desc>. Additionally, if the content is identifiable with a Textual or Narrative Unit, this can be specified, adding <title> element with a @ref in <desc>.

More examples are provided in the page about documents. The following example, from London, British Library, BL Oriental 494 shows also how you can assert an alternative value for this identification.


                  <item xml:id="a6">
                    <locus target="#48r"></locus>
                      <desc type="GuestText">A piece entitled <title ref="NAR0012temple">ምሳሌ ፡ ቤተ ፡ መቅደስ ፡</title> or <title ref="NAR0012temple">Comparison of the
                      Temple</title>, beginning
                      ...
                      </desc>
                  </item>
                

Example 3

As clarified also in the page about documents, although sometimes the value of @type might be the same as the corresponding Narrative Unit, there is no requirement to put either or both, it is up to the encoder to decide what to do.

Selecting a value from the list of defined once for <desc> is already a grouping label option which can be assigned, eventually, for example, if starting from a piece of catalogue information, without any knowledge of the text.

If a work with its work ID is added later to a manuscript, it will be added as an addition specified with the type "GuestText" having its work ID in the description:


                    <item xml:id="a10">
                        <locus from="115v"></locus>
                        <desc type="GuestText">
                            <title type="Complete" ref="LIT3957SalotaB">ጸሎተ፡ ቡራኬ፡ ዘቅዱስ፡ ባስልዮስ።</title>
                        </desc>
                    </item>
                

Example 4

You can add texts in more than one language. For example, below, in Egypt, Dayr as-Suryān, DS Ethiop. 13 the title was added in two languages.


<item xml:id="e6">
  <locus target="#1r"></locus>
  <desc>Arabic and English titles written in pencil.</desc>
  <q xml:lang="ar">صلوات</q>
  <q xml:lang="en">song</q>
  </item>

Example 5

You may have additions which are rather long. You can use <seg> with @part to let the reader know what part you are copying in the catalogue record.


                    <item xml:id="a6">
                        <locus from="75rb" to="76ra"></locus>
                        <desc type="GuestText">
                            <title ref="LIT4859Litany"></title>
                        </desc>
                        <q xml:lang="gez">
                            <seg part="I">ወካእበ፡ ናስተበቈኦ፡ ለአምላከ፡ ምሕረት፡ 
                                ዘረዳእከ፡ ለአብርሃም፡ አመ፡ ይቀት፡ ሎሙ፡ ለነገስት፡ 
                                ዘአድሐንኮ፡ ለይስሐቅ፡ እምነ፡ መጥባሕት፡ ዘመራሕኮ፡ 
                                ለያዕቆብ፡ በውስተ፡ መንገድ፡</seg>
                            <gap reason="ellipsis" resp="DN"></gap>
                            <seg part="F">ፈኑ፡ እማዴ፡ ሰማይ፡ ወምድር፡ ባርክ፡ 
                                ማህበረነ፡ በኵሉ፡ ጊዜ፡ ወበኩሉ፡ ሰአት፡ በአሐዱ፡ 
                                ወልድከ፡ ዘቦቱ፡ ለከ፡ ምስሌሁ፡</seg>
                        </q>
                    </item>
                

Example 6

If you are providing a translation of the added text, you can use the same method, but add @type with value translation to the translation <q>.

The same you can do if there is a documentary text which you want to identify. When creating the record a keyword should then be used to put the text in its correct position as non-literary. We have in the category of keywords for Subjects, for example, "Other" but also "Legal Document". If a given textual unit is, according to the definition in the schema, a Donation Note or a Letter, you can add that keyword to the work record.

If the text is a primary strata and we happen to have also manuscripts where this text is an addition, then you could add a <relation> (e.g. with saws:isCopyOf for @name) which connects the <msItem> with the addition in question.

In additions as anywhere in the manuscript description, a <handNote> should be created for each identifiable hand, whether it can be described from available pictures of the manuscript or whether the catalogue provides sufficient information for assigning certain additions to individual hands. If no such information is available, no <handNote> should be created, as it cannot always be excluded that the addition is written in the hand of the main text.

