PTA
Project
Documentation
Editorial Implementation
Transcription of manuscripts and (critical) editions
-> Look here: Encoding guidelines
Texts
Where available, each text is linked to the matching entries in the databases of Clavis Clavium and of Pinakes; IDs of the TLG© for authors and works are also shown (no linking is possible).
The data is available on Github or Zenodo.
Each edition of a text is accessible through a permalink (using the CTS-URN): for example https://pta.bbaw.de/text/urn:cts:pta:pta0013.pta003.pta-grc1; the versioned permalink reflects a specific state of publication, for example https://pta.bbaw.de/text/9970133a/urn:cts:pta:pta0013.pta003.pta-grc1. The respective permalink is to found in the reader under Reuse; there, you can also generate permalinks for selected text passages. Permalinks are also available for authors/textgroups: https://pta.bbaw.de/text/urn:cts:pta:pta0013, as well as for works: https://pta.bbaw.de/text/urn:cts:pta:pta0013.pta003.
For all features look here.
Manuscripts
At the moment, the database of manuscripts contains only rudimentary data on manuscripts which are edited in the PTA. That data is widely based on the data provided by Pinakes (= “draft” status) and amended with observations by the respective editor of the description.
The entry in the Pinakes database is linked as well as digitized versions and IIIF manifests (where available). For the texts transmitted in the manuscript, the edition in the PTA, the entry in the Clavis Clavium database or in the Database of Byzantine Book Epigrams is linked. If digitized images of the manuscripts are available (via IIIF), they are accessible in the inline viewer.
The data is available on Github.
Each manuscript description is accesible through a permalink (using the internal manuscript-ID): for example https://pta.bbaw.de/de/manuscripts/PTAMS00325; the versioned permalink reflects a specific state of publication, for example https://pta.bbaw.de/de/manuscripts/80476827/PTAMS00325.
People and groups
People and groups mentioned in the editions are encoded and enriched by other sources as far as possible.
For Biblical persons the TIPNR - Translators Individualised Proper Names with all References are used (as of commit b83a3cf1 (31 May 2024)), all other persons are referenced via the project's person index, which references GND IDs and Wikidata IDs where available. For GND Ids the service lobid-gnd | ein LOD-Dienst des hbz — Hochschulbibliothekszentrum des Landes NRW is used.
An Index of all annotated persons is provided. The description given is based on the following sources: TIPNR = Translators Individualised Proper Names with all References (see above), AW_III_5 = Athanasius Werke III 5, Verzeichnis der Personen (Berlin/Boston 2020), AvS = Annette von Stockhausen, php = Philipp Pilhofer. CAVEAT: Not all texts are (fully) annotated, the status of the annotation of each text is shown in the Reader (and in the teiHeader of the XML file).
Places
As far as possible, places mentioned in the editions are encoded and enriched by data from the Pleiades-Gazetteer (using http://atlantides.org/downloads/pleiades/json/pleiades-places-20240613.json.gz) and the Translators Individualized Proper Names with all References (as of commit b83a3cf1 (31 May 2024)) list.
An Index of all annotated places is provided. All places as well as the place selected are shown on a map; for this we make use of the Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire (DARE). CAVEAT: Not all texts are (fully) annotated, the status of the annotation of each text is shown in the Reader (and in the teiHeader of the XML file).
Biblical quotes
Biblical quotes (and allusions) are also encoded as far as possible.
The references for the encoded quotes are (not for Eusebius' Commentary on the Psalms) shown in an apparatus, which also shows the respective quote from the Bible. For the Old Testament the digitized version of Rahlfs' edition of the Septuagint is used, for the New Testament the SBL Greek New Testament (Copyright © 2010 Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, marked as SBLGNT), as provided at https://pta.bbaw.de/text/urn:cts:pta:pta9999.
For references to the Hexapla links to Frederick Field (ed.): Origenis hexaplorum quae supersunt: sive veterum interpretum Graecorum in totum vetus testamentum fragmenta. Post Flaminium nobilium, Drusium, et Montefalconium, adhibita etiam versione Syro-Hexaplari. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1875 (vol. 1: Genesis – Esther; vol. 2: Hiob – Maleachi and for references to the Vulgata links to the online version of Robert Weber/Roger Gryson (edd.), Biblia Sacra iuxta Vulgatam versionem. Editio quinta. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2007 are provided.
An Index of all annotated biblical references is provided. CAVEAT: Not all text are (fully) annotated.
Technical Implementation
The PTA Web application ist a Vue.js Single Page Application on top of a Laravel PHP backend. The backend provides serveral internal restful APIs for including the versioned data in the repositories used (pta_data, pta_lexika, pta_manuscripts, pta_metadata, pta_frontend_documentation).
Modules & plugins
The PTA webapp uses the following additional modules and plugins:
Languages of the interface
The interface is currently available in German and English, Italian and Greek are work in progress. The translations are in json format according to i18n standard. More languages are planned. We happily accept contributions!
Automated, AI-supported text analysis
Editions and translations (note: no transcriptions) in the following languages are automatically analyzed (lemma, POS, morphology; dependency) with the help of SpaCy models and a pipeline integrated in the frontend, which uses the service of the Classical Language Dictionary: Greek, Latin, Armenian, English, German. The pipeline, controlled by a Python script, generates TEI-XML files in which the words are annotated as w element with attributes (@xml:id, @lemma, @pos, @msd; @m:dep, @m:anc). The model used in each case is noted in the TEI header. Transcriptions and files in languages other than those mentioned above are only marked up as w element (with attribute @xml:id). The annotated files are stored in the pta_data repository in a separate folder analyzed, which the PTA webapp uses for searching and displaying in the reader (including the lexicon function).
The automatic analysis is as good as the models used (and therefore subject to errors!). In future, it will also be possible to manually correct the automatically analyzed data.
Search
The search in the backend is based on Solr and Multi Tier Annotation Search, which provides the Corpus Query Language (CQL) as the query language. The simple search and advanced search options are documented separately.
Dictionary
The dictionary function uses the service of the Classical Language Dictionary and the automatically analyzed data (see above) for the dictionary lookup. If possible, errors in the automatic lemmatization are compensated for by using a lookup table (note: not error-free either!). For Syriac, the SEDRA IV API (v1.0.0) is used.
Analyse text with Voyant Tools
You can forward the XML of the current text to Voyant Tools and analyse it with the tools provided there. Please note that the texts are not lemmatised. We'll make lemmatized texts available for the feature in the future.
Cover picture
The cover picture of PTA is a detail of f. 78r der Handschrift Paris, BnF, Grec 510 (Source gallica.bnf.fr / BnF).
Patristic Textarchive. An open access archive of ancient Christian texts
published by Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. The Academy research project „The Late Antique Biblical Exegesis of Alexandria and Antioch“ is part of the Academies Programme, a research funding programme co-financed by the German federal government and individual federal states. Coordinated by the Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities, the Programme intends to retrieve and explore our cultural heritage, to make it accessible and highlight its relevance to the present, as well as to preserve it for future.