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MoEML Quickstart

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MoEML Quickstart

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Part I: Introduction to Markup

Unlike past generations of editors, we are producing texts that must be readable by machines before they are rendered and made readable by humans. Therefore, virtually every editorial choice must be tagged in such a way that a computer can both interpret it and display it (render it) in an interface. We call this level of machine-readable information markup.
Markup has the additional advantage that we can process a marked-up text in many different ways. We can change how we render it. We can give readers options (e.g., to turn things on or off, to change the font, to display the long S or convert them all to short s). We can transform the marked-up text into many different types of outputs: HTML pages for display on a website, PDFs, ePubs, etc. We can index it, link to it, generate concordances from it, count things in it (words, lines, etc.), search it, and store it for long-term digital archiving.
The effort you put into markup makes your text extraordinarily valuable for many users because it can be used for many diverse purposes.

What is Markup?

Markup is information added to a text in order to say something about the text. As a skilled reader of texts, you already have an incipient understanding of textual markup. White space, paragraph breaks, italicization, punctuation, capitalization, square brackets, and other features of a printed text are all forms of markup that signal something to the reader. For example, we sometimes recognize poetry in early modern texts because it is (often) italicized. The early modern printer set poetry in italics to say something about the text. Are the italics part of the text or are they saying something about the text? That’s where print markup gets murky—computers need much greater clarity than we need as human readers.

Terminology

Tagging, marking up, and encoding are interchangeable gerunds.
The information added to a text is markup.
When we add markup to a text, we mark up the text.
You will also see markup spelled mark-up or mark up.

MoEML’s Markup Language

MoEML uses a markup language known as TEI-XML. It is a dialect of XML devised by the Text Encoding Initiative (thus the acronym TEI), a consortium of people who came together to devise a markup language specifically for text-bearing objects (manuscripts, books, documents). XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language. It is not a single language, but a set of standards for writing XML languages. The standard was published in 1996 by the World Wide Web Consortium. It was designed to replace SGML.

Elements, Attributes, and Values

What does markup look like? Let’s start with an example using italics. Italics can indicate many different things:
  1. Do you really want to know the truth?
  2. Do you know what the word palimpsest means?
  3. Stow is the author of the 1598 Survey of London.
  4. This streete is also a part of Limestreete warde.
  5. In the anno mundi calendar, the year 1 is the year the world was created.
A human reader can read ambiguous markup. When a human sees italics, they can infer their meaning through contextual clues. A computer, however, can not. As encoders, we must specify what italics mean in each given scenario:
  1. Emphasis: Do you <emph>really</emph> want to know the truth?
  2. Words as words: Do you know what the word <term>palimpsest</term> means?
  3. Titles: Stow is the author of the 1598 <title>Survey of London</title>.
  4. Names: This streete is also a part of <placeName>Limestreete warde</placename>.
  5. Foreign words: In the <foreign>anno mundi</foreign>, the year 1 is the year the world was created.
These are all examples of descriptive markup.
An element is the tag that wraps an item in the text:
<title>Survey of London</title>
You can think of an element like a noun because it describes what something is. Here, Survey of London is the text node. The text node is the thing you add markup to. When marking up a text node, it must be wrapped in both an opening tag (<title>) and a closing tag (</title>).
But what if you want to specify what kind of title you have? You can add an attribute and value to your element tag:
<title level="m">Survey of London</title>
In this example, the attribute is @level and the value is "m". You can think about attributes as big categories—they are not specific until you add a value. In this example, @level asks what type of title is Survey of London? and "m" answers, it’s a monograph!
To refresh:
  1. The element describes what the text node is (i.e., <title>).
  2. The attribute is a category on the element (i.e., @level).
  3. The value specifies the attribute (i.e., "m").
As you can see, in Oxygen, elements, attributes, and values are different colours. Note that attributes and values are only added to the opening tag—the closing tag does not repeat them. It is also important to note that elements can have more than one attribute:
<title level="m" when="1603">Survey of London</title>
In some cases, an element can be self closing. A common example is the element <lb> (line beginning), which is explained in depth below.
While particular elements, attributes, and values can vary depending on the XML language, the structure of an XML element is always the same.

Part II: Tagging John Stow’s Survey of London

At MoEML, we use a specific set of elements, attributes, and values. In our editions of Survey of London, we tag bibliographical codes, dates, organizations, toponyms, and people. So far, we have progress charts of our 1598 and 1633 editions to track who did what and what remains to be finished:

Tagging Bibliographical Codes

As an encoder working on a primary source document, your main job is to represent the original source document as faithfully as possible. In other words, you are using markup to describe how the text appears (alignment, italics, etc.). The overriding concern here, however, is to tell the truth. We do not mark up texts with the goal of rendering them in a particular way; we mark up texts truthfully to capture information about the page and then we render them how we would like based on the markup. A good way to think about bibliographical code markup is this: the MoEML website may not exist fifty years from now, but the underlying XML documents that make up the website will. Therefore, when marking up a document, an encoder’s focus should not be on how the document appears on the current MoEML website, but to make sure that all bibliographical codes (paragraphs, italicization, punctuation, capitalization, etc.) are captured in a way that is helpful for future researchers and students.

