Authorship of the document

Encoding Instructions (new P5 version)

The WWP encodes attributions of responsibility (on the title page or at the head or end of a div) using the respLine element, which replaces the TEI element byline. The respLine element expresses a broader range of responsibility than simple authorship. It has the same content model as byline, and can appear wherever byline could appear, but it can be used to encode references to transcribers, reporters, petitioners, and other people and agencies having to do with the production of the text, as well as authors. Its chief use is on title pages and in other places where responsibility for textual production is expressed (for instance, the byline to a newspaper article or essay). It should not be confused with the author element, which is used within bibl to encode references to other works. respLine is only intended for those agents with responsibility for producing the work being transcribed.

The WWP has changed the name of the TEI docAuthor element to docRole, and has broadened its application to encode references to any of the participants in the document’s production and dissemination (including author, editor, translator, printer, publisher, bookseller) appearing on the title page. docRole carries a type, with possible values of author, editor, translator, publisher, printer, bookseller, licensee, disseminator, and uncertain.

For the parts of the title page that deal with intellectual responsibility, respLine should be used to encode the entire block of text describing that responsibility: for instance “By a Lady”, “Written by Mrs. C. Smith”, “Set down and annotated by Rev. L. Jones”, and similar statements. Within respLine, the name of the author or other participants in the text’s production should be encoded with docRole. If the reference is with a proper name, this should be encoded with persName (or, if the author is an organization or collectivity, with orgName or name).

For parts of the title page dealing with the text’s physical production (publisher, bookseller, printer), no respLine is needed. docRole is used within docImprint.

As a rough formula for determining who’s who on the title page, we use the following:

In an imprint which states “Printed by X for Y”, X is the printer and Y is the publisher.

In an imprint which states “Printed for Y”, Y is the publisher.

In an imprint which states “Printed by X”, X is the printer.

In an imprint which states “Printed for X, Y, Z, and Q”, X, Y, Z, and Q are all publishers.

Example 1. 
            <respline>By <docRole>a 
            Lady</docRole></respline>
        

Example 2. <respline>By <docRole><persName>Jane 
                Doe</persName></docRole>, author of <title>Female 
                Poems on Several Occasions</title></respline>
            

Example 3. <respline>Orated by 
                <docRole><persName>Henry Earl of 
                Wigglesworth</persName></docRole> at his father’s 
                birth</respline>
            

Example 4. <respline>Channelled by 
                <docRole><orgName>The National Society of 
                Channelers</orgName></docRole> and recorded by their 
                secretary, <docRole><persName>Wilhelmina 
                Bloomer</persName></docRole></respline>
            

Example 5. (a real example) <respline>compyled in frenche 
                by <docRole><persName>lady Margarete quene of 
                Navarre</persName></docRole>, and aptely translated into 
                Englysh by the ryght vertuouse <docRole><persName>lady 
                Elyzabeth</persName></docRole> daughter to our late 
                soverayne <persName>Kynge Henri the 
                viii</persName></respline>