TEI Header (Mondrian)

The teiHeader

The <teiHeader> contains the letter's or manuscript's metadata. In an earlier stage of the project we used encoding guidelines for the header derived from the DALF project. We switched to a more modern encoding that uses the <correspDesc> element. The elements of the teiHeader that we use are the:

• fileDesc
• profileDesc
• revisionDesc

This looks as follows:

<teiHeader>
  <fileDesc>
    ...
  </fileDesc>
  <profileDesc>
    ...
  </profileDesc>
  <revisionDesc>
    ...
  </revisionDesc>
<teiHeader>

The fileDesc

A typical fileDersc will contain a fileStmt, a publicationStmt and sourceDesc. The sourceDesc will contain a msDesc (manuscript description) that contains an msIdentifier detailing the location of the manuscript as well as alternate identifiers. The msDesc will also contain a physDesc (physical description) that identifies the type of the manuscript (brief or briefkaart) and describe decoration, if any.

It may look like this:

<fileDesc>
  <titleStmt>
    <title>Briefkaart aan <ref target="bio.xml#MondriaanCarel">Carel</ref> en <ref target="bio.xml#MondriaanLouis">Louis Mondriaan</ref>. Hengelo, maandag 22 oktober 1906 (poststempel).</title>
    <editor xml:id="wc">Wietse Coppes</editor>
    <editor xml:id="lj">Leo Jansen</editor>
    <sponsor>Mondriaan Editieproject</sponsor>
  </titleStmt>
  <publicationStmt>
    <p>(to be provided later)</p>
  </publicationStmt>
  <sourceDesc>
    <msDesc>
      <msIdentifier>
        <country>Nederland</country>
        <settlement>Den Haag</settlement>
        <institution>RKD</institution>
        <idno>150.558</idno>
        <altIdentifier><idno type="letterId">19061022_MOND_C+L_0012</idno></altIdentifier>
        <altIdentifier><idno type="def"/></altIdentifier>
      </msIdentifier>
      <physDesc>
        <objectDesc form="briefkaart"/>
        <decoDesc>
          <decoNote/>
        </decoDesc>
      </physDesc>
    </msDesc>
  </sourceDesc>
</fileDesc>

The profileDesc

The profileDesc describes the 'correspondence actions'. For example:

<profileDesc>
  <correspDesc>
    <correspAction type="sent">
      <name key="56854">Piet Mondriaan</name>
      <date when="1906-10-22">maandag 22 oktober 1906</date>
      <placeName>Hengelo</placeName>
    </correspAction>
    <correspAction type="received">
      <name key="...">Carel Mondriaan</name>
      <name key="...">Louis Mondriaan</name>
    </correspAction>
  </correspDesc>
</profileDesc>

About the dating

The text of <date> in <correspAction type="sent"> is what you want to appear in the edition. The @when attribute indicates the precise date; if necessary use @notBefore and/or @notAfter to indicate a range (in this case, the @when attribute is what will be used for sorting). In the attributes, the dates are entered as yyyy-mm-dd.

• Single date:

<date when="1935-03-13">March 13, 1935</date>

• Date range:

<date when="1935-03-13" notAfter="1935-03-14"
   notBefore="1935-03-13">March 13 or March 14, 1935</date>

The revisionDesc

The revisionDesc is used to track the progress of the editorial work on the specific letter or manuscript.

Some remarks

The md:type attribute contains the type of document and has one of the values: letter, postcard, telegram (or manuscript, article?)

The elements <author> and <addressee> are required to have a @key, which points to a resource about the person mentioned (in this case, the RKDartists inventory)

<author> and <addressee> can also have @attested and @accepted; <placeLet> and <dateLet> can just have @attested. We vullen attested/accepted in. (Attested: expliciet gedocumenteerd; accepted: inductief)

More information on how these elements are used is available in Creating Mondrian: further guidelines

In <letContents>, informations can be organized in one or more paragraphs

, keywords <keywords> or as notes <note>.</s> We probably won't use this. <envOcc> is a required element, with a required @occ, to encode the presence of an envelope.

See also

• XML Mondrian Guidelines