Proofing the Transcription

Our editions of Survey of London began as EEBO-TCP diplomatic transcriptions, which means that most of the text was transcribed by non-MoEML encoders. Because of this, MoEML research assistants need to proof each chapter against the manuscript to fix errors and to make sure the text conforms with our project-wide conventions.
Before you start proofing the transcription against the manuscript, read Conventions for Diplomatic Transcriptions. It is a short document that outlines which typographical, orthographical, and compositorial features we retain in our editions of primary source texts.
The manuscript pages you will need are already linked to each page:
facs_example.jpg
You can also use this link to flip through UVic’s copy of the 1633 Survey of London that was digitized by Special Collections.
In addition to proofing the actual text, you will need to proof a few common bibliographical codes: line beginnings, hyphens, line groups, italics, and marginal notes. Each is explained with examples below.

Line Beginnings and Hyphens

Self-closing <lb> elements are used to indicate line beginnings in prose:
<p>One being their Chieftain was called Robin Hoode, <lb/>who required the king and his company, to ſtay & ſee his men ſhoot <lb/>whereunto the king granting, Robin Hoode whiſtled, and al the <lb/>200. Archers ſhot of, looſing all at once, and when he whiſtled a<lb type="hyphenInWord"/>gaine they likewiſe ſhot againe, their arrowes whiſtled by craft <lb/>of the heade, ſo that the noiſe was ſtrange and lowde, which great<lb type="hyphenInWord"/>ly delighted the king and Queene and their Companie.</p>
If you are adding a <lb> to your work, you only need to use the one self-closing element because you are not qualifying a text node (notice the / within the element). In the above example, note that some of the line beginnings occur in the middle of words. For these cases we use a self closing <lb> element with an attribute of @type and a value of "hyphenInWord". As you can see, the hyphen character (-) is not transcribed. Only transcribe the hyphen character when it is actually part of a word:
<p>(or ſlip) of Gilli-flowers</p>

Line Groups

Most of Survey of London is written in prose and is encoded with <p> (paragraph) and <lb> (line beginning). When Stow swtiches to poetry, however, we use <lg> (line group) instead of <p> (paragraph) and wrap each line in <l> (line):
<lg>
  <l>Mighty Flora, Goddeſſe of freſh flowers,</l>
  <l>which clothed hath the ſoile in luſtie greene.</l>
  <l>Made buds ſpring, with her ſweete ſhowers,</l>
  <l>by influence of the Sun ſhine.</l>
  <l>To doe pleaſance of intent full cleane,</l>
  <l>vnto the States which now ſit here.</l>
  <l>Hath Vere downe ſent her owne daughter deare.</l>
</lg>

Renditions

Below are images of the 1598 Survey of London (left) and the 1633 Survey of London (right):
rendition_comparison.jpg
Note that in 1598, the text sometimes changes font, and in 1663, the text is sometimes italicized. These features are called renditions.
Since certain feautures of the text (i.e., font, italics) tend to appear the same way throughout our editions, it would be impractical to individually style every case (for example, imagine having to add the font type, font weight, and font size every time you wanted to italicize something). Instead, we add descriptions called renditions to the teiHeader of our primary source documents and refer back to them in our encoding. All renditions are nested under <tagsDecl>. If you are interested in learning more about the teiHeader and styling, see Encoding Primary Sources.
These are the elements, attributes, and values you will use to tag 1598:
  1. Element: <hi>
  2. Attributes: @rendition
  3. Values: "#stow_1598_xml:id_R"
These are the elements, attributes, and values you will use to tag 1633:
  1. Element: <hi>
  2. Attributes: @rendition
  3. Values: "#stow_1633_xml:id_IR"
As you can see, the part of the tag that changes when you use renditions is the value. To encode the different font in 1598, use the value "#" + xml:id of the chapter (i.e., "stow_1598_xml:id") + "_R". To encode the italics in 1633, use the value "#" + xml:id of the chapter (i.e., "stow_1633_xml:id") + "_IR". There are more renditions than these (find them under <tagsDecl> in your document), but these are the main ones you will need to know.
Here is how the text node looks when it is marked up. The rendition element in the header is also shown:
<!-- In the header: --> <rendition scheme="css" xml:id="stow_1598_FARR1_R">font-family: "Georgia";</rendition> <!-- In the body text: --> <p><name rendition="#stow_1598_FARR1_R" ref="mol:FISH10">Iohn Fiſher</name> Mercer gaue <hi rendition="#stow_1598_FARR1_R">600</hi>.</p>
Note that if the text node is already wrapped in a <name> or <ref> element (both of which are explained in depth below), you can add the attribute (@rendition) and value ("#stow_1598_xml:id_R" or "#stow_1633_xml:id_IR") directly to the present element. If not, wrap the text node with the <hi> element and then add the correct attributes and values.

