Technical Discussion

list of notes and list of links

The definitive version of the materials generated by the "Venetian Notebooks" project is a set of interlinked XML documents, in which all details are held in an explicit form, together with sets of associated images. The intent of the production in this form is that it is not then tied to a particular output format and platform. There is a Java program "SoVGenerate" (last revised January 2008) which takes the material in this form and generates a representation as a set of web pages using HTML and Javascript. It would be possible to replace this program with another to generate an improved delivery vehicle, or perhaps to generate web pages directly from the XML documents with XSLT. If these materials require addition or amendment, the XML documents should be updated and checked, and a new version of the delivery vehicle generated.

The set of XML documents is:

• One document for the transcript of each separate notebook (b.xml for the transcript of Bit Book, m.xml for the transcript of Notebook M, etc)
• Documents mOriginal.xml and m2Original.xml for copies of the Ruskin Library Transcripts T7A and T7B respectively
• Document notes.xml for all the commentary
• One document for the text of each included volume of the Library Edition of Ruskin’s Collected Works (vol08.xml for volume 8, Seven Lamps of Architecture, etc.)

The format of the XML documents conforms to the TEI "Lite" DTD (see here).

Transcripts

The XML documents of notebook transcripts (including T7A and T7B) consist of a "teiheader" element followed by a "text" element. The "text" element is subdivided into a sequence of "div" elements, one for each page opening; an opening generally has a left page and a right page, separated by a "pb" element. The main sequence of openings in a transcript, numbered by Ruskin from 1 upwards, is in a "body" element inside the "text" element, where necessary with initial and final openings (with Roman numbers, or with names "front board" etc.) in "front" and "back" elements respectively inside the "text" element.

The XML document for the Sheets (ws.xml) consists of a "div" element for each sheet (with no "pb" element) inside the "text" element.

The "div" element has an "n" attribute which is the number of the opening, for instance "ii" or "74A" or "153".

Notes

The document notes.xml consists of a "teiheader" element followed by a "text" element, which contains a "div" element for each separate note. The "div" element has an "n" attribute which is the name of the note, for instance "mestablishingdates". A note always starts with a "head" element.

Library Edition Volumes

The XML documents of Library Edition volumes consist of a "teiheader" element followed by a "text" element. The "text" element is subdivided into a sequence of "div" elements, one for each page of the volume. The main sequence of pages, with Arabic page numbers, is in a "body" element inside the "text" element, where necessary with front and back matter with Roman page numbers in "front" and "back" elements respectively inside the "text" element.

The "div" element has an "n" attribute which is the page number, for instance "ii" or "107".

Other Elements

The following elements may appear within a "div" element:

• "p" for a paragraph. Paragraphs in the Library Edition may have a "type" attribute set to the value "continued", for a paragraph which continues onto the next page. See for example the final paragraph and the final footnote at Works, 9.64
• "pb" for a page break within an opening in a transcript (see above)
• "lb" for a line break, to indicate lineation within a passage of transcript text or within a piece of poetry
• "hi", which has a "rend" attribute with possible values "bold", "italic", "subscript", "superscript", "underline", "red" (to mark a piece of text requiring special attention; this feature may be removed or suppressed in later versions), "quote" (for a block quotation)
• "del" to represent deleted text, generally displayed with the characters struck through
• "corr" with attribute "sic" in mOriginal.xml and m2Original.xml to represent a change in the text between the original transcripts T7A and T7B and the current versions. This feature is still under development (February 2008).
• "head" for a heading; each note begins with a heading
• "epigraph", used in the edition for the dedication and currently displayed as bold, centred and in a smaller type size.
• "list" and "item" for a list and items within the list
• "xref" for a link to a point elsewhere in this document (the "ref" element is not used) or in another XML document in the set or elsewhere. The target is generally a "div" element (an opening of a notebook, a note, or a page of the Library Edition). A target may be a specified anchor point within a "div" element in certain cases (for instance a particular bibliographical reference within the "biblio" note).
  
