Final Report Summary - EUROCORR (The European correspondence to Jacob Burckhardt)
The publication of the correspondance to Jacob Burckhardt (Burckhardtsource.org) contributes to greater knowledge of European cultural history of the nineteenth century, casting a new light not only on the creation of art history as a discipline, on important political events, but also on the criteria for the identification and conservation of works of art. Not only. This correspondence makes known the work of art historians who today are little studied and known, and that in the second half of the nineteenth century have played an important role in the creation of art galleries and inventories of works of art.
Burckhardtsource.org is the definitive URL of the platform created to host a new critical edition of the letters written by correspondents to Jacob Burckhardt. The editing process is being carried out using the Muruca semantic digital library framework.
The back-end of the platform has been designed to reflect the workflow of the editorial process, including the insertion and publication of facsimiles of original documents, the transcription of manuscripts, their codification in XML-TEI, and the insertion of metadata regarding each letter. The Muruca framework has been modified during the course of the project as the requirements of the philological researchers emerge more clearly. The results are stored at and accessible from the front-end of the platform.
In order to render the editing process as transparent as possible and ensure that it can be shared with colleagues working on similar projects, the encoding compendium and the workflow chart can be downloaded free of charge from our website.
The digital library Burckhardtsource.org (European Correspondence to Jacob Burckhardt) contains images of manuscripts collected by the research team from European libraries and archives (about 1000 letters). For each letter a scanned image of the original document has been prepared. To maximize their legibility, they are being acquired using a pyramid process and dedicated software for the creation of high-resolution image files for the web (http://iipimage.sourceforge.net/) and a zoom function is provided.
This process allows the user to visualize both the manuscript and the editing it has undergone, and in the long term will contribute to the conservation and protection of the original documents. Using the images widget, images of the manuscript can be accessed and enlarged, thus allowing scholars to verify the accuracy of transcriptions and to study their contents.
Each document has been tagged with a slug indicating the name of the sender and the date on which the letter was written. Letters can be downloaded and the relative URLs saved as permalinks. By clicking on the metadata widget, the researcher can open a window and access the metadata associated with each letter, some of which (e.g. the geographic information) is stored in a Linked Data Cloud. The metadata provides the physical characteristics of the document: a description of the envelope, the dimensions of the sheet, and the type of paper, the writing instrument and the type of ink used. In addition, the place where the letter was written, the place from which it was sent, and its exact destination are provided, with geographical references so that they can be easily identified on a map. Any change in the name or nationality of a place cited is documented by a link to a relevant external site. The metadata furthermore indicates where the original manuscript is conserved, and bibliographic references to any published material. Access to this data will allow scholars to reconstruct in detail the position of a particular letter in the network of Burckhardt’s correspondence, to determine whether it constitutes the reply to a letter written by Burckhardt himself, and if a reply by Burckhardt to the letter in question exists. Finally, an abstract summarizing the contents of the letter is provided.
Diplomatic transcriptions of the letters prepared in accordance with the latest criteria in literary criticism are also available on the platform. Given the nature of the text, this edition will propose a definitive version of each letter. Critical analysis provided separately by the research team will illustrate the decisions taken during the process of editing the letters, thus allowing access to the genesis of each letter.
The transcription widget permits the user to view the transcription, which has been codified in accordance with XML-TEI P5 standards.
To summarize, the front-end of the platform consists of four main sections:
1. Digitalized images of the manuscripts.
2. The published edition of the letters.
3. Critical commentary.
4. Metadata.
The platform contains:
- 600 facsimiles of the manuscripts;
- about 1000 letters transcriptions;
- 600 XML-TEI encoded transcriptions
- more than 300 semantically annotated letters
The most innovative aspect of this digital edition is the fact that all of the letters are interconnected between the four sections of the platform – images, texts, critical commentary and metadata. Furthermore, this edition extends beyond the collection, classification and cataloguing of the data, as external access has been made completely open through the use of semantic web technology.
Using the option shortener url, the user can also save a search history and access it at a later time. Clicking on the designated icon, the relevant page in the digital library will open and display the saved window, analogous to the bookmarking of pages in books, notebooks and notes on one’s desk so that one may return to them later.