Marginal Notes

Like italics, marginal notes tend to appear the same way throughout Survey of London. Because of this, the same system with the teiheader and styling is used. For now, all you need to know is what elements, attributes, and values are needed to wrap the text node of a marginal note.
These are the elements, attributes, and values you will use to tag marginal notes in 1598:
  1. Element: <label>
  2. Attributes: @place
  3. Values: "margin-left", "margin-right"
These are the elements, attributes, and values you will use to tag marginal notes in 1633:
  1. Element: <label>
  2. Attributes: @place, @rendition
  3. Values: "margin-left", "margin-right", "#stow_1633_xm:id_lmlabel"
Marginal note in 1598:
<p>THe ſecond warde within the wall on the eaſt part is called Ealdgate warde, <label place="margin-left">Ealdgate ward</label> as taking name of the ſaide gate, the principall ſtreete of this warde begineth at Ealdgate.</p>
Marginal note in 1633:
<p>Now in Friday ſtreet, <label rendition="#stow_1633_BREA3_lmlabel" place="margin-left">Friday ſtreet.</label> ſo called of Fiſhmongers dwelling there.</p>
As you can see in the above examples, marginal notes are located directly within the text. When it comes to rendering, they render either to the left or right ("margin-left" or "margin-right") in line with the surrounding text.
This is is a side-by-side comparison of the 1598 Survey of London manuscript on EEBO and the edition we have created on the MoEML website. As you can see, our text looks similar to the manuscript:
marginal_notes.jpg

Tagging Dates, Companies, Toponyms, and People

In addition to tagging bibliographical codes, we also tag dates, organizations, toponyms, and people. By doing this, we are able to link our texts to MoEML’s rich encyclopedia which includes an orgography, placeography, and personography.
Here is a quick summary of what the tags will look like. They will be explained in more detail below:
Situation Example
Julian Date
<date when-custom="1598" datingMethod="mol:julianSic" calendar="mol:julianSic">1598</date>
Reign of Monarch
<date when-custom="r_HENR6" datingMethod="mol:regnal" calendar="mol:regnal">reigne of <name ref="mol:HENR6">king Henry the ſecond</name></date>
Specific Year within Reign of Monarch
<date when-custom="r_HENR6_09" datingMethod="mol:regnal" calendar="mol:regnal">ninth of <name ref="mol:HENR6">king Henry the ſecond</name></date>
Organizations
<name ref="mol:META1" type="org">Merchant Taylors’ Company</name>
Places
<ref target="mol:TOWE5">Tower of London</ref>
People
<name ref="mol:STOW6">John Stow</name>
Before we discuss how to tag Survey of London, try to identify the elements, attributes, values, and text nodes in the above examples—remember they are colour coded!

Tagging Dates

In Survey of London, you will need to know how to tag three types of dates: regular dates in the Julian calendar, reigns of monarchs, and specific years within reigns of monarchs.
These are the elements, attributes, and values you will use to tag dates:
  1. Element: <date>
  2. Attributes: @when-custom, @datingMethod, @calendar
  3. Values: "mol:julianSic", "mol:regnal", "mol:r_xml:id", "mol:r_xml:id_#"
The Julian calendar was used in England until 1752. In Survey of London, therefore, we must tell the computer that the dates being tagged are from the Julian calendar:
He died on the <date when-custom="1417-09-28" calendar="mol:julianSic" datingMethod="mol:julianSic">28 of September in 1417</date>
  • Note that the attribute @when-custom is used for the Julian calendar (the attribute @when is used for the Gregorian calendar, which you will not need to tag Survey of London).
  • Note that the value of @when-custom is the date mentioned in the text in year-month-day format (YYYY-MM-DD).
  • Note that the value of @calendar and @datingMethod is "mol:julianSic". There is also "mol:julianMar" (when the source considers March 25 the start of the new year) and "mol:julianJan" (when the source considers January 1 the start of the new year). We use "mol:julianSic" in Survey of London because it is unclear which calendar Stow used.
In 2019, the MoEML team created a new way to tag the reigns of monarchs and specific years within reigns. This means that in the 1598 Survey of London, regnal dates have been tagged slightly differently. Use the method below to tag 1633:
In the <date when-custom="r_MARY2" datingMethod="mol:regnal" calendar="mol:regnal">reigne of <name ref="mol:MARY2">Queene Mary</name></date>
  • Note that the word the is not included in the text node.
  • Note that the value of @when-custom is "r_xml:id". Insert the xml:id of the monarch in question (in this case, "MARY2").
  • Note that the value of @calendar and @dathingMethod is "mol:regnal".
To tag a specific year of a reign, add the year after the xml:id:
In the <date when-custom="r_EDWA1_08" datingMethod="mol:regnal" calendar="mol:regnal">eighth of <name ref="mol:EDWA1">Edward the first</name></date>
  • The value of @when-custom is "r_xml:id_#". Insert the xml:id of the monarch in question and the year of their reign (in this case, "r_EDWA1_08").
For a thorough explanation of how to encode all different types of dates, see Encode a Date in Praxis.

