[en] Acknowledgements and DedicationsGregory Crane, Tufts University; Brent Seales, University of Kentucky; Melissa Terras, University College London
Abstract
[en]
This collection of essays represent a wide range of perspectives on the work being done in digital classics. It honors the life of Allen Ross Scaife, who was instrumental in advancing digital scholarship in the field of classics.
[en] Ross Scaife (1960-2008)Dot Porter, Digital Humanities Observatory
Abstract
[en]
This is a biographical sketch of Ross Scaife (1960-2008), who was Professor of
Classics at the University of Kentucky and founding editor of the Stoa Consortium for
Electronic Publication in the Humanities.
[en] ForewordGregory Nagy, Harvard University; James O'Donnell, Georgetown University
Abstract
[en]
A brief remembrance of Ross Scaife.
[en] Cyberinfrastructure for Classical PhilologyGregory Crane, Tufts University; Brent Seales, University of Kentucky; Melissa Terras, University College London
Abstract
[en]
No humanists have moved more aggressively in the digital world than students of the
Greco-Roman world but the first generation of digital classics has seen relatively
superficial methods to address the problems of print culture. We are now beginning to
see new intellectual practices for which new terms, eWissenschaft and eClassics, and
a new cyberinfrastructure are emerging.
[en] Technology, Collaboration, and Undergraduate ResearchChristopher Blackwell, Furman University; Thomas R. Martin, College of the Holy Cross
Abstract
[en]
In this article, two professors of Classics present their experiences in
incorporating into their professional activity a model of undergraduate research that
reflects Ross Scaife’s ideals of collaborative, open scholarship, informed by
traditional values, and taking advantage of advances in digital humanities
[en] Tachypaedia Byzantina: The Suda On Line as Collaborative EncyclopediaAnne Mahoney, Tufts University
Abstract
[en]
The Suda On Line (SOL) is a collaborative translation of a Byzantine
Greek encyclopedia. It makes this difficult but useful text available to
non-specialists and, with annotations and search facilities, makes the Suda
easier to use than it is in print. As a collaboration, SOL
demonstrates open peer review and the feasibility of a large, but
closely focused, humanities project.
[en] Exploring Historical RDF with HemlBruce Robertson, Mount Allison University
Abstract
[en]
The Web, though full of historical information, lacks a means of organizing
that information, searching on it or visualizing it. The Historical Event
Markup and Linking Project (Heml) was begun six years ago to explore how
disparate historical materials on the Internet can be navigated and
visualized, and for the past four years has used an XML data format defined
in W3C Schemas. This format aims for conforming data that can be quickly
parsed but provide a variety of facets on which to search for historical
materials. While the project's graphical visualizations are in some
respects successful, they have revealed some deficiencies in the underlying
data format: it ought to provide for nested events, it ought to represent
relations of causality between events and it ought to express the varieties
of scholarly opinion about the attributes of events. By encoding the Heml
data in the Resource Description Framework (RDF) it is possible to
undertake these improvements. Moreover, an RDF-encoded Heml process
provides easier access to CIDOC-CRM data into Heml events. Finally, a
historical RDF language would simplify the discovery of references to
historical events in digitized texts, thereby automating a growing network
of historical information on the Web.
[en] Digitizing Latin Incunabula: Challenges, Methods, and PossibilitiesJeffrey A. Rydberg-Cox, University of Missouri-Kansas City
Abstract
[en]
Incunabula, or books printed before 1500, are extremely difficult and expensive to
convert to digital form. The primary challenges arise from the use of non-standard
typographical glyphs based on medieval handwriting to abbreviate words. Further
difficulties are also posed by the practice of inconsistently marking word breaks at
the end of lines and reducing or even eliminating spacing between some words. As
such, these documents form a distinct genre of electronic document that poses unique
challenges for conversion to digital form. From 2005–2007, the Preservation and
Access Research and Development Program at the National Endowment for the Humanities
funded a study to explore methods for digitizing these difficult texts. This paper
describes some of the results of that project. The work described in this paper
was completed by the “Approaching the Problems of Digitizing
Latin Incunables” project funded by the National Endowment for the
Humanities Division of Preservation and Access. The material in this paper is
drawn from the project application, internal technical reports, grant project
reports and the project descriptions included in
and . Much of this work was inspired by Ross
Scaife and his work building a corpora of Latin Colloquia. I am deeply grateful
for Ross's comments, advice and support. A version of this paper will also be
published as part of the project web site.
[en] Citation in Classical StudiesNeel Smith, College of the Holy Cross
Abstract
[en]
Citation practice reflects a model of a scholarly domain.
This paper first considers traditional citation practice in the
humanities as a description of our subjects of study. It then
describes work at the Center for Hellenic Studies on an architecture
for digital scholarship that is explicitly based on this model, and
proposes a machine-actionable but technologically independent notation
for citing texts, the Canonical Text Services URN.
