VWWP--Encoding the Texts

Front Matter

The texts we'll be encoding will generally consist of the following elements:

Front Matter: Preface, Table of Contents, Dedication, etc.
Body of the Text: the poems, plays and other materials included in the main body.
Back Matter: Appendices, Indices, Notes, or other materials following the main body.

The front and back matter are normally the most complicated sections--once you get past those, the text body itself will seem generally straightforward. The overall structure of a typical document looks like this:
<TEI.2>
<teiHeader>
[Source and processing information goes here--a template is available.]
</teiHeader>
<front>
[Title page, preface, etc goes here]
</front>
<body>
[Main body of the text goes here]
</body>
<back>
[Appendices, etc goes here]
</back>
</text>
</TEI.2>

Front Matter

This section contains any material that precedes the work proper, such as table of contents or a preface. Generally, the first element of the front matter is the title page. A transcription of the title page should be included, following these guidelines.

Title Page

<titlePage>:marks off the title page of a given text
<docTitle>: contains the title itself, as well as its subsections
<titlePart>: marks a particular subsection of the title, which may be given the following attributes:
- type="main" : the main title of the work
- type="sub" : a subtitle of the work
- type="alt" : alternative title of the work
- type="desc" : descriptive paraphrase of the work included in the title
<byline>: contains the primary statement of responsibility given for a work on its title page, including such elements as:
- the words "by" or "edited by" (if present)
- <docAuthor>: a transcription of the author's or editor's names as it appears on the title page.
- <docImprint> : the imprint statement, which includes the place and date of publication and the publisher's name.
Examples of title pages:
<titlePage>
<docTitle>
<titlePart>Liberty Lyrics.</titlePart>
</docTitle>
<byLine>by<docAuthor>L.S. Bevington.</docAuthor>
</byLine>
<docImprint><pubPlace>London:</pubPlace>
<publisher>Printed and Published by
<name>James Tochatti</name>,
"Liberty" Press.</publisher>
</docImprint>
<docDate>1895.</docDate>
</titlePage>
<titlePage>
<docTitle>
<titlePart type="main">Is There a Text in This Class?</titlePart>
<titlePart type="sub">The Authority of Interpretive Communities</titlePart>
<docAuthor>Stanley Fish</docAuthor>
<docImprint>Harvard University Press
<pubPlace>Cambridge, Massachusetts</pubPlace>
<pubPlace>London, England</pubPlace>
</docImprint>
</titlePage>
Other material in the front matter--dedications, prefaces, etc.--will be tagged with unnumbered <div> tags, and use the type attribute.
- <div type="dedication"> a formal offering or dedication.
- <div type="frontis"> a pictorial frontispiece, possibly containing text.
- <div type="preface"> a forward or preface by the author, explaining the content, origin or purpose of the text.
- <div type="colophon"> statement appearing at the beginning of a book which describes the conditions of its physical production; it often includes the details of how many copies were printed.
- <div type="advertisement"> Publishers' advertisements
- <div type="contents"> a table of contents.

Tables of Contents

Tables of contents present a somewhat more complex structure, and should be encoded using <list>, <item> and <ref> tags. The page number, as it appears in the printed table of contents, will go between the <ref></ref> tags. The <ref> tag has an attribute "Target=" that refers to the page number where the poem begins. For this reference to work, each page break tag, <pb>, will have to include a corresponding "id=": <pb id="p1" n="1">. This id attribute is not necessary in works with no table of contents.

               Contents.
Upward.    .   .   .   .    .   .   .   1
January    .   .   .   .    .   .   .   4
Unto This Present  .   .    .   .   .   5

<div type="contents">
<list><head>Contents.</head>
<item>Upward <ref target="p1" rend="align(right)">1</ref></item>
<item>January <ref target="p4" rend="align(right)">4</ref></item>
<item>Unto This Present <ref target="p5" rend="align(right)">5</ref></item>
</list></div>

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Last updated: 14 July 1998
URL: http://www.indiana.edu/~letrs/vwwp/vwwp-front.html
Comments: letrs@indiana.edu