Tagging Organizations

Tagging organizations is relatively straightforward. The most complicated part is determining what should/should not be tagged and what should/should not be part of the text node.
These are the elements, attributes, and values you will use to tag organizations:
  1. Element: <name>
  2. Attributes: @ref, @type
  3. Values: "mol:xml:id", "org"
Roles/occupations are not tagged:
<name ref="mol:LEOF1">Leafſtanus</name> the Goldſmith
Companies as a whole are tagged:
He was free of the <name ref="mol:VINT3" type="org">Vintners</name>.
Of London is not part of the tag and should be tagged as a location:
The <name ref="mol:META1" type="org">Marchant Taylors</name> of <ref target="mol:LOND5">London</ref>
Most of the organizations Stow mentions in Survey of London are the Twelve Great Livery Companies (Mercers, Grocers, Drapers, Fishmongers, Goldsmiths, Skinners, Merchant Taylors, Haberdashers, Salters, Ironmongers, Vintners, and Clothworkers). There are also lesser livery companies. To see the full list, visit the Orgography. Note that organizations can also be groups (e.g., Black Friars) or other companies (e.g., East India Company).

Tagging Toponyms

Tagging toponyms is one of the most important parts of marking up Survey of London. While the tag itself is not complicated, it can be difficult to determine certain toponyms because (1) location names in the early modern period were not standardized, and (2) some locations have multiple (very different!) names.
Let’s take Arundel House as an example. Here are just a few of its variant names: Arondell-Howse, Bath House, Bath Inn, Bath Place, Charterhouse, City-House, Hampton Place, House of the Bishop of Bath and Wells, Howard House, Inn of the Bishop of Bath and Wells, Seymour Place.
You are obviously not expected to just know that Arundel House was also called Bath Inn or Hampton Place—that’s what MoEML is for! Therefore, when you come across a location in the Survey of London, you have a two options:
  1. Check previous MoEML editions of Survey of London to see how the location was tagged.
  2. Search the Gazetteer for variant names.
Note that our editions of Survey of London have not yet been fully proofed and peer reviewed. While you should definitely consult the 1598 edition when tagging the 1633 edition, it is important to do your own research. If you feel confident that there is a mistake in 1598, feel free to fix it. If you are unsure, do not hesitate to ask another team member or bring it up at a team meeting. The 1633 version is also substantially longer than 1598, so there will be large sections of your file that have never been tagged before.
These are the elements, attributes, and values you will use to tag places:
  1. Element: <ref>
  2. Attributes: @target
  3. Values: "mol:xml:id"
The word the is not included in the text node:
vp by the <ref target="mol:GUIL1">Guildhal</ref>
When Parish is part of a name, it is included in the text node:
to the <ref target="mol:STAU3">Parish Church of S. Augustine</ref>
Parishes can be locations in themselves:
Messuage in the <ref target="mol:STOL104">Parish of S. Olave</ref>
Also note that the xml:id of parishes is usually the xml:id of the church, plus 100 added to the number. For example, the xml:id of All Hallows the Less is "ALLH7" and the xml:id of the parish of All Hallows the Less is "ALLH107". The xml:id of St. John Zachary is "STJO6" and the xml:id of the parish of St. John Zachary is "STJO106".

Tagging People

Like early modern placenames, the names of people in Survey of London can be tricky. While some people are obvious (e.g., king Henry the thirde is Henry III in our Personography), others are less so (e.g., we currently have six different people named William Brown(e) in our Personography). Since spelling was not standardized in the early modern period, you often have to rely on contextual clues to determine who Stow is referring to.
Note that, due to early modern spelling variations, it is sometimes difficult to find the person you are looking for in the A-Z Index. For example, this is how Henry le Waleys appears in different sections of Survey of London:
  1. 1598 Temporal Government: Henry Waleys
  2. 1598 Cheap Ward: Henry Wales
  3. 1633 Dowgate Ward: Henry Wallis
  4. 1633 Farringdon Within Ward: H. Wales
If you were to search for Henry Waleys in the A-Z Index, you would not find his entry because he is listed as Henry le Waleys. To get around this problem, we recommend that you include many variant spellings of a person’s name in your search. It can also be helpful to search small parts of names (e.g., Henry or Wal) and manually click through the results.
These are the elements, attributes, and values you will use to tag names:
  1. Element: <name>
  2. Attributes: @ref
  3. Values: "mol:xml:id"
Titles (i.e., King, Queen, Sir, Dame, Lord, Lady, etc.) are included in the text node:
<name ref="mol:HENR7">king Henry the thirde</name>
<name ref="mol:YARF1">Sir Iames Yarforde</name>
Indirect references/pronouns are not tagged (even if we know who is being referred to):
He dwelled right againſt the <ref target="mol:GOLD2">Goldſmithes Hall</ref>.