[en] Digital Criticism: Editorial Standards for the Homer Multitext Casey Dué, University of Houston, Texas; Mary Ebbott, College of the Holy Cross
Abstract
[en]
In this article we argue for the necessity of a digital edition to most accurately
represent the textual tradition of the Homeric epics and to better understand the
oral performance tradition that created the poems. We demonstrate how such a digital
criticism would differ from the traditional textual criticism as practiced for
editions in print and suggest how a digital criticism might open new avenues for the
interpretation of the poetry. In defining our needs and goals for a digital edition,
we discuss what our project has in common with other digital editions of literary
works, but how the oral, traditional nature of the poetry creates special
requirements as well. In addition to elaborating the editorial approach for the
project, we reaffirm the principles of collaboration, international standards, and
open access that we have learned from Ross Scaife, the founder of the Stoa
Consortium.
[en] Epigraphy in 2017Hugh Cayless, University of North Carolina; Charlotte Roueché, King's College London; Tom Elliott, New York University; Gabriel Bodard, King's College London
Abstract
[en]
Epigraphy as a discipline has evolved greatly over the centuries. Many
epigraphists in the last 20 years have been investigating how to use
digital technology to advance their research, but until the present
decade, these undertakings were restrained by aspects of the
technology. The late 1990s will be seen as a watershed moment in the
transition from print-based to born-digital epigraphic publication. At
present, the majority of new editions are still published solely in
print, but by 2017 we believe this circumstance will change
drastically. The history of epigraphy makes it quite clear that such
transitions are natural to the discipline.
[en] Digital Geography and ClassicsTom Elliott, New York University; Sean Gillies, New York University
Abstract
[en]
The authors open by imagining one possible use of digital geographic techniques in
the context of humanities research in 2017. They then outline the background to this
vision, from early engagements in web-based mapping for the Classics to recent,
fast-paced developments in web-based, collaborative geography. The article concludes
with a description of their own Pleiades Project (http://pleiades.stoa.org), which gives
scholars, students and enthusiasts worldwide the opportunity to use, create and share
historical geographic information about the Greek and Roman World in digital
form.
[en] What Your Teacher Told You is True: Latin Verbs Have Four Principal Parts Raphael Finkel, University of Kentucky; Gregory Stump, University of Kentucky
Abstract
[en]
We describe two different strategies for generating the morphology of Latin verbs. First, we hand-code default inheritance hierarchies in the KATR formalism, treating inflectional exponents as markings associated with the application of rules by which complex word
forms are deduced from simpler roots or stems. The high degree of similarity among verbs of different conjugation classes allows us to formulate general rules; these general rules are, however, sometimes overridden by conjugation-specific rules. This approach allows linguists to gain an appreciation for the structure of verbs, gives teachers a foundation for organizing lessons in morphology, and provides students a technique for generating forms of any verb. Second, we start with a paradigm chart, then automatically remove common parts and redundant morphosyntactic property sets (columns), combine similar conjugations (rows), and generate the KATR theory that produces a complete table of forms for a set of lexemes. This second approach automatically determines principal parts (for Latin, we verify that there are four), groups inflection classes into super-classes, and builds full paradigm charts.
[en] Computational Linguistics and Classical LexicographyDavid Bamman, Tufts University; Gregory Crane, Tufts University
Abstract
[en]
Manual lexicography has produced extraordinary results for Greek and Latin, but it
cannot in the immediate future provide for all texts the same level of coverage
available for the most heavily studied materials. As we build a cyberinfrastructure
for Classics in the future, we must explore the role that automatic methods can play
within it. Using technologies inherited from the disciplines of computational
linguistics and computer science, we can create a complement to these traditional
reference works - a dynamic lexicon that presents statistical information about a
word’s usage in context, including information about its sense distribution within
various authors, genres and eras, and syntactic information as well.
[en] Classics in the Million Book LibraryGregory Crane, Tufts University; Alison Babeu, Tufts University; David Bamman, Tufts University; Thomas Breuel, Technical University of Kaiserslautern; Lisa Cerrato, Tufts University; Daniel Deckers, Hamburg University; Anke Lüdeling, Humboldt-University, Berlin; David Mimno, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Rashmi Singhal, Tufts University; David A. Smith, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Amir Zeldes, Humboldt-University, Berlin
Abstract
[en]
In October 2008, Google announced a settlement that will provide access to seven
million scanned books while the number of books freely available under an open
license from the Internet Archive exceeded one million. The collections and services
that classicists have created over the past generation place them in a strategic
position to exploit the potential of these collections. This paper concludes with
research topics relevant to all humanists on converting page images to text, one
language to another, and raw text into machine actionable data.
[en] Conclusion: Cyberinfrastructure, the Scaife Digital Library and Classics in a
Digital ageChristopher Blackwell, Furman University; Gregory Crane, Tufts University
Abstract
[en]
We can already begin to envision research projects that were scarcely, if at all,
feasible in print culture. The papers in this collection allow us as well to
enumerate the services and publication types on which emerging scholarship depends.
We also need models for publication that meet the needs and realize the potential of
the digital media and we describe here the Scaife Digital Library, a concrete example
of true digital publication.
