SigiDoc is an XML-based and TEI-compliant standard, largely based on the experience of EpiDoc, for the encoding of Byzantine seals. SigiDoc represents the first attempt to extend the digital approach - already applied to inscriptions, coins and papyri - to Byzantine seals: it allows the scholarly edition of the seals (as objects, texts, and images) and the valorisation of the data coming from them. The transformation of XML documents into a webpage, various indexing possibilities, a search interface as well as multi-lingual features are delivered to SigiDoc by EFES (EpiDoc Front-End Services).
The current version of the SigiDoc Guidelines is the 1.1: it represents the first development of these Guidelines since their first release, in September 2021. Other developments are planned during the year 2023. They are being implemented in the framework of a French-German project - DigiByzSeal (jointy funded by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) - involving the Monde byzantin team of the CNRS (Paris), the Department of Byzantine Studies and Modern Greek Philology of the University of Cologne and the Cologne Center for eHumanities of the University of Cologne: the enhancement of the SigiDoc recommendations is a key objective of DigiByzSeal.
Introductory and preparatory readings
- Introducing SigiDoc
- Introduction to XML (W3 Schools, Wikipedia) and to TEI.
SigiDoc's Components (version 1.1)
- Guidelines: recommendations especially focused on the markup of seals' legends and the indexing of the information coming from them. The XML files containing the Guidelines are available here.
- Template: the XML structure of a SigiDoc file, presented and explained in detail, and linked to the list of field names composing the final web page generated from this template. An XML file containing the SigiDoc template and ready to be used is available here.
- Schema: largely based on EpiDoc's customisation of the TEI schema, the SigiDoc schema makes a selection in order to better fit with the sigillographic needs and introduces several attributes' values; currently, SigiDoc XML files successfully validate against the lastest EpiDoc schema and the tei_all schema [the latter feature is currently being tested for the 1.1 version of the SigiDoc schema].
- SigiDoc/EFES source code: highly customised version of EFES for the needs of Byzantine sigillography and ready to be deployed and populated with the XML edition files.
Mandatory Readings
- EpiDoc guidelines: SigiDoc being a subset of EpiDoc, reading the EpiDoc guidelines is highly recommended (current version 9.4).
- EFES guidelines: EFES is the platform through which SigiDoc is displayed, therefore a good understanding of its functionalities is of great help to SigiDoc's users.
A test-corpus
In order to illustrate the encoding of Byzantine seals in SigiDoc and their publication through EFES, a test-corpus consisting of the digital enhancement of a paper publication is available here. The source code is available in a GitHub repository.