General information

Website

The website uses WordPress, a very common PHP and MySQL-based content-management system (CMS) to enable basic functions such as full text search, user management etc. While this platform is well known in the world wide web – especially for blogging –, it is not widely-adopted for Digital Humanities projects working with XML data.

The Bibliotheca legum is a multi-language site, providing information in German and in English. Further functionalities are enabled by the use of various plugins.

Although the site is available for public use, there are some technical refinements to be made and bugs to eradicate. We are constantly working on improving the website and enhancing the information.

Browser

The website has been optimized for all current browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Apple Safari and Opera.  It should also be easily accessible on mobile devices.

Difficulties might occur if Javascript is disabled. Please let us know if you observe any problems.

Encoding

The manuscript descriptions are encoded using the guidelines of the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI), which is an XML standard widely adopted in the digital humanities for the representation of texts.

A customized schema was created via the Roma tool to validate the mark-up. The practices from the Herzog August library Wolfenbüttel were taken as an example for structuring the manuscript descriptions. Bibliographical references, people and places are tagged as such and are gathered in indices together with additional information as well as links to further resources.

The XML files are also available for download. You can either click on the link below each description or use the download page.

Transformation

Although almost all pages except the introductory texts are originally XML, they are transformed to HTML by various custom XSLT stylesheets. This functionality is enabled using the XSL Processor plugin.

Browsing & searching

The manuscript descriptions can be reached using the main navigation via different accesses. A table provides basic information on each codex, such as its origin and the leges contained. Other possible ways are to go through the shelfmarks in alphabetical order or use the other views like “by leges” contained, “by period” and “by origin”.

A full text search (using the Relevanssi plugin) is also available. You can use the search form in the upper right corner.  A faceted search via taxonomies on the landing page allows to filter the manuscripts according to certain criteria or even to combine different criteria.

Breadcrumbs are used to enable orientation. Users may also find the CTRL+F search function on a PC or the Command+F search function on a Mac helpful on some pages of the resource.

Resources

• Introductory texts: These texts provide basic information on the law texts, as well as the authoritative edition, all relevant literature since 2000 and links to further resources. Also all manuscripts that contain the respective lex are listed.
• Bibliography: A comprehensive bibliography assembles all those editions and secondary literature the information on the website is based upon. Additionally, you can find the respective references as well as further reading recommendations below each manuscript. The Bibliotheca capitularium regum Francorum manuscripta by Hubert Mordek  –  the most complete work on Carolingian manuscripts –  is also available for pdf download (single pages as well as the complete text).
• Indices:
  • Repositories: All repositories which keep manuscripts today are listed here. If available, address and contact information is given as well as the manuscript(s) kept there.
  • People: Almost all people (at least those that were identifiable) are listed here in alphabetical order. Biographical information is offered for those identified as well as VIAF numbers and links to further resources if available. Names are given as they appeared in the respective literature. Also all manuscripts are listed in which the name appears.
  • Places: All places that appear in the manuscripts either as origin or in the content are listed here in alphabetical order. Authority files (TGN, Geonames etc.) are used to identify them, as well as links to further resources are given if possible. Also all manuscripts are listed in which the place appears.

We make no claim to completeness!

• Studies: Studies (articles, papers etc.) that accrued within the context or with the use of the Bibliotheca legum will be listed here.
• Transcriptions: Here you can find transcriptions of different legal texts.
• Digital Images: Digital images will be provided here in a viewer.
• Statistics: The results of the user pre-test as well as other analyses and visualizations are available here.

Annotations

If not declared otherwise, annotations in the form of a “N.B.” lie in the responsibility of Professor Karl Ubl.

Links

In the link area some projects with thematic relevance are listed as recommendations. This list is not exhaustive.

Licence and citation

The material is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license, which means that you are free to make use of it in non-commercial ways without asking and hand it on under the same conditions. However, you must cite the project as the source of the material.

Please cite the website as follows:

Bibliotheca legum regni Francorum manuscripta,  Karl Ubl (Ed.) assisted by Dominik Trump and Daniela Schulz, Cologne 2012.
 URL: http://www.leges.uni-koeln.de/en

If you make substantial use of the materials in any form we would appreciate hearing about it. Also feedback is very welcome.

Privacy

See Site-notice.

If you have any further questions go through the FAQs or write us an email [bibliotheca-legum(at)uni-koeln.de]!