Common Mistakes

Compare these passages from Survey of London to the examples explained above. Can you tell what should be fixed?
Question 1:
<p><name ref="mol:WITT1">Robert Wittingham</name>
<name ref="mol:DRAP3" type="org">Draper</name> laide the thirde ſtone, <name ref="mol:BART5">Henry Barton</name> then Maior.</p>
Answer: In this passage, Draper refers to the occupation of Robert Wittingham and should not be tagged.
<p><name ref="mol:WITT1">Robert Wittingham</name> Draper laide the thirde ſtone, <name ref="mol:BART5">Henry Barton</name> then Maior.</p>
Question 2:
<p>Lower downe from this pariſh church bee diuers fayre houſes namely one wherein of late Sir <name ref="mol:BAKE9">Richard Baker</name> a knight of Kent was lodged, and one wherein dwelled maiſter <name ref="mol:GORE2">Thomas Gore</name> a marchant famous for Hoſpitality.</p>
Answer: Sir should be included in the text node.
<p>Lower downe from this pariſh church bee diuers fayre houſes namely one wherein of late <name ref="mol:BAKE9">Sir Richard Baker</name> a knight of Kent was lodged, and one wherein dwelled maiſter <name ref="mol:GORE2">Thomas Gore</name> a marchant famous for Hoſpitality.</p>
Question 3:
<p>One the moſt ancient houſe in this lane is called the <ref target="mol:LEAD3">leaden porch</ref>, and belonged ſomtime to <name ref="mol:MERS1">Sir Iohn Merſton</name> knight: <date when-custom="r_EDWA3_01" datingMethod="mol:regnal" calendar="mol:regnal">the 1. of <name ref="mol:EDWA6">Edward the 4</name></date>.</p>
Answer: The word the should not be included in the text node and the value "r_EDWA3_01" is incorrect in the <date> element (i.e., "EDWA3" should be "EDWA6").
<p>One the moſt ancient houſe in this lane is called the <ref target="mol:LEAD3">leaden porch</ref>, and belonged ſomtime to <name ref="mol:MERS1">Sir Iohn Merſton</name> knight: the <date when-custom="r_EDWA6_01" datingMethod="mol:regnal" calendar="mol:regnal">1. of <name ref="mol:EDWA6">Edward the 4</name></date>.</p>
Question 4:
<p>Then is <name ref="mol:ABCH1">Abchurch lane</name>, which is on both the ſides, almoſt wholly of this ward.</p>
Answer: Since Abchurch lane is a location, it should be tagged with <ref> and @target, not <name> and @ref.
<p>Then is <ref target="mol:ABCH1">Abchurch lane</ref>, which is on both the ſides, almoſt wholly of this ward.</p>
The more time you spend tagging Survey of London, the better you will become at noticing mistakes. We encourage you to refer back to the examples in this document as you work. Before you know it, the rules listed above will become habit.

Part III: Adding Organizations, Toponyms, and People

Once you feel comfortable marking up Survey of London, the next thing to learn is how to add new organizations, toponyms, and people to the MoEML database.

Adding Organizations to ORGS1.xml

When you come across an organization that is not in the A-Z Index, you will need to add it to ORGS1.xml, MoEML’s Orgography file. For a quick explanation of how to add many different types of organizations to ORGS1.xml, see Website and Document Structure in Praxis.
Since the Twelve Great Livery Companies have already been added to ORGS1.xml, you will only be adding lesser livery companies and other early modern organizations and offices. One thing to note is that the sequence of entries in ORGS1.xml is rendered as it is encoded, which means that (1) entries must be added to the correct section of ORGS1.xml, and (2) entries must be added in alphabetical order.

Lesser Livery Companies

Lesser livery companies have very standardized entries. They are added alphabetically under the Lesser Livery Companies header:
<org xml:id="BAKE4" type="lesser">
  <orgName>Worshipful Company of Bakers<reg>Bakers’ Company</reg></orgName>
  <note><p>The <name type="org" ref="mol:BAKE4">Bakers’ Company</name> was one of the lesser livery companies of <ref target="mol:LOND5">London</ref>. The <name type="org" ref="mol:BAKE4">Worshipful Company of Bakers</name> is still active and maintains a website at <ref target="http://www.bakers.co.uk//">http://www.bakers.co.uk//</ref> that includes a <ref target="http://www.bakers.co.uk/A-Brief-History.aspx">history of the company</ref>.</p></note>
</org>
In the example above, find:
  • "BAKE4": this value is the Bakers’ Company’s xml:id.
  • "lesser": this value is used for all lesser livery companies.
  • <reg>Bakers’ Company</reg>: note that Bakers’ Company is wrapped in a <reg> element.
  • London: note that London is tagged as a location.
  • http://www.bakers.co.uk//: note that the URL for the Bakers’ Company’s website is wrapped with a <ref> element. Add a @type attribute and the URL of the website as the value ("http://www.bakers.co.uk//") to make a link to the website.
  • history of the company: most lesser livery company websites include a page on the history of the company, which is linked here.
For a list of lesser livery companies, see Wikipedia. If the company you come across is not on this list, it should be added to the Other Early Modern Organizations and Offices section of ORGS1.xml.

