The encoding model

Each Hyperedition is based on a main XML-TEI file, compliant with the TEI P5 Guidelines and validated against the tei_all schema. The Text Encoding Initiative is the reference standard for representing texts in the humanities: choosing it means making the data readable by other systems, verifiable and preservable over time. The main file holds three levels together: the structure of the text, the entities and references that run through it, and the resources that accompany it.

The structure

Pages, acts, speeches and stage directions.

Entities and references

Characters, places, vocabulary and notes, linked to their entries.

The resources

Audio, video, images and letters, anchored to the page.

The header (teiHeader)

The header describes the work and the work done on it:

• titleStmt with the responsibilities (respStmt): coordination, encoding, sponsorship by the Commission for the National Edition, curation by CINUM;
• editionStmt and publicationStmt, with the University of Catania – CINUM as the responsible body;
• sourceDesc, with the bibliographic reference to the first edition and the critical edition and, for manuscripts, the physical description in msDesc (shelfmark, support, number and size of the leaves, foliation, history of the document);
• revisionDesc, which records in change the stages of the encoding, with date and person responsible.

The structure of the text

• Pages: pb n="…" marks the beginning of each page of the printed edition. It is the link between the digital text and the book, and the key with which the interface scrolls the text and calls up the resources.
• Divisions: div type="title", div type="castList" and div type="atto" n="…" for the plays; chapters for the novels; head for titles.
• Dramatis personae: castList, castItem and castGroup (for example «I quattro finti Consiglieri Segreti»), each linked with @sameAs to the character's entry.
• Speeches and stage directions: each speech is an sp with the name in speaker and the text in p; stage directions are stage, with italics in hi rend="italic".

Who speaks to whom

Each speech declares the speaker (@who) and the addressee (@toWhom). It is the most distinctive choice of the model: describing the interlocutors of each exchange makes it possible to query the text by character, to combine the encoding data with the lemmatisation data and to obtain, for example, all the occurrences of a lemma spoken by Enrico IV, or the selective vocabulary of a single character.

Entities and commentary: the text that refers

In the text we mark the mentions and link them, through an identifier, to the corresponding entry gathered at the end of the file (back). The text stays clean; the information lives in one place only and is called up wherever it is needed.

Resources anchored to the page

At the beginning of each page a note type="media" place="block" block gathers the relevant resources, each as an anchor whose @source points to the entry in the list type="media" catalogue. Each entry has a title, a short description (desc) and a media element with the file type (@mimeType) and address (@url). The same resource (the letter to Ruggero Ruggeri, an audiobook) can thus be called up from several pages without duplication.

<pb n="3"/>
<note type="media" place="block">
  <anchor xml:id="p3_AudiolibroScena1" source="#enricoIV-AudiolibroScena1"/>
</note>
<sp who="#Landolfo" toWhom="#Bertoldo">
  <speaker><persName ref="#Landolfo">LANDOLFO</persName></speaker>
  <stage><hi rend="italic">(a <persName ref="#Bertoldo">Bertoldo</persName> come seguitando una spiegazione)</hi></stage>
  <p>E questa è la sala del trono! <ptr type="bibl" ana="#n_saladeltrono"/></p>
</sp>
<sp who="#Arialdo" toWhom="#Landolfo">
  <speaker><persName ref="#Arialdo">ARIALDO</persName></speaker>
  <p>A <placeName ref="#Goslar">Goslar</placeName>!</p>
</sp>

The manuscript

The manuscript editions are encoded in separate XML-TEI files and displayed with EVT 1 (Edition Visualization Technology), in a version adapted to the project. Each leaf opens with a pb whose identifier links it to its image (for example MSItal83-6r); the revision work is described as follows:

Features of the manuscript and their encoding

Feature	Encoding
Deletion	del
Overwriting	del rend="overwritten" followed by add place="superimposed"
Interlinear addition, above or below	add place="above", add place="below"
Inline or marginal addition	add place="inline", add place="left" (and similar)
Uncertain or illegible reading	unclear reason="illegible"
Gap or illegible deleted passage	gap reason="illegible" / gap reason="deletion", with @unit and @quantity
Editorial supplement	supplied

deletions in Il fu Mattia Pascal, 573 leaves

832

additions in Il fu Mattia Pascal

740

deletions in Enrico IV

656

additions in Enrico IV

770

The apparatus

The dynamic edition of Il fu Mattia Pascal, edited by Giuseppe Canzoneri, represents the apparatus with the Parallel Segmentation Method of the TEI Guidelines: each variant location is an app, with the adopted reading in lem and those of the other witnesses in rdg, each attributed to its witness. The file is displayed with EVT 2, which shows up to three witnesses side by side and opens the apparatus on each variant.

The Hypereditions in figures

Data taken from the XML-TEI files of the three theatre Hypereditions (October–November 2025 versions).