  There are three attributes, "doc" for the name of the XML document, "target" for the location within it, and "type" with values "external" for a link to a page of an external website, "email" for an email address, "note" for a note ("note" can be followed by ‘#’ and a sub-categorisation code, but this is currently ignored and the feature may be removed or suppressed in later versions), "transcript" for the text of a particular page of a notebook, "facsimile" for the facsimile of a particular page of a notebook, "illustration", and "text" for a particular page of a volume of the Library Edition. Bibliographical references are a special case of references to notes, where the target has the form "biblio#REFERENCE" and "REFERENCE" is a position within the note"biblio" (see "anchor" below). Some examples (from the "Ducal Palace. Series of Capitals of Lower Arcade" note) are:
  
  <xref type="note" doc="notes" target="mportadellacarta">Porta della Carta</xref>
  <xref type="transcript" doc="m2" target="104">Notebook M2 p.104L</xref>
  <xref type="text" doc="vol09" target="54"><hi rend="italic">Works</hi>, 9.54</xref>
  <xref type="note" doc="notes" target="biblio#quill2000">Quill (2000) pp.134-141</xref>
• "figure" for a figure, an image or a photograph, to appear within the text. This has a caption or "none" between the start and end "figure" tags, and the caption may contain formatting and links. The "figure" tag has an "entity" attribute whose value is a ‘#’-separated string giving location of the figure, name of file containing the figure, position of the figure on the page ("centre", "left" or "right") and size ("fullsize" or "widthNN" if the display size is to be a proportion of the width of the display page). An example (from the note "the development of Venetian Gothic") is:
  <figure entity="photos#002.jpg#centre#width38">St. Mark’s North West Portico</figure>
• "anchor" for a number of special features. This has attributes "type" and "id", with the former specifying the use of this element:
  
  "type=button" specifies a button on a page of a Library edition volume to link to an illustration other than a plate (which is dealt with by "type=plate"). This feature may be removed or suppressed in later versions.
  
  "type=calendar" specifies a set of links represented as a one-month calendar. The "id" attribute is a ‘#’-separated string with month name, year number, number of days in the month, day of the week of the first day of the month, and a target name for this calendar (in the form year number ‘d’ month number). For example:
  <anchor type="calendar" id="October#1849#31#Monday#1849d10"/>
  This is followed by an "lb"-separated list of links in the form day number ‘:’ link. For example:
  6:<xref type="transcript" doc="m2" target="202">Notebook M2 p.202</xref>
  
  "type=context" specifies the context of a "div" element, and always immediately follows the "div" tag. The "id" attribute is a ‘#’-separated string giving
  (for pages of a Library Edition volume) the previous and next page numbers and a line for the navigation panel;
  (for pages of the small notebooks and sheets) the previous and next page numbers, a line for the navigation panel, the name of the file containing the facsimile of this page, the size of the facsimile ("widthNN" as a proportion of the width of the display page), and the name of the note for this notebook;
  or (for M and M2, and their T7A/T7B versions) the previous and next page numbers, a line for the navigation panel, the name of the file containing the facsimile of this page, the size of the facsimile ("widthNN" as a proportion of the width of the display page), the name of the note for this notebook, and the number of the corresponding page in the other version of this notebook.
  For example:
  <anchor type="context" id="i#iii#page ii"/>
  <anchor type ="context" id="67#69#page 68 (or 15w)#Bit 68#width80#bnote"/>
  <anchor type ="context" id="2#4#page 3#00242#width100#mnote#3"/>
  
  "type=map" specifies a set of links represented as a map. The "id" attribute gives the file containing the map. It is followed by an "lb"-separated list of links. This feature is still under development (February 2008).
  
  "type=permission" specifies a permissions line to appear below the facsimile for this and subsequent openings of a notebook
  
  "type=position" specifies a location in a document to act as the target of a link, such as an individual bibliographical reference in the "biblio" note. For example:
  <anchor type="position" id="cicognara1813"/>
  
  "type=plate" specifies a button on a page of a Library edition volume to link to the plate opposite. The "id" attribute contains a ‘#’-separated string with location of the plate, name of file holding the plate, caption for button. For example:
  <anchor type="plate" id="vol09#0517v9#THE GRAND CANAL, VENICE. [f.p.2,v.]"/ >
  
  "type=rule" specifies a horizontal line on a page of a Library Edition volume, generally to separate Ruskin’s original footnotes from the Cook and Wedderburn footnotes. For example:
  <anchor type="rule"/>

[Version 0.05: May 2008]