Other Early Modern Organizations and Offices

If an organization is not a (1) great livery company, (2) playing company, or (3) lesser livery comapny, it goes under the Other Early Modern Organizations and Offices header. While these entries are largely unstandardized, each begins with The [Name of Company] and is written in complete sentences (unlike PERS1.xml entries which are written in fragments):
<org xml:id="AUGU4" type="other">
  <orgName>Austin Friars (Augustinians)</orgName>
  <note><p>The <name type="org" ref="mol:AUGU4">Austin Friars</name> were a mendicant order that adhered to the teachings of <name ref="mol:AUGU5">Augustine of Hippo</name>. Founded in the thirteenth century, the <name type="org" ref="mol:AUGU4">Austin Friars</name> arrived in <ref target="mol:ENGL2">England</ref> in <date datingMethod="mol:julianSic" calendar="mol:julianSic" when-custom="1248">1248</date> and occupied <ref target="mol:AUST1">Austin Friars</ref> until <name ref="mol:HENR1">King Henry VIII</name>’s Dissolution of the Monasteries in <date datingMethod="mol:julianSic" calendar="mol:julianSic" when-custom="1538">1538</date>.</p>
  </note>
</org>
<org xml:id="HANS4" type="other">
  <orgName>Hanseatic League</orgName>
  <note><p>The <name type="org" ref="mol:HANS4">Hanseatic League</name> was a confederation of German merchant guilds and market towns with outposts throughout Northern Europe, including <ref target="mol:ENGL2">England</ref>.</p></note>
</org>
Companies that were the precursors of one of the Twelve Great Livery Companies have slightly more standardized entries:
<org xml:id="FRAT3" type="other">
  <orgName>Fraternity of Taylors and Linen Armourers of St. John the Baptist</orgName>
  <note><p>The <name type="org" ref="mol:FRAT3">Fraternity of Taylors and Linen Armourers of St. John the Baptist</name> was the precursor of the <name type="org" ref="mol:META1">Merchant Taylors’ Company</name>.</p></note>
</org>
If two companies merged to create one of the Great Twelve Livery Companies, their entries are as follows:
<org type="other" xml:id="SHEA1">
  <orgName>Shearmens’ Company</orgName>
  <note><p>The <name type="org" ref="mol:FULL2">Shearmens’ Company</name> was the precursor of the <name type="org" ref="mol:CLOT2">Clothworkers’ Company</name>, into which it merged with the <name type="org" ref="mol:FULL2">Fullers’ Company</name> in <date calendar="mol:julianSic" datingMethod="mol:julianSic" when-custom="1528">1528</date>.</p>
  </note>
</org>
<org type="other" xml:id="FULL2">
  <orgName>Fullers’ Company</orgName>
  <note><p>The <name type="org" ref="mol:FULL2">Fullers’ Company</name> was the precursor of the <name type="org" ref="mol:CLOT2">Clothworkers’ Company</name>, into which it merged with the <name type="org" ref="mol:SHEA1">Shearmens’ Company</name> in <date calendar="mol:julianSic" datingMethod="mol:julianSic" when-custom="1528">1528</date>.</p>
  </note>
</org>

Adding Toponyms

Adding People to PERS1.xml

When you come across a person who is not in the A-Z Index, you will need to add them to PERS1.xml, MoEML’s Personagraphy file. For a thorough explanation of how to add many different types of people to PERS1.xml, see Encode Persons in Praxis.
Below, we have broken down entries that are particularly common in Survey of London. Unlike ORGS1.xml, PERS1.xml is programmatically rendered in alphabetical order. Because of this, for ease, add new entries to the end of the document.

