Sharpe's Latin Writers

A simple prototype for a digital edition of Richard Sharpe, A Handlist of Latin Writers of Great Britain and Ireland Before 1540 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1997).

Data format

Sharpe continued to update his files for Latin Writers following its 1997 publication; we discussed creating a digital version from this, but this was not a priority before his untimely death. He kept the dataset as a single TeX file.

In this digital form, each writer and work has a separate file (in the _writers and _works folders) in YAML format. They refer to one another using permanent identifiers, which have no meaning.

The data files are readable in any plain text editor. The data is structured in the following form:

Writers

---
identifier:    # unique identifier created using https://shortunique.id
title:         # writer's name
order:         # abbreviation for religious order (OSB, OSA, etc.)
subtype:       # 'published' for a person whose works circulated in the Middle Ages under their name, rendered in small caps
               # 'ghost' for bibliographical ghosts, rendered in quotes
not-british: true     # = for a writer mistakenly thought in the past to have British connections, marked †
british-career: true  # = for a writer not born in British Isles but active there, marked ‡
death:         # date of death
description:   # short label shown before references
sameAs:        # designating a ghost entry/attribution as being identical to another entity
  label:           # name to be displayed
  url:             # relevant link (for now to Mirabile)
repertories:   # structured short references to repertories, formatted using `layouts/writer.html
  - BaleIndex:         # https://archive.org/details/mmanecdotaoxonie09oxfouoft
  - BaleCatalogus:     # https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/010824840
  - CALMA:             # Compendium Auctorum Latinorum Medii Aevi
  - Kirkstead:         # Kirkstead’s *Catalogus* 
  - LelandScriptores:  # https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001169077
  - Mirabile:          # authors in https://www.mirabileweb.it (based on CALMA)
  - ODNB:              # Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  - Tanner:            # https://archive.org/details/BibliothecaBritannicoHibernicaTanner
  - Wikidata:          # https://www.wikidata.org
  - Wright1:           # https://archive.org/details/biographiabritan01wriguoft
  - Wright2:           # https://archive.org/details/biographiabritan02wriguoft
bibliography:   # free-form citations
  - "Citation 1"
  - "Citation 2"
  - "Citation 3"
notes:
  "Free text."
---

Works

---
identifier:          # unique identifier created using https://shortunique.id
writer:              # identifer for the attributed writer
title:               # work's name, assumed to be in Latin
title-description:   # true for an English descriptive name, rendered without italics
subtype:             # 'attributed' for likely attributions to a writer, marked '(attrib.)'
                     # 'spurious' for disproven attributions to a writer, rendered in quotes
description:   # short label shown before references
date-published:      # date (not structured)
alternative-titles:  # other names by which the work is known
  - "Title 1"
  - "Title 2"
sameAs:              # designating a ghost entry/attribution as being identical to another entity
  label:                 # name to be displayed
  url:                   # relevant link (for now to Mirabile)
incipits:            # 'text' is mandatory and gives opening words; 'type' is optional, where there are multiple incipits
  - text: "Incipit 1"
    type: "prologue"
  - text: "Incipit 2"
    type: "exposition"
editions:           # free-form citations
  - "ed. 1"
  - "ed. 2"
bibliography:       # free-form citations
  - "Citation 1"
  - "Citation 2"
  - "Citation 3"
repertories:        # structured short references to repertories, formatted using `layouts/work.html
  - BHL:                # Bibliotheca hagiographica Latina
  - Chevalier:          # Chevalier, Repertorium hymnologicum
  - CPL:                # Clavis Patrum Latinorum
  - ICL:                # Initia carminum Latinorum
  - Mirabile:           # https://www.mirabileweb.it
  - eTK:                # http://cctr1.umkc.edu/cgi-bin/medievalacademy
  - WIC:                # Walther, Initia carminum
notes:
  "Free text."
sources:            # free-form citations
  - "Manuscript 1"
  - "Manuscript 2"
  - "Manuscript 3"
attested-copies:    # free-form citations
  - "Manuscript 1"
  - "Manuscript 2"
  - "Manuscript 3"
---

Rendering

A static site generator, Jekyll, uses templates to present the data in a more readable form. It reads the YAML data files using its Collections feature, effectively replacing a live relational database. Liquid filters enables cross references between datasets.

The datasets are also made available as single JSON files; see Jekyll: how to build a REST API.