The correspondence to Burckhardt can be navigated along six different pathways:
a. by year
b. by sender
c. by the place from which the letter was sent
d. by searching the contents of the text using keywords
e. by a timeline showing the letters that were sent during a specific period, which can then be selected and examined
f. by means of a map + timeline showing the place of origin of letters written over a specific arc of time.
In the annotation were two distinct phases: identification of the object (person, quote, art work etc ...) then identification of resource (the text, an image or the fragment an image). Given that most resources today (documents, images and different types of content) are available on the web – a fact that is rapidly extending to the Humanities and the Social Sciences, where researchers are making the transition from analog to digital – the possibility of annotating web resources directly and sharing research with others is becoming of primary importance.
The semantic annotation of the contents of Burckhardtsource.org is being carried out using the Pundit software package, which is designed to identify persons, places, dates, citations, bibliographic sources, and related works of art. These categories have been brought together to form the ontology of the Digital Library, which can be shared with other projects. Notwithstanding some inherent problems, the advantages of using a semantic system of annotation lies not only in the amount of information it can convey and the fact that this information can be gathered and stored in a structured manner, but above all in the fact that the concepts have been codified in semantic terms and therefore can be shared and are fully inter-operational with the contents of other platforms.
A lexicon of place names and persons’ names (the correspondents and other persons cited in the letters) has been linked to the database of Linked Data Freebase.com. In this way, other scholars can make direct use of the material gathered and processed by the EUROCORR research team, whose original aim was to produce a critical edition of the correspondence to Burckhardt, but who in the process have enriched linked data existing databases and created novel views of semantically structured research data collected by EUROCORR through innovative research tools such as Pundit.
From May 2013 the research team has begun digitalizing the correspondence written by Jacob Burckhardt to his correspondents (published in Jacob Burckhardt: Briefe. Vollständige und kritische Ausgabe mit Benützung des handschriftlichen Nachlasses bearbeitet von Max Burckhardt, 11 vols., Basel: Benno Schwabe & Co, 1949-1994). First, identifying data and metadata for each letter will be inserted into the Burckhardtsource.org platform. The corpus of letters will then be published on the website.
This undertaking extends beyond the original scope of the EUROCORR project. Anyway, by placing at the disposition of scholars the entire correspondence of Burckhardt thanks to the use of semantic web technologies (Linked Data) the added value for the whole scholarly community will be enormous. The entire network of Burckhardt’s correspondence will be then browsable on the web.
Burckhardtsource.org is the definitive URL of the platform created to host a new critical edition of the letters written by correspondents to Jacob Burckhardt. The editing process is being carried out using the Muruca semantic digital library framework.
The back-end of the platform has been designed to reflect the workflow of the editorial process, including the insertion and publication of facsimiles of original documents, the transcription of manuscripts, their codification in XML-TEI, and the insertion of metadata regarding each letter. The Muruca framework has been modified during the course of the project as the requirements of the philological researchers emerge more clearly. The results are stored at and accessible from the front-end of the platform.
In order to render the editing process as transparent as possible and ensure that it can be shared with colleagues working on similar projects, the encoding compendium and the workflow chart can be downloaded free of charge from our website.
The digital library Burckhardtsource.org (European Correspondence to Jacob Burckhardt) contains images of manuscripts collected by the research team from European libraries and archives (about 1000 letters). For each letter a scanned image of the original document has been prepared. To maximize their legibility, they are being acquired using a pyramid process and dedicated software for the creation of high-resolution image files for the web (http://iipimage.sourceforge.net/) and a zoom function is provided.
This process allows the user to visualize both the manuscript and the editing it has undergone, and in the long term will contribute to the conservation and protection of the original documents. Using the images widget, images of the manuscript can be accessed and enlarged, thus allowing scholars to verify the accuracy of transcriptions and to study their contents.
