Modelling Manuscripts: the example of the Semper Edition

This talk presents a novel digital edition of Gottfried Semper's magnum opus Style, comprising manuscripts and other sources identified as forming main parts of its evolution and contextualizing it within its intellectual milieu both within and outside of Semper’s corpus. The Edition’s implementation combines the established paradigm of TEI XML with the new modes of representing text made possible by labeled property graph databases. The talk summarizes the Edition's workflow and explains its technical processes to enable critical engagement of readers and scholars. It also presents the current and projected content of the Edition and the outlook for its technical and functional development.