Fields and symbols in the Menota catalogue

Menota is an archive of primary sources, such as manuscripts and charters, as well as any fragments of manuscripts and charters. The manuscripts themselves are the basic objects in the archive. Many manuscripts contain more than one work, while other manuscripts contain only a single work, complete or in part. Also note that some manuscripts are only encoded in part.

All information in the Menota catalogue is harvested from the header of each XML file.

Signature

The signature of the manuscript, usually consisting of an abbreviation for the collection (e.g. AM = The Arnamagnæan collection) a number and the size (fol, 4to, 8vo). Signatures of Old Norse manuscripts are given according to the list in the index volume of the Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog (København 1989).

MS or work title

The title of the manuscript or the work(s) contained in the manuscript. Some manuscripts have commonly used names, e.g. Codex Wormianus, while other manuscripts are more easily referred to by their work title, e.g. Barlaams ok Josaphats saga in Holm perg 6 fol. In the case of manuscripts which have been partially encoded, that should be indicated in the title, e.g. Codex Regius of the Eddic poems: Völuspá.

Version

The version of the file is given in the usual decimal system: 1.0 (for the first full version), 1.1 (for a minor revision), 1.1.1 (for a very minor revision), 2.0 (for a major revision). Only the last version will be shown in the catalogue, but all earlier versions will be kept in the archive for future reference. A suitable interface for accessing previous versions will be developed.

Language

The language of the text is indicated by the following abbreviations: oic = Old Icelandic, onw = Old Norwegian, osw = Old Swedish, oda = Old Danish and lat = Latin.

Words

The number of words in the text. This is probably the best indication of the size of a text and of particluar relevance for lemmatised texts. It can be helpful to compare the number of words with a typical printed edition of the text: Barlaams ok Josaphats saga in Holm perg 6 fol contains approx. 76,000 words, which is equal to 192 pages in the printed edition by Magnus Rindal (Oslo 1981).

Read

Texts are encoded on one or more levels: F for the facsimile level, D for the diplomatic level and N for the normalised level. Clicking one of these symbols will open the text on that particular level. Most texts are encoded on only one level, but may be enhanced with additional levels at a later stage. Empty boxes indicate missing levels in the encoded text.

Search

Clicking the F button will open a search page in which the selected manuscript has been pre-selected. The user may tick any additional manuscripts before performing the actual search. For lemmatised and morphologically analysed texts, detailed searches are possible. All manuscripts allow for free text search, i.e. a search for exact strings of characters. Results will be shown in the form of a concordance, and by clicking any line in this concordance, the user will be taken to the full text. Note that the concordance can be displayed on one or more levels, as selected in the bar above.

Analysis

This field indicates whether the text has been lemmatised (L) and/or morphologically analysed (M). Lemmatisation means that a lemma (entry form in a dictionary) has been attached to each word in the text, and is of particular help for manuscripts with variable orthography or manuscripts on the facsimile or diplomatic level. Morphological analysis means that each word has been specified for grammatical categories such as number, gender, case etc. No symbol in this field means that the text is neither lemmatised nor morphologically analysed.

Status

This field indicates the level of correction (proof reading): red bar = low level, yellow bar = medium level, green bar = high level. Menota would like to encourage the publication also of texts that are not completely polished and believe that a not-yet-perfect text is better than no text at all. Note that the status of correction is declared by the depositor and not guaranteed by Menota. Users should take this fact into account when using the archive.

Main editor(s)

The main editor(s) are listed in this field. As a rule, a maximum of three names will be given. If there are four or more editors, only one editor will be given, with the addition of et al. A full list of editors (if more than three) and other contributors will be found in the Header field. In some cases, a project name will be given as the main editor, in which case the full list of contributors will be given in the Header field.

Header

The header contains structured bibliographical information on the text, accessed by clicking the H button. The minimal contents of the header is specified in ch. 10 of the Menota handbook.

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Opprettet 12 January 2007. Sist oppdatert 09.01.2008. Vevsjef. (Rediger)