7.  Origin, Provenance, Acquisition <history>

<history> contains information concerning the history of a manuscript from the moment of its production to the present day.

<origin> contains information concerning the place, date, and other circumstances of the production of a manuscript: it may provide the evidence on which the statements in the <origDate> and <origPlace> elements are based.

<provenance> contains information concerning any aspect of the history of the manuscript (including information about its production and/or acquisition by the present or last known owner, where these do not belong unambiguously within <origin> or <acquisition>).

<acquisition> contains information concerning the acquisition of the manuscript by its present owner.

Information concerning the provenance of a manuscript should be encoded in a <history> element, under an optional <head> element, within one or more paragraph <p> elements.  When the data will fit such an arrangement, one or more of the following subelements may be used: <origin>, <provenance>, and <acquisition>, each of which contains one or more <p> elements, is repeatable and may occur in any order.  Certain acquisition information, such as prices or negotiations with dealers, may be more appropriately encoded within the element <adminInfo> and its subelement <remarks> since these elements carry an "audience" attribute, one of whose legal values is "internal" (to limit display).

Each of the three subelements, <origin>, <provenance> and <acquisition> carries the following optional attributes:

notBefore
specifies the earliest possible date for the information in the associated element.
 
Datatype:
CDATA
 
Values:
Normalized dates should be specified in whatever standardised form is defined by the TEI Header
 
Default:
#IMPLIED

notAfter
specifies the latest possible date for the information in the associated element
 
Datatype:
CDATA
 
Values:
Normalized dates should be specified in whatever standardised form is defined by the TEI Header
 
Default:
#IMPLIED

evidence
specifies the kind of evidence for the dating supplied by the other attributes.
 
Datatype:
CDATA
 
Legal values:
 
 
 
internal
the dating is based on evidence internal to the ms (e.g. an inscription).
 
 
external
the dating is based on evidence external to the ms (e.g. a reference to the ms in some other datable context).
 
 
attributed
the dating is based on attribution by the cataloguer or another individual according to his own knowledge of the field (e.g. paleographic, art historical).
 
Default:
#IMPLIED
  

Within the <p> of <history> or of its subelements, <origin>, <provenance> and <acquisition>, one may find occasion to use a number of other appropriate elements such as:

<heraldry>
<motto>
<secFol>
<msIdentifier type="cited">
<msIdentifier type="former">
<name> [which carries a type attribute with the default value of "person"]
<name type="org">
<name role="owner">
<note>
<origDate>
<origPlace>

 

PLACE AND DATE OF ORIGIN

<origPlace> encodes the place of origin of the manuscript or manuscript part.
<origDate>encodes the date of production of the manuscript or manuscript part.

The two elements, <origPlace> and <origDate> in their occurrence internally to the <history> element (or internally to its subelement, <origin>), are among the most important for reliable searching on descriptions of medieval manuscripts.  It cannot be emphasized strongly enough that every effort should be made to encode a manuscript’s place and date of origin by means of these specific elements, placed inside the <history> element.  This is the one site where search engines should be able to always access this information.  The two elements, however, can be used inside any <p> in the description, as well as in <msHeading>.

The two key elements, <origPlace> and <origDate> (as well as <history>’s three subelements, <origin>, <provenance> and <acquisition>)  share the same crucial attribute for "evidence":

evidence (internal | external | attributed) #IMPLIED

The value "internal" means that a manuscript is formally dated or localized by the scribe.

The value "external" means that the manuscript is datable or localizable via inferred knowledge from some aspect of the book itself:  a chronicle that breaks abruptly in a certain year, and then picks up in another scribe’s hand; a text composed in a certain year with a slightly later acquisition note on a flyleaf; an Easter table with a cross next to one year’s column; and so forth.  If it is a question of a range of years, they usually fall within parameters that are ever tighter, the closer one moves to the modern world:  a manuscript datable to a 25-year range in the tenth century should be so designated; a fifteenth century Italian manuscript datable to the same range of years is not of particular interest on this account, with the decision the decision to accept a manuscript as "datable" in the hands of the cataloguer.

The value "attributed" means that the cataloguer or another person has made an attribution of place or date for the manuscript, based on his own experience and expertise.  This is not proposed as the least desirable form of dating and localizing; indeed, both other methods rest on shaky grounds if they are not supported by the paleographer’s eye (a scribal colophon may have been copied word for word from the exemplar; the cross on an Easter table’s date may have been scratched in the manuscript by a child).

