persons with a role

The titles of persons, such as ʾabbā, wayzaro, makʷannǝn etc., should be encoded with <roleName type="title">↗ at the place in the texts where they occur. To be reasonably retrievable, <roleName>↗ always has to be encoded within <persName>↗. However, because <roleName>↗ can also be used alone, you will have to be careful, the schema cannot help here. So, when encoding names of persons, which might include the name of a role they have covered, use of <roleName>↗ inside <persName>↗ to encode the role associated with that person in that text.

It is not necessary to mark up <roleName>↗s in descriptive text added by us: What interests us are the actual attestations of role names in Ethiopic texts.

an office or role as such

There are also names of offices, where no exact person is indicated, as in the Edict of King Galāwdewos:

    <ab>ወለተሳየጦሂ፡ እምደቂቀ፡ ዐረብ፡ እንዘ፡ የአምር፡ ከመ፡ ውእቱ፡ ክርስቲያናዊ፡ ይንሥእዎ፡
    ኵሎ፡ ንዋዮ። ኵሉ፡ <roleName type="office">አዛዢ።</roleName>
    አው፡ <roleName type="office">ፈታሕት፡</roleName> አው፡ <roleName type="office">መኮንን፡</roleName> አው፡
    <roleName type="office">ስዩመ፡</roleName> ሀገረ፡ ዘኢይፈትሕ፡ በዘ፡ አዘዝነ፡ ቦቱ፡
    ይትቀተል፡ ዘእንበለ፡ ምሕረት፡ ወይትበርበር፡ ኵሉ፡ ንዋዩ፡ ወይኩን፡ ውጉዘ፡ በአፈ፡
    አብ፡ ወወልድ፡ ወመንፈስ፡ ቅዱስ፡ ወበአፈ፡ ኵሎሙ፡ አበው፡ ዘተወክፈቶሙ፡ ቤተ ክርስቲያን። </ab>
  

If looking at an unidentified officer named only via his role in a text, also use a <roleName>↗ alone. The visualization should pull up a list of parallel marked-up texts and might help you to identify the person and consequently mark it up.

You can use <roleName>↗ also in other places in the encoding, like in titles or notes or paragraphs, especially if you think that it would be relevant. For example, in the following manuscript description, we know the title of a work about some offices, of which we have no transcription.

  <msItem xml:id="ms_i1.3.1">
<title type="complete">
Two statutes on the
<roleName type="office">bǝḥtwaddad</roleName>
and the
<roleName type="office">blātten getā</roleName>
</title>
<textLang mainLang="gez"></textLang>
</msItem>

roleName and role

The name of the person can be typed in the <persName>↗, or, if avoiding typing it is preferable, the <persName>↗ element with the same ID can be repeated immediately after the first <persName>↗ which contains <roleName>↗. The following examples contain marked-up <roleName>↗s in descriptive text for illustrative purposes, where it would not be necessary to mark the <roleName>↗ up.

It lists the books belonging to <persName ref="PRS10796Tasfo"><roleName type="title">ʾabbā</roleName></persName><persName ref="PRS10796Tasfo"></persName>

and

It lists the books belonging to <persName ref="PRS10796Tasfo"><roleName type="title">ʾabbā</roleName> Tasfo</persName>

will both be visualized as: It lists the books belonging to ʾabbā Tasfo.

Therefore, if only the title encoded should be visualized (without the name of the person it refers to), it should be marked up in the following way:

he was also appointed as <persName ref="PRS5309hesanMo"><roleName type="title">qāla nǝguś</roleName></persName> of King <persName ref="PRS2334BaedaM">Baʾǝda Māryām I</persName>

The use of <roleName>↗ has to be separated from the use of @role. The first is used to mark up a concrete title mentioned in a text, the second specifies the role the person has regarding the record in which it is mentioned. This applies for instance to scribes or owners of manuscripts.

If possible, persNames should take a @role where relevant in the description, and then don't need to be listed again in <listPers>↗:

<item xml:id="e1">
<locus target="#60v #143r #144r #152v #167v #171r #173r #189v #192r #234r #255r"></locus>
<desc>The names of the owner <persName role="owner" ref="PRS11297ZenaG"></persName> and his wife <persName ref="PRS11298SeyonM"></persName> are mentioned several times.</desc>
</item>

If there is no sensible place within the description, then the information on the role can also be encoded in <listPers>↗ in <particDesc>↗.