Varia

Under Varia or extra, we list the following phenomena, which simply concern the copying process or are more trivial than additiones:

  1. the title of the work written on the front board or cover, sometimes with blue or black paint or ink;
  2. the midpoint in the "Psalms of David" (in Ps. 77, after the word በደመና፡);
  3. the presence of stamps of the owning repository;
  4. part of the line is taken up or taken down (e.g., in the Psalters);
  5. glosses written in the margins;
  6. the so-called tamallas-sign, in the shape of a cross (as +) or two perpendicular lines (as ┴ or├), indicating the place where the omissions (written in the upper or lower margin) belong;
  7. omitted letters, words, lines or passages inserted interlineally, in the margins, at the beginning/end of the line ;
  8. erasures;
  9. corrections written over erasures, in the main hand or in a later recent hand;
  10. erasures marked with thin black and red lines;
  11. corrections immediately indicated by the scribe through thin series of dashes above and below the letters or the words;
  12. spaces for rubricated names left unfilled;
  13. unfilled spaces marked with thin black lines;
  14. cues for the rubricator written in the margin or in the interocolumn (e.g., small digits);
  15. erased names or names secondarily written over erased names (typically in the supplication formulas);
  16. the scribe reduced the size of his handwriting to accommodate the end of the line;
  17. the scribe used compressed script ("compressed" means two lines in a space originally meant for one single line), often to accommodate lines written over erasure;
  18. monthly or daily readings are usually indicated by writing the names of the months and weekdays in the upper margin of the folio, sometimes within frames;
  19. pen trials, notes crudely written in pencil or pen;
  20. scribbles and doodles.

Please note that these phenomena should only be encoded under Varia if the text in which they occur is not transcribed. I.e. if space for rubrications in left unfilled in incipits, and these incipits are transcribed in the manuscript description, the unfilled spaces should be encoded properly there and the information does not need to be repeated under Varia.

See also Text Encoding.

Information provided in the catalogue which would ideally be marked-up directly in a transcribed text, such as the names of owners or patrons mentioned in supplications or elsewhere, can also be recorded in Varia if the textual context is not provided by the catalogue:


                        <item xml:id="e1">
                            <locus target="#1r"></locus>
                            <desc>The owner was <persName ref="PRS12179BatraG" role="owner"></persName>.</desc>
                            <q xml:lang="gez"></q>
                        </item>
                    

Example 7

The @xml:id of varia will use "e" and a consecutive number:


                            <item xml:id="e2">
                                <desc>The text was frequently corrected, many words were erased or restored
                                    by <ref target="#h2"></ref>.</desc>
                            </item>
                        

Example 8

Additions and varia in composite manuscripts

When describing a composite manuscript, it is important to distinguish between additions and varia belonging to a specific codicological unit (e.g. glosses, finding aids, or marginal commentary added to the main text, or guest texts and notes added on the blank leaves formerly at the end of the production unit, even if these have now been bound into a larger codex, ownership records belonging to a distinct part, etc.), those belonging to the entire composite manuscript (e.g. library stamps, purchase records of the entire manuscript, etc), and those we cannot be sure about.

Additional paratexts that can be clearly associated with a specific codicological unit should be encoded in the <physDesc> of the relevant <msPart>. All other additions should be listed at the upper level of description, within the main <physDesc> section, even if their <locus> presently falls within one or the other <msPart>.

Accompanying material

The circumstance may arise where material not originally part of a manuscript is bound into or otherwise kept with a manuscript. In some cases this material would best be treated in a separate <msPart> element. There are, however, cases where the additional matter is not self-evidently a distinct manuscript: it might, for example, be a set of notes by a later scholar, or a file of correspondence relating to the manuscript. The <accMat> element is provided as a holder for this kind of information. See also https://tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/MS.html#msadac


                    <accMat> Loose <material key="paper">paper</material> slip with monogram of William Simpson</accMat>
                

Example 9

This page is referred to in the following pages

Revisions of this page

  • Pietro Maria Liuzzo on 2018-04-30: first version of guidelines from Wiki
  • Pietro Maria Liuzzo on 2018-04-24: stub of page
  • Dorothea Reule on 2018-05-16: Edited and split from manuscript contents page
  • Dorothea Reule on 2018-05-23: Added paragraph on handNotes
  • Pietro Maria Liuzzo on 2018-06-18: Added summary of Issue 917
  • Dorothea Reule on 2018-08-03: Added encoding of owners in varia