As mentioned above with regard to attributions of script and decoration to certain scribes or artists, the place and date of origin of a manuscript are not infrequently determined by someone other than the cataloguer, and the cataloguer often acknowledges the other person.  The <note> element may be used for this purpose.

The legal values on the "evidence" attribute of <origDate> precisely parallel the values on the "dateAttrib" attribute on <msDescription> and <msPart>:

            dateAttrib (dated | dateable | unknown) #IMPLIED >

Because evidence supplied by a dated manuscript, or a datable manuscript, or a manuscript dated by a recognized expert is assessed by the scholarly community with such differing value, and because the nature of the evidence on which the dating of a manuscript depends is so important, both sets of attributes should be used whenever possible.

The element <origDate> may enclose the date of production of the manuscript in whatever format has been chosen by the cataloguer, whether in words, arabic numerals, roman numerals, or a combination of these.  If the format requires superscript letters or numbers, one may use the subelement <hi>, together with its attribute and value, rend="superscript."   All formats of the date of origin will index and search correctly, if the "notBefore" and "notAfter" attributes of <origDate> are used.  These attributes are valid for manuscripts whose date is attributed to the manuscript by the cataloguer, for manuscripts whose date is inferred by the cataloguer (datable), or for manuscripts that are dated by the scribe.  If, however, the manuscript is dated, the encoder may use the "value" attribute, following the form of ISO 8601, to encode the year-month-day; this is also useful for archival materials.

In addition to its global attributes and the "evidence" attribute, <origPlace> offers a "reg" attribute to give, for example, the local language’s form for the city name.  One may also use the subelements, <country>, <region> and <settlement> (all are standard TEI elements, and all have a "reg" attribute), of which <country> in an indexable form is crucial.  If the catalogue being encoded is explicit only about the name of the city where the manuscript originated, the encoder could add the country name via the attribute+value, "rend="hidden."

Examples:

<history><p>Copied, <origDate notBefore="1350" notAfter="1399">s. XIV<hi rend="superscript">2</hi></origDate> in <origPlace reg="Deutschland">Germany</origPlace></p><history>

<physDesc><p>Vit., 122 ff., 193 x 140 mm., </p></physDesc><history><p><origDate notBefore="1100" notAfter="1199">s. XII</origDate></p></history>

<msContents><msItem>1r-2v, 191r-v, Spiegelblatt Fragment einer Urkunde über die Grüdung des Klosters Vadstena</msItem></msContents><history><p> <origDate value="1388-5-18">18.5.1388</origDate></p></history>

<history><p>The document is dated from <origDate value="1363-5-31">1363</origDate>, with the month and day specified as follows:  "anno domini m<hi rend="superscript">mo</hi> ccc<hi rend="superscript">mo</hi> Lx<hi rend="superscript">mo</hi> Tercio feria quarta post dominicam quando in Ecclesia dei cantabitur Domine in tua misericordia."</p></history>

<history><p>A c. 2v c’è la nota di possesso del monastero di <name type="org" role="owner">Monte Oliveto Maggiore</name> e la segnatura che il manoscritto aveva in quella biblioteca:  <msIdentifier type="former"><idno>P XIIII</idno></msIdentifier>; la segnatura è ripetutata c. 3r, dove troviamo anche la nota del passaggio alla Biblioteca Comunale il </p><acquisition><p>26 ottobre 1810.</p></acquisition></history>

<history><p>Written in <origPlace><country>France</country></origPlace> in the monastery of  St.-Amand, to judge by the script, decoration, and textual contents. It was acquired by the Bibliothèque Nationale de France with the rest of Colbert's library.</p></history>

<history><origin><p>Copied towards the <origDate evidence="attributed" notBefore="1440" notAfter="1460">middle of the fifteenth century</origDate>, probably in <origPlace evidence="attributed"><settlement reg="Padova">Padua</settlement> in northern <country reg="Italia">Italy</country></origPlace><note>We thank Dr. A. C. de la Mare for dating and localizing this manuscript.</note></p></origin></history>

Example of one <history> element with all three subelements, displayed here in paragraphs for clarity:

<history>

<origin><p>Made for a member of the Erizzo family in <origPlace> <country rend="hidden">Italy</country> <settlement>Venice</settlement></origPlace>, in the <origDate notBefore="1450" notAfter="1475">third quarter of the 15th century</origDate>, with their coat of arms on fol. 1r.</p></origin>

