Converted from a Word document
When it comes to assessing the authorship of a literary work, scholars need to have at their disposal all the best tools. Notably, a
Graphs allow the visualization of patterns that otherwise would be difficult to grasp, for example the number of publications per BibTeX type or per decade. Further possibilities include the geotagging of the articles to easily visualise where they come from and if there are some countries that are more interested than others in the authorship of the
In the case of the digital library of the
reasoned bibliography allows researchers to have an immediate reference to all the works related to a specific composition. In this way, investigators have the chance to read about methodologies and criteria that have already been applied, note critical points, and deepen, if need be, possible improvements. It is surely a time-consuming process, but it can guide an investigation towards a more scientific and objective analysis of the literary work. Other helpful resources could include the
stemma codicum, graphs
Appendix Vergiliana.
Appendix Vergiliana, the user can download a UTF-8 encoded TXT file of the text and a TeX file of the
stemma codicum. The TXT file can be used with a variety of tools (e.g., a freeware like AntConc allows to explore among others, concordances, n-grams, collocations, and word lists). Future possibilities include an XML-TEI marked-up file to allow more complex analyses of the compositions.
All these elements could be gathered in what is commonly
called a digital library. In particular, we are referring to
the idea presented by Lana (2012a: 7) for the creation of the Digital library of late-antique Latin texts: “una biblioteca che nasce per
raccogliere, catalogare, dare accesso a materiali testuali che rispondono ad una
specifica necessità di studio e di conoscenza”.
What it shares with a traditional library is the tripartition in: gathering, managing and conservation of data, and services for the users (cf. Lana 2012a: 16). Therefore, it is a library that contains not only the texts of the poems, but also resources for scholars. In this case, there is an obvious advantage — accessibility, i.e., the possibility for the user to easily access many useful tools for the investigation of one or more literary works.
The
Appendix Vergiliana was chosen due to the remarkable interest raised in terms of authorship attribution. There are more than 700 publications, thereby emphasising the outstanding importance that surrounds this group of Latin poems.
For the creation of the digital library (www.appendixvergiliana.org), the following tools were involved:
JabRef is extremely intuitive and offers a series of features, such as specific ones for importing, editing, organising, and citing. Moreover, the program is compatible with the main operating systems (Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows) and it can communicate with word processors such as LaTeX, Microsoft Word and LibreOffice (cf. Milanese 2020: 278).
The catalogue containing all the publications features an
interface that allows to search For the search features, the JavaScript codes,
written by Mark Schenk and Holger Jeromin, were used and adapted. Année Philologique (Cufalo 2017)
were adopted, and a table to interpret the acronyms was created. The catalogue
serves to deepen the information listed in the reasoned bibliography of each poem,
where the author and year are always indicated. Occasionally, it is possible to find
the number of page(s) if the publication is about two or more compositions. Equally,
sometimes the number of verses is specified when the publication regards a specific
verse or stanza.
In my proposed presentation, I would like to discuss the challenges of creating and maintaining the digital library, the possibilities offered by the available tools and future developments.