Each document has been tagged with a slug indicating the name of the sender and the date on which the letter was written. Letters can be downloaded and the relative URLs saved as permalinks. By clicking on the metadata widget, the researcher can open a window and access the metadata associated with each letter, some of which (e.g. the geographic information) is stored in a Linked Data Cloud. The metadata provides the physical characteristics of the document: a description of the envelope, the dimensions of the sheet, and the type of paper, the writing instrument and the type of ink used. In addition, the place where the letter was written, the place from which it was sent, and its exact destination are provided, with geographical references so that they can be easily identified on a map. Any change in the name or nationality of a place cited is documented by a link to a relevant external site. The metadata furthermore indicates where the original manuscript is conserved, and bibliographic references to any published material. Access to this data will allow scholars to reconstruct in detail the position of a particular letter in the network of Burckhardt’s correspondence, to determine whether it constitutes the reply to a letter written by Burckhardt himself, and if a reply by Burckhardt to the letter in question exists. Finally, an abstract summarizing the contents of the letter is provided.
Diplomatic transcriptions of the letters prepared in accordance with the latest criteria in literary criticism are also available on the platform. Given the nature of the text, this edition will propose a definitive version of each letter. Critical analysis provided separately by the research team will illustrate the decisions taken during the process of editing the letters, thus allowing access to the genesis of each letter.
The transcription widget permits the user to view the transcription, which has been codified in accordance with XML-TEI P5 standards.
To summarize, the front-end of the platform consists of four main sections:
1. Digitalized images of the manuscripts.
2. The published edition of the letters.
3. Critical commentary.
4. Metadata.
The platform contains:
- 600 facsimiles of the manuscripts;
- about 1000 letters transcriptions;
- 600 XML-TEI encoded transcriptions
- more than 300 semantically annotated letters
The most innovative aspect of this digital edition is the fact that all of the letters are interconnected between the four sections of the platform – images, texts, critical commentary and metadata. Furthermore, this edition extends beyond the collection, classification and cataloguing of the data, as external access has been made completely open through the use of semantic web technology.
Using the option shortener url, the user can also save a search history and access it at a later time. Clicking on the designated icon, the relevant page in the digital library will open and display the saved window, analogous to the bookmarking of pages in books, notebooks and notes on one’s desk so that one may return to them later.
The correspondence to Burckhardt can be navigated along six different pathways:
a. by year
b. by sender
c. by the place from which the letter was sent
d. by searching the contents of the text using keywords
e. by a timeline showing the letters that were sent during a specific period, which can then be selected and examined
f. by means of a map + timeline showing the place of origin of letters written over a specific arc of time.
In the annotation were two distinct phases: identification of the object (person, quote, art work etc ...) then identification of resource (the text, an image or the fragment an image). Given that most resources today (documents, images and different types of content) are available on the web – a fact that is rapidly extending to the Humanities and the Social Sciences, where researchers are making the transition from analog to digital – the possibility of annotating web resources directly and sharing research with others is becoming of primary importance.
The semantic annotation of the contents of Burckhardtsource.org is being carried out using the Pundit software package, which is designed to identify persons, places, dates, citations, bibliographic sources, and related works of art. These categories have been brought together to form the ontology of the Digital Library, which can be shared with other projects. Notwithstanding some inherent problems, the advantages of using a semantic system of annotation lies not only in the amount of information it can convey and the fact that this information can be gathered and stored in a structured manner, but above all in the fact that the concepts have been codified in semantic terms and therefore can be shared and are fully inter-operational with the contents of other platforms.
A lexicon of place names and persons’ names (the correspondents and other persons cited in the letters) has been linked to the database of Linked Data Freebase.com. In this way, other scholars can make direct use of the material gathered and processed by the EUROCORR research team, whose original aim was to produce a critical edition of the correspondence to Burckhardt, but who in the process have enriched linked data existing databases and created novel views of semantically structured research data collected by EUROCORR through innovative research tools such as Pundit.
From May 2013 the research team has begun digitalizing the correspondence written by Jacob Burckhardt to his correspondents (published in Jacob Burckhardt: Briefe. Vollständige und kritische Ausgabe mit Benützung des handschriftlichen Nachlasses bearbeitet von Max Burckhardt, 11 vols., Basel: Benno Schwabe & Co, 1949-1994). First, identifying data and metadata for each letter will be inserted into the Burckhardtsource.org platform. The corpus of letters will then be published on the website.
This undertaking extends beyond the original scope of the EUROCORR project. Anyway, by placing at the disposition of scholars the entire correspondence of Burckhardt thanks to the use of semantic web technologies (Linked Data) the added value for the whole scholarly community will be enormous. The entire network of Burckhardt’s correspondence will be then browsable on the web.