A Digital Research Platform for the Semantic Reconstruction of - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

A Digital Research Platform for the Semantic Reconstruction of Giacomo Leopardi’s Zibaldone http://zibaldone.princeton.edu Silvia Stoyanova: sms27@yahoo.com Center for Digital Humanities, Universität Trier 12/06/2015 The Mechanic Reader, Siena 1

Leopardi’s design for the Zibaldone and rationale for remediation • Voltaire’s Dictionnaire Philosophique «Quanto al Dizionario filosofico, le scrissi che io aveva pronti i materiali, com’è vero; ma lo stile ch’è la cosa più • Diderot & D’Alembert’s Encyclopédie • Système figuré (tree-structure faticosa, ci manca affatto, giacché sono diagram) gittati sulla carta con parole e frasi • Alphabetical Dictionary appena intelleggibili, se non a me solo. • Encyclopedic order of cross- E di più sono sparsi in più migliaia di references between articles pagine, contenenti i miei pensieri; e per • “L’ancêtre de l’hypertexte” (Eric poterne estrarre quelli che Brian) appartenessero a un dato articolo, bisognerebbe che io rileggessi tutte • The hypertextual scholarly archive quelle migliaia di pagine, segnassi i • “We are trapped in the wrong pensieri che farebbero al caso, li paradigm – codex culture – which is not the way the mind disponessi, gli ordinassi ec.» works” (Ted Nelson, 1993: 321) -- Leopardi, letter to Stella, 13.09.1826 12/06/2015 The Mechanic Reader, Siena 2

The Zibaldone framework Manuscrip ipt Th Thematic ic Indexes • date, page & paragraph divisions Index of 1827 ( analytical ) • ca. 8.200 references to • interlinear & inline additions manuscript passages • marginalia • 1.000+ themes & subthemes; • underlining • cross-references between • bibliographic references themes • references to 38 separate • quotes sheets with longer lists of • internal cross-references references 8 Thematic Treatises (generic) • implicit internal cross-references • ca. 2.600 refs („come altrove“) 12/06/2015 The Mechanic Reader, Siena 3

Cross-references, marginalia and hypertextuality Zibaldone research platform, par. Zibaldone , p.1201, facsimile edition, Peruzzi 1201,1 & 1201,2 12/06/2015 The Mechanic Reader, Siena 4

Thematic threads and networks p.1201,1 (“ invidia ”, “ amor p.1201,2 (“ frequentativi e proprio ”, “ odio verso i nostri diminutivi latini ”) simili) p.1205,1 (no index themes) p.204,1 (Invidia) p.197,1 (Antichi. Invidia. Galateo morale. Macchiavellismo di società.) p.453,2 (Invidia. Gal. morale) p.494,1 (no index themes) 12/06/2015 The Mechanic Reader, Siena 5

Research Platform: paragraph informational window Par. 1201,1 Par. 1201,2 12/06/2015 The Mechanic Reader, Siena 6

Research Platform Index themes: content Word export, cross-themes 12/06/2015 The Mechanic Reader, Siena 7

Research Platform Index themes: Gephi visualizations Index theme “ invidia ” with “ Invidia ” in the context of related paragraphs PNR “ Trattato delle passioni ” 12/06/2015 The Mechanic Reader, Siena 8

Research Platform Index themes: Gephi visualizations “ Frequentativi e diminutivi latini ” (PR) Par. 1201,2 The Mechanic Reader, Siena 12/06/2015 9

Markup in TEI P5 (approximate numbers) structural content semantic • 4.525 page divisions • 3.400 bibliographic • 5.000 link references: references in the • 3.700 date div. main text • Leopardi’s works • 6.254 paragraph div. • 10.500 link • other texts • 500 inline notes references in the • 2.000 quotes • 2.600 interlinear indexes notes • 17.500 person • 3.100 editorial names • 2.000 marginal responsibility notes • 2.000 place names • 1000 underlining • 1.050 ink variations for emphasis • 20.000 underlining 12/06/2015 The Mechanic Reader, Siena 10

Research Platform Settings 12/06/2015 The Mechanic Reader, Siena 11

Research Platform: functions • Settings: evidence/hide the manuscript’s annotation markers, editorial notes, bibliographic elements Navigation • Division by date or paragraph number • Hyperlinks within manuscript and to the indexes • Info Window: paragraph’s links and index themes Querying & • Keyword Search and export results in a Word file Harvesting • Automatic list generation and export of thematically related passages in the Indexes • Histograms • Statistical charts Visualization • Graphs of index themes and of individual paragraphs • Bibliographic network map • Database of user annotations on the main text Social Modules • User analytical index • Link critical bibliography citations to themes and tag 12/06/2015 The Mechanic Reader, Siena 12

Methodology and tools Storage & Text Statistics Editing Visualization Query Encoding in TEI P5 Word TUSTEP Oxygen eXist database Gephi Kompozer Excel Drupal Python xQuery 12/06/2015 The Mechanic Reader, Siena 13

Further development • editorial apparatus: - index of persons, places, bibliographic references and quotes • social modules: - annotations; analytical index; secondary bibliography; • advanced computational processing of the semantic fields of cross-references and index themes • experiment with the semantic value of the references (subordinate, parallel, bibliographical, editorial) • experiment with the relational potential of encoded elements • text analysis to index unindexed fragments and to compare Leopardi’s indexing with existing computational methods • the Zibaldone as a “Personal Knowledge Base” (Stephen Davies, “Still Building the Memex ”, ACM, 2011) 12/06/2015 The Mechanic Reader, Siena 14