Why not edit medieval account books digitally?

Georg Vogeler<georg.vogeler@uni-graz.at>

http://www.i-d-e.de http://informationsmodellierung.uni-graz.at

International Conference: Financial Aspects of Medieval Economy – 17.-19-10.2013, Prague

Printed edition

e.g. Claudine Moulin, Michel Pauly: Die Rechnungsbücher der Stadt Luxemburg, 2006ff."Detailed documentation of the original text"

Accounts are tables

BayHStA KL Freising 69, ed. Bizjak 2005, S. 1

Printed editions

R. Knipping: Kölner Stadtrechnungen 1897/8

Digital edition?

Digital edition?

<http:www.castellanie.net>

Digital editing

… isn't restricted to one interpretation:It can represent the account book• visually• its language• its content• its process of productionin one resource

Styrian Marchfutterurbar 1414/1426

ed. v. Matthias Perstling< http://hfi.uni-graz.at/mfu/>

Multiple layers of inscription

Medieval Accountbooks of the Teutonic Order around 1400

ed. by Jürgen Sarnowsky, Christina Link et al.<http://www.schuredo.uni-hamburg.de/content/below/index.xml>

Content

Compte de Girard de Grandmont, châtelain de Bâgé, 3.11.1345Ed. by Marjorie Burghardthttp://burghart.online.fr/xml/

Fontes Civitatis Ratisponensis: StadtA Regensburg Cameralia 3

By Heidrun Boshof <http://www.fcr-online.com>

Edition with• Transcription• Images• Structural representation

„calculation oriented" editionThe Alcalá account book: Royal Irish college of Saint George the Martyr (1649-1785)

<http://archives.forasfeasa.ie/>

Why calculation oriented digital edition isn't standard?

1. Digital scholarly editing was first studies as a solution for complex textual tradition.

2. Scholarly editing is considered primarily as a philologic task.

3. The de-facto-standard (i.e. the guidelines of the TEI) has drawbacks if to be used for account books.

Edition and proto-editionComédie-Française Register Project <http://mit.edu/hyperstudio/cfr/>

"De-facto standard" TEI:

• TEI (Text Encoding Initiative)Modules for – transcription– Critical apparatus– Text-image-linking

• No model for accounts:– Only tei:measure(@commodity, @unit, @value,

@type)– no encoding of a transaction (involving persons, a

date, the object, the price and the final amount)

Alternative standards?

• OFX/IFX (Open Financial eXchange / Interactive Financial eXchange,)

• ebXML (Electronic Business XML)• XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting

Language) with taxonomies– E.g. XBRL Global Ledger

"bookkeeping"

• entry– bk:entry [gl-cor:entryDetail]– bk:amount(quantity, unit) [gl-cor:amount]– bk:i/bk:d [gl-cor:signOfAmount]– bk:account [gl-cor:account]– bk:debitCredit [gl-cor:debitCreditCode]

• price– bk:price(tei:measure[1], tei:measure[2])

• Transactions (Syd Baumann, Kathryn Tomasek)– bk:transaction(bk:transfer(from, to, where, when, what)*)

Testing the model

• BayHStA Staatsverwaltung 1378:Account book of the Vitztums of Straubing Peter of Eck, 1335(ed. Vogeler 1999)

http://gams.uni-graz.at/rem

Testing the modell

• Transcription in TEI• Add an accounting taxonomy• Script the conversion of text transcription into

stricter forms:– In tabular form– Calculating subsets– Represent the data in RDF– …

http://gams.uni-graz.at/rem

example

http://gams.uni-graz.at/rem

Text and calculation

Detailed transcription

Text selection

Spreadsheet

http://www.i-d-e.de http://informationsmodellierung.uni-graz.at

Why not editing medieval account books digitally?

Yes, why not?

Let's create a tradition of digital edition of accounts in which the computer can do what he can do best:

computare

Thanks for your attention! Georg Vogeler

<georg.vogeler@uni-graz.at>

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