<provenance><p>Messrs. J. & J. Leighton, London book-sellers: included in their catalogue for 1889, item 727.  <name reg="Morris, William" role="formerOwner">William Morris</name> (1834-96), presumably bought from Leighton in 1889 or shortly thereafter.  <name reg="Bennett, Richard" role="formerOwner">Richard Bennett</name>, of Manchester; acquired with the rest of Morris's medieval manuscripts, and sold by him at Sotheby's, 5 December 1898, lot 297, bought by <name reg="Buchanan, Thomas Ryburn" role="formerOwner">T. R. Buchanan</name>.</p></provenance>

<acquisition><p>Presented to the Bodleian Library by Mrs. <name reg="Buchanan, Emily Octavia" role="formerOwner">E. O. Buchanan in 1941, in accordance with the wishes of her late husband.</p></acquisition>

</history>

HERALDRY

<heraldry> encompasses the discussion of heraldic arms, supporters, devices, and mottos, including the blazoning of the arms.

The <heraldry> element can be inserted within any <p>.

Examples:

<p><heraldry>Les armes de Jean Rolin.</heraldry></p>

<p>A c. 8r fregio su due lati, <heraldry>stemma e imprese medicee</heraldry> racchiudono l’inizio dell’epistolario di Paolino.</p>

<p><heraldry>Two coats of arms, unidentified:  on the left, argent, a lion rampant holding a fleur-de-lis (tincture uncertain), and on the right, gules, a mullet of 6 points or between 2 serpents (?) erect combattant.</heraldry></p>

MOTTO

<motto> contains the indexable word or string of words that identify and rally a person, a family, a state or other entity.

The element <motto> can be used within any <p>.  It could be helpful to use <motto>, for example, within <heraldry>.  The element should enclose only and precisely the words of the motto itself, in the form it would take in an index, without quotation marks or italics (either of which could eventually be supplied, if desired, by means of a style sheet).

Examples:

<history><p>Ownership stamp (XVII Century) on i recto with the <heraldry>arms, <hi rend = ital>A bull passant within a bordure bezanty, in chief a crescent for difference,</hi> [Cole] crest and the legend, <motto>Cole Deum</motto>.</heraldry></p></history>

<bindingDesc><p>Sulla guardia si legge la nota di possesso della casa del Bessarione, col motto, <motto>Custos vel ultor</motto>.</p></bindingDesc>

SECUNDO FOLIO

The <secFol> element contains the word or words that the medieval (or possibly modern) cataloguer has chosen from a set point in the codex to uniquely identify that book (the beginning of the second leaf, the beginning of the second column, etc.).

Medieval librarians not infrequently included in their inventories the opening or closing words of certain predetermined places of the books in their collections, the most usual location being perhaps the opening words of the second leaf, although other positions were also used (the first words of the second column, the first words "in rubro" and the first "in nigro," the first words of the next to the last leaf, the last words of the next to the last leaf, and so on).  The purpose was to provide a unique and unchangeable identification of the one codex, since it pinpoints the intersection between text and physical book, and ultimately ownership, once the words are recorded in an inventory.

Modern cataloguers sometimes also include this information in the description of a manuscript, both as an aid to eventually identifying a manuscript with one listed in a medieval catalogue, and as a present-day unique identifier of given codex (thievery being a problem for the modern librarian as well).

Given the variety of locations chosen by the medieval cataloguer as his source for the identifying words, and given the variety of locations in which a modern cataloguer may chose to report this information, we have decided to simplify matters by retaining today's most common name ("secundo folio"), by allowing it to repeat, and by allowing it to occur anywhere in the description provided it is internal to a <p>.

The name of the tag does not force a cataloguer to use that name visibly in his catalogue, since the elements <head> or <hi> can report the catalogue’s chosen form.

Note:  The element <secFol> should enclose only the secundo folio citation itself so as to assure correct indexing.

Examples:

<history><p><hi rend="ital">Secundo folio</hi>: [f. 14, Text] <secFol>maritimas consuetudines</secFol></p></history>

<p>Secundo folio:  Pt. I:  f. 2, <secFol>(re-)missione</secFol> which is copied in a fifteenth century hand in the upper margin of f. 1; Pt. II:  f. 84, in the rubric <secFol>Conversio morum</secFol> and in the text <secFol>Semel in anno</secFol>.</p>

<head>Dictum probatorium:</head><p><locus>f. 2</locus>, <secFol> (re-) missione</secFol></p>

<head rend="ital">Indices probatoriae:</head><p>f. 79, at the end of the penultimate leaf, <secFol>peccavi nimis</secFol></p>