1. The John Donne Society’s Digital Prose Project
Directions for Transcription Checking
Brent Nelson

2. The John Donne Society’s
Digital Prose Project
The task
To make the transcription (the text plus markup) reflect accurately and as fully as possible what you see on the exemplar (the facsimile image of the printed page).
Correct errors in the transcription
Identify and preserve, but correct, errors in the exemplar (that is, the original printing).

3. The John Donne Society’s
Digital Prose Project
Identifying and correcting errors
Need to understand and keep in mind where the transcription comes from
Need to distinguish between peculiarities of early modern orthography and typography vs. error

4. The John Donne Society’s
Digital Prose Project
Where the transcription comes from: the EEBO image

5. The John Donne Society’s
Digital Prose Project
Where the transcription is going: our image

6. The John Donne Society’s
Digital Prose Project
Early modern orthography and typography (especially letter forms) vs. error
For example:
long vs. short “s”

7. The John Donne Society’s
Digital Prose Project
Early modern orthography and typography (especially letter forms) vs. error
For example:
Spelling and letter forms: u/v; i/j

8. The John Donne Society’s
Digital Prose Project
Early modern orthography and typography (especially letter forms) vs. error
For example:
Italic and regular Roman letters

9. The John Donne Society’s
Digital Prose Project
Early modern orthography and typography (especially letter forms) vs. error
For example:
Other peculiar forms

10. The John Donne Society’s
Digital Prose Project
Early modern orthography and typography (especially letter forms) vs. error
For example:
vowel ligatures and special characters

11. The John Donne Society’s
Digital Prose Project
Some basics of XML
Semantics vs. Format
The basic pieces:
Schema: TEI (Text Encoding Initiative)
Elements <name type="person">Donne</name>
Attributes <name type="person">Donne</name>[expressed
Values <name type="person">Donne</name>
Text <name type="person">Donne</name>
There can be multiple attributes in an element
<foreign xml:lang="la" rend="italic">nosce te ipsum</foreign>
Elements can be nested
<hi rend="italic">The maxim <foreign xml:lang="la">nosce te ipsum</foreign> </hi>
See directions for checking transcriptions here.

12. The John Donne Society’s
Digital Prose Project
Workflow
Add markup for language and marginal note placement
Proof the transcription, paying particular attention to italic text, Latin text, and marginalia
Add new formwork

13. The John Donne Society’s
Digital Prose Project
Workflow
Add markup for language and marginal note placement
Search for “italic” to identify all instances of <hi rend="italic">
Use ctrl-f, but also the naked eye
Change <hi rend="italic">sub peccato</hi> to <foreign xml:lang="la" rend="italic">sub peccato</foreign>
Note: if all the italicised text is Latin, information can be included inside the <foreign> element. If only some of the italicized text is Latin, then the <foreign> element has to be nested inside the <hi> element.
Add attributes place="margin-right" and place="margin-left" to the <note> elements. Also, add line breaks if they are missing.

14. The John Donne Society’s
Digital Prose Project
Workflow
Proof the transcription
Pay particular attention to italic text, Latin text, and marginalia (note that often italics and line breaks often are missing here).
Look especially for ligatures that are not presented as ligatures (e.g. “ae” instead of &#x00E6: which will be processed into æ) and other special characters.

15. The John Donne Society’s
Digital Prose Project
Workflow
Add new formwork
Page number, running title, and sermon number at the top
RECTO:
<fw type="running" place="tl">S<hi rend="small-caps">erm</hi>. X.</fw> <fw type="running" place="tm"><hi rend="italic">On the</hi> P<hi rend="small-caps">urification</hi>.</fw> <fw type="pageNum" place="tr">97</fw>
VERSO:
<fw type="pageNum" place="tl">98</fw> <fw type="running" place="tm"><hi rend="italic">On the</hi> P<hi rend="small-caps">urification</hi>.</fw> <fw type="running" place="tr">S<hi rend="small-caps">erm</hi>. X.</fw>

16. The John Donne Society’s
Digital Prose Project
Workflow
Add new formwork
Signature and catchword at the bottom
RECTO:
<fw type="sig" rend="normal" place="bm" n="A">A</fw> <fw type="catch" rend="normal" place="br">favour</fw>
VERSO:
<fw type="sig" rend="normal" place="bm" n="Av"></fw> <fw type="catch" rend="normal" place="br">favour</fw>

17. The John Donne Society’s
Digital Prose Project
Errors and convention; silent corrections and reported corrections
LXXX sermons image 265
Note “then” vs. “than” in line 21
But, “of” vs “off” in line 36
Splitting of notes, line 38
With Latin word separation (line 60): ask or <unclear>
See also Latin in last line and marginalia “Hieron”

18. The John Donne Society’s
Digital Prose Project
Punctuation in relation to closing of elements
Comma: always outside
<foreign xml:lang="la" rend="italic">Antiquus Dierum</foreign>,
Period: always outside
<foreign xml:lang="la" rend="italic">Antiquus Dierum</foreign>.
Colon: usually inside
<foreign xml:lang="la" rend="italic">Antiquus Dierum:</foreign>
Semi-colon: usually outside, but not always—check
<foreign xml:lang="la" rend="italic">Antiquus Dierum</foreign>;

19. The John Donne Society’s
Digital Prose Project
Good practise
Save often
Preview often