Lord Mayors and Sheriffs

Lord mayors and sheriffs have very standardized entries. One of the most helpful resources for information on these figures is Mayors and Sheriffs of London (MASL). The MASL database includes the names, years of office, and livery company membership of London’s mayors, sheriffs, and wardens.
When writing an entry for a lord mayor, include their years as sheriff (if applicable), years as mayor, livery company membership, and any additional information that appears in Survey of London such as their family members or place of burial:
<person xml:id="CHIC4" sex="1">
<persName type="hist">
  <reg>Sir Robert Chichele</reg>
  <roleName>Sir</roleName>
  <forename>Robert</forename>
  <surname>Chichele</surname>
  <roleName>Sheriff</roleName>
  <roleName>Mayor</roleName>
</persName>
<death notBefore-custom="1439-06-05" notAfter-custom="1439-11-06" datingMethod="mol:julianSic"/>
<note><p>Sheriff of <ref target="mol:LOND5">London</ref>
  <date datingMethod="mol:julianSic" from-custom="1402" to-custom="1403">1402-1403</date>. Mayor <date datingMethod="mol:julianSic" from-custom="1411" to-custom="1412">1411-1412</date> and <date datingMethod="mol:julianSic" from-custom="1421" to-custom="1422">1421-1422</date>. Member of the <name type="org" ref="mol:GROC3">Grocers’ Company</name>. Brother of <name ref="mol:CHIC5">Henry Chichele</name> and <name ref="mol:CHIC7">William Chichele</name>. Cousin of <name ref="mol:CHIC3">Dr. William Chichele</name>.</p>
  <list type="links">
    <item><ref target="http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/chichele-robert-1439"><title level="m">HPO</title></ref></item>
    <item><ref target="https://masl.library.utoronto.ca/person_detaild9f2.html?person_id=432"><title level="m">MASL</title></ref></item>
    <item><ref target="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Chichele"><title level="m">Wikipedia</title></ref></item>
  </list>
</note>
</person>
In the example above, find:
  • "CHIC4": this value is Sir Robert Chichele’s xml:id.
  • @sex: the value "1" is used for males and the value "2" is used for females.
  • "hist": almost all people in Survey of London are historical ("hist"). If you are adding a literary or allegorical character, this value would be changed to "lit".
  • <reg>Sir Robert Chichele</reg>: the person’s full name, including titles (Sir, Dame, etc.), goes here. Since spelling was not standardized in the early modern period, choosing the spelling of the name can be difficult. For mayors and sheriffs, we use the spelling found on MASL. For people with no ONDB or Wikipedia page, we use the spelling used by Stow. See Encode Persons for a full explanation of <reg>.
  • <roleName>Sir</roleName>: some people have multple role names. If the role name is a title (i.e., Sir), it goes before the <forename> and <surname>. If it is a position (i.e., Sheriff, Mayor, etc.) it goes after. See Encode Persons for a full explanation of <roleName>.
  • Henry Chichele and William Chichele: whenever a person is mentioned in another person’s PERS1.xml entry, their <reg> name should be used.
  • "links": the links we add are in a specific hierarchy (BBTI, BHO, EB, EM, HPO, MASL, OR, ODNB, ROLLCO, Wikipedia). See Encode Persons for a full explanation of linked resources.
Entries for sheriffs look very similar to that of lord mayors:
<person xml:id="FORD7" sex="1">
<persName type="hist">
  <reg>Thomas de Ford</reg>
  <forename>Thomas</forename>
  <surname><nameLink>de</nameLink> Ford</surname>
  <roleName>Sheriff</roleName>
</persName>
<note><p>Sheriff of <ref target="mol:LOND5">London</ref>
  <date datingMethod="mol:julianSic" from-custom="1263" to-custom="1264">1263-1264</date>.</p>
  <list type="links">
    <item><ref target="https://masl.library.utoronto.ca/person_detail11f8.html?person_id=531"><title level="m">MASL</title></ref></item>
  </list>
</note>
</person>
In the example above, find:
  • <nameLink>: for surnames with a linking parts (i.e., de or van) we tag them with <nameLink>. See Encode Persons for a full explanation of <nameLink>.

Families

Stow enjoys listing all the members of a person’s family (below is an extreme example). Family entries often take a bit of time because the entries of all family members need to be updated. For example, let’s pretend that in the 1598 Survey of London, Joane is said to be married to Robert Dunne. Then by the 1633 edition, she has also married Richard Stoneley, John Branche, and has had more children. Not only will you have to potentially add new people (husbands and children) to PERS1.xml, but you will have to check if any of the people already exist, and, if so, update their entries:
<person xml:id="BRAN13" sex="2">
<persName type="hist">
  <reg>Joane Branche (née Wylkynson)</reg>
  <forename>Joane</forename>
  <surname>Wylkynson</surname>
  <surname>Branche</surname>
  <surname>Dunne</surname>
  <surname>Stoneley</surname>
</persName>
<note><p>Wife of <name ref="mol:DUNN3">Robert Dunne</name>, <name ref="mol:STON15">Richard Stoneley</name>, and <name ref="mol:BRAN4">John Branche</name>. Mother of <name ref="mol:BRAN12">Anne Branche</name>, <name ref="mol:DUNN4">Sir Daniel Dunne</name>, <name ref="mol:DUNN5">Samuel Dunne</name>, <name ref="mol:DUNN6">William Dunne</name>, <name ref="mol:DANT2">Dorothie Dauntrey</name>, and <name ref="mol:HIGH7">Anne Higham</name>. Daughter of <name ref="mol:WILK4">John Wylkynson</name>.</p>
</note>
</person>
In the example above, find:
  • née Wylkynson: in the text, we learn that Joane is the daughter of John Wylkynson and is the wife of Robert Dunne, Richard Stoneley, and John Branche. We have given her the last name Branche because he was her last husband (theoretically, she likely died as Joane Branche). Since we know her father’s name was Wylkynson, we include (née Wylkynson) in the <reg>. As you can see above, all of Joane’s surnames are also individually tagged with <surname>. See Encode Persons for a full explanation of née and <surname>.
  • Dorothie Dauntrey and Anne Higham: note that Dorothie Dauntrey and Anne Higham are listed as their <reg> names and not as Dorothie Branche and Anne Branche.

Member of a Livery Company

Often all Stow includes about a person is their name and occupation, which is often the livery company they belonged to:
<person xml:id="BART14" sex="1">
<persName type="hist">
  <reg>William Barton</reg>
  <forename>William</forename>
  <surname>Barton</surname>
</persName>
<note><p>Member of the <name type="org" ref="mol:MERC3">Mercers’ Company</name>. Buried at <ref target="mol:STLA5">St. Laurence, Jewry</ref>.</p>
</note>
</person>
In the example above, find:
  • Buried at: to document a place of burial, write Buried at and the location’s name from the A-Z Index (i.e., the title of the location’s page).

Unknown Person

Sometimes there is very little information on a person. In these cases, we say Denizen of London (if we at least know that):
<person xml:id="NORM9" sex="1">
<persName type="hist">
  <reg>John Norman</reg>
  <forename>John</forename>
  <surname>Norman</surname>
</persName>
<note><p>Denizen of <ref target="mol:LOND5">London</ref>. Not to be confused with <name ref="mol:NORM1">Sir John Norman</name> or <name ref="mol:NORM6">John Norman</name>.</p>
</note>
</person>
In the example above, find:
  • Not to be confused with: if there are multiple people with the same name, it is helpful to add Not to be confused with. This is also how we clear the diagnostic error Possible duplicate personography entries.
If we know nothing about a person, we add this boilerplate text:
<person xml:id="MALV1" sex="1">
  <persName type="hist">
    <reg>John Malverne</reg>
    <forename>John</forename>
    <surname>Malverne</surname>
  </persName>
  <note><p>MoEML has not yet added biographical content for this person. The editors welcome research leads from qualified individuals. Please <ref target="mailto:london@uvic.ca">contact us</ref> for further information.</p>
  </note>
</person>

Possibly the same person?

Sometimes it is hard to tell whether two people are the same. For example, maybe you come across John Skinner in your ward, but there is not enough information to know that he matches the John Skinner already present in PERS1.xml. In this case, we add Possibly the same person as so readers know to look at both entries:
<person xml:id="SKIN8" sex="1">
<persName type="hist">
  <reg>John Skinner</reg>
  <forename>John</forename>
  <surname>Skinner</surname>
</persName>
<note><p>Son of <name ref="mol:SKIN4">Sir Thomas Skinner</name>. Possibly the same person as <name ref="mol:SKIN7">John Skinner</name>.</p>
</note>
</person>

Latin Epitaphs

Beware: if Stow walks into a church in the 1633 Survey of London, he will interrupt his narrative to copy down pages of latin epitaphs. If a person only appears in a latin epitaph, we add Latin epitaph in Stow 1633 to the end of their biographical statement:
<note><p>Rector of <ref target="mol:STNI3">St. Nicholas Olave</ref>. Buried at <ref target="mol:STNI3">St. Nicholas Olave</ref>. Latin epitaph in Stow 1633.</p>
</note>

Common Mistakes

Compare these biographical statements to the examples explained above and examples in Encode Persons. Can you tell what should be fixed?
Question 1:
<p>Recipient of a tower by <ref target="mol:BAYN1">Baynard’s Castle</ref>, given by <name ref="mol:EDWA3">king Edward the thirde</name> in the <date when-custom="r_EDWA3_02" datingMethod="mol:regnal" calendar="mol:regnal">second year of his reign</date>.</p>
Answer: king Edward the thirde should be modernized to Edward III (whenever someone is mentioned in PERS1.xml, their <reg> name is used).
<p>Recipient of a tower by <ref target="mol:BAYN1">Baynard’s Castle</ref>, given by <name ref="mol:EDWA3">Edward III</name> in the <date when-custom="r_EDWA3_02" datingMethod="mol:regnal" calendar="mol:regnal">second year of his reign</date>.</p>
Question 2:
<p>Wife of <name ref="mol:DANI10">John Daniel</name> and mother of <name ref="mol:DANI11">Gerard Daniel</name>. Buried at <ref target="mol:STMA16">St. Margaret Moses</ref>.</p>
Answer: When listing family members, every relation should start a new sentence.
<p>Wife of <name ref="mol:DANI10">John Daniel</name>. Mother of <name ref="mol:DANI11">Gerard Daniel</name>. Buried at <ref target="mol:STMA16">St. Margaret Moses</ref>.</p>
Question 3:
<p>Founder of a chantry at the <ref target="mol:STIMI9">Parish Church of St. Mildred Bread Street</ref> in <date when-custom="1419" datingMethod="mol:julianSic" calendar="mol:julianSic">1419</date>.</p>
Answer: When mentioning a location in a biographical statement, use its name from the A-Z Index (i.e., the title of the location’s page) for consistency.
<p>Founder of a chantry at <ref target="mol:STIM9">St. Mildred, Bread Street</ref> in <date when-custom="1419" datingMethod="mol:julianSic" calendar="mol:julianSic">1419</date>.</p>

Cite this page

MLA citation

LeBere, Kate. MoEML Quickstart. The Map of Early Modern London, edited by Janelle Jenstad, U of Victoria, 15 Sep. 2020, mapoflondon.uvic.ca/moeml_quickstart.htm. Draft.

Chicago citation

LeBere, Kate. MoEML Quickstart. The Map of Early Modern London. Ed. Janelle Jenstad. Victoria: University of Victoria. Accessed September 15, 2020. https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/moeml_quickstart.htm. Draft.

APA citation

LeBere, K. 2020. MoEML Quickstart. In J. Jenstad (Ed), The Map of Early Modern London. Victoria: University of Victoria. Retrieved from https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/moeml_quickstart.htm. Draft.

RIS file (for RefMan, EndNote etc.)

Provider: University of Victoria
Database: The Map of Early Modern London
Content: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

TY  - ELEC
A1  - LeBere, Kate
ED  - Jenstad, Janelle
T1  - MoEML Quickstart
T2  - The Map of Early Modern London
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/09/15
CY  - Victoria
PB  - University of Victