Call for Help Digitizing HOTTP

Andrew Case is asking for volunteers to help digitize the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project volumes so that they can be easily distributed and translated. He has done initial AI-generated transcriptions and is asking for those with language/text-critical expertise to check and correct the transcriptions to ensure (and improve) accuracy using a user interface he has created for the purpose. If you have the relevant skills and would like to help make this resource more easily available, email him at andrewdcase [at] gmail [dot] com.

CEHP Transcription Update

I just posted an update on the transcription progress for the Critical Edition of the Hebrew Psalter (CEHP) project on the project blog. If you're interested in learning more about the project or getting involved, do check it out and fill out our Google form to register your interest. We are going to be working mostly with manuscripts from the Cairo Genizah and early Greek papyri, which is a great opportunity to learn more about working with manuscripts and textual criticism. 

HBCE Psalms Call for Transcribers

The Hebrew Bible: A Critical Edition (HBCE) Psalms 1-50 project aims to produce the first born-digital critical edition of the Hebrew text of Psalms 1-50 (including ancient translations), as well as the first eclectic critical edition of these Hebrew poems. The digital edition will also be used to produce the standard printed HBCE volume. The online workflow and output include:

1. digital images of included manuscripts where permissible; 
2. full electronic transcriptions of included manuscripts and versions;
3. semi-automatic collation of manuscripts and versions in multiple languages;
4. eclectic critical text and extensive textual apparatus.

A preliminary sample of what the edition would like from Psalm 22 can be seen at:

https://hbcepsalms.manuscriptroom.com/edition.

In order to accomplish this milestone in Hebrew Bible textual scholarship, we are calling for volunteer transcribers with an interest in the texts and manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament to help record the data from the most important ancient and medieval witnesses. No previous experience working with manuscripts is required, but some knowledge of one or more of the relevant languages is essential (specifically Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Aramaic, and/or Latin). We will provide volunteers with the necessary introductory training in manuscript studies, paleography, and digital text encoding.

In return, we ask volunteers for a 25-hour commitment spread flexibly over 2 months (an average of 3–4 hours per week) from May through June 2024, including group training sessions. During this time, volunteers will take responsibility for transcribing several Psalms according to an assigned manuscript, which will then be incorporated into the critical edition. Transcribers will gain valuable expertise and experience working with manuscripts and cutting-edge methods of digital editing while contributing meaningfully to a major scholarly enterprise in the field. Transcribers will also be recognized for their contributions by name in the edition.

To sign up, fill out this Google form. 

ScriptSource

 I just discovered this interesting online resource for typed scripts: ScriptSource.

Elisha Qimron's "The Qumran Texts: Composite Edition"

Elisha Qimron has uploaded his three-volume The Qumran Texts: Composite Edition on Zenodo. Qimron has done much important work on giving his own readings of these texts, and this is no doubt a valuable contribution.

Textual Communities Workshop, KU Leuven 11 and 12 June 2015

I received the following announcement from Peter Robinson, which may be of interest to some. For Old Testament scholars who may not know, Peter Robinson has a long-standing project editing the Canterbury Tales and is one of the leaders of the use of the digital humanities for the creation of critical editions. For those interested in learning the platform he has created for making critical editions, this would be a great opportunity.



Textual Communities Workshop, KU Leuven 11 and 12 June 2015 

Museumzaal (MSI 02.08, Erasmusplein 2, 3000 Leuven)

This workshop will serve three overlapping purposes. 

First, it will introduce the Textual Communities system for creating scholarly editions in digital form. Textual Communities allows scholars and scholarly groups to make highest-quality editions in digital form, with minimal specialist computing knowledge and support.  It is particularly suited to the making of editions which do not fit the pattern of “digital documentary editions”: that is, editions of works in many manuscripts or versions, or editions of non-authorial manuscripts. Accordingly, Textual Communities includes tools for handling images, page-by-page transcription, collation of multiple versions, project management, and more. See the draft article describing Textual Communities at https://www.academia.edu/12297061/Some_principles_for_the_making_of_collaborative_scholarly_editions_in_digital_form.

Second, it will offer training to transcribers joining the Canterbury Tales project, and to scholars leading transcription teams within the project.  The project is undertaking the transcription of all 30,000 pages of the 88 pre-1500 witnesses of the Tales (18000 pages already transcribed but requiring checking; 12000 needing new transcription). Participants will be given accounts within the Textual Communities implementation of the Canterbury Tales project, introduced to the transcription system, and undertake their first transcriptions of pages from the Tales.  See http://www.textualcommunities.usask.ca/web/canterbury-tales/wiki/-/wiki/Main/Becoming+a+transcriber.

Third, it will offer an introduction to the principles of manuscript transcription for digital editions to any scholars or students considering undertaking a digital edition project based on a manuscript. The materials of the Canterbury Tales project will be used as a starting point for discussion of transcription, supplemented by reference to other textual traditions on which the workshop leaders have worked (including Dante, medieval Spanish and New Testament Greek).

This workshop will be useful to scholars undertaking a wide range of digital edition projects, especially of works existing in multiple witnesses.  Because both the architect of Textual Communities (Robinson) and its chief programmer (Xiaohan Zhang) will be present, it will be useful also for technical consultants who plan to work with the Textual Communities API. And, of course, it will be useful for transcribers joining the Canterbury Tales project.

There is no charge for this workshop, but places will be limited.  Please contact Barbara Bordalejo barbara.bordalejo@kuleuven.be or Peter Robinson peter.robinson@usask.ca to confirm attendance. For accommodation, see http://www.leuven.be/en/tourism/staying/index.jsp.

This page is also at http://www.textualcommunities.usask.ca/web/textual-community/blog/-/blogs/first-textual-communities-workshop-11-12-june-2015 and at www.arts.kuleuven.be/digitalhumanities/activiteiten.

An Author's Text in an Editor's Hands

Update: Just so everyone is aware, the editorial team at Logos has expressed apologies for the mishap and is currently revising the published text discussed below to account for changes I suggested. This is one of the many great advantages of electronic resources! I consider myself a satisfied Logos user and would gladly publish with them again. I cite this only as an interesting example of something that temporarily slipped through the cracks in the complicated modern publication process.

I recently had the opportunity to write a series of short dictionary entries for the Logos e-publication The Lexham Bible Dictionary, including "Ancient Libraries," "Masorah," and "Masoretes." Overall it was a fairly pleasant experience. On reading the final versions in the Logos resource, however, I immediately noticed differences between my submitted version and the published version. There were clear stylistic differences from my own work and a whole host of other problems that clearly betrayed to me an editor's hands. Sometimes the editor improved the text by making it more concise or simpler for a lay audience, which was not particularly objectionable. But at other times, the editor altered the text in significant (and to my mind detrimental) ways. I would like to explore briefly the interaction between author and editor in this publication process. To do this, I will list some of the more interesting/disturbing examples of the published version (in italic font) and the submitted version (in bold italics).

Perhaps of interest for all my Qumran friends, with the omission of a single word, it seems I am now committed in (electronic) print to the Essene hypothesis (!).

• Khirbet Qumran, a communal residence associated with the Jewish Essene sect.
• Khirbet Qumran, a community residence in the Judean Desert near the Dead Sea commonly associated with the Jewish sect called the Essenes

Some changes rendered the text garbled nonsense.

• Many scholars suggest the term comes for the root often considered to mean “to transmit,” thus concluding that the Masorah tradition is transmitted from generation to generation preserve the text
• Most scholars relate the word to the root מסר, whose precise nuance is contested. Many suppose the common root meaning “to transmit,” thus concluding that the Masorah is the body of traditions transmitted from generation to generation for preserving the text.

One particularly egregious structural rearrangement makes the Masorah magna a subset of the Masorah parva.

• Many Masorah parva notes indicate the number of times a particular word or group of words occurs in a certain form within a portion of Scripture, sometimes listing alternative forms found elsewhere. These notes are designed as an external control to ensure its precise preservation. Many types of Masorah parva notes exist, but the two most frequent include:
• 1.   Kethiv/Qere. [only section headings listed]
• 2.   Masorah Magna.
• There are many types of Masorah parva notes, of which two of the most frequent and important are discussed here.
• 1. Usage Statistics -- Many Masorah parva notes indicate the number of times a particular word or group of words occurs in a certain form within a portion of Scripture, sometimes listing alternative forms from elsewhere. These notes are designed as an external control on the copying of the text to ensure its precise preservation.
• 2. Kethiv versus Qere
• Masorah Magna [i.e., new section header]

There were also a number of problematic transliterations.

• Other scholars derive it from the root ‘sr [i.e., ayin for aleph], “to bind”
• Other scholars derive it from the root אסר “to bind”
• ben Asher reads יִשָּׂשכָר (yissoshkhar)
• ben Asher reads יִשָּׂשכָר

All this just goes to show the complexity of the entire concept of an "authorial text," no less in the present age than in antiquity. Once I emailed the file to submit it to Logos, the text was truly out of my hands and at the mercy of others. There are probably some devious literary critics smiling right now...

 

Electronic Transcription of Greek Gospel Lectionary L252

I recently starting transcribing Lectionary 252 for the International Greek New Testament Project, and it made for an interesting exercise. Someone apparently cut the sole of a shoe out of the first folio, which made transcription quite complicated. :) It was quite helpful to learn and put into practice their transcription guidelines, and I'm sure there will be a future for doing similar things with OT manuscripts. Once full transcriptions are done, data comparison can be done much more quickly and from a much greater variety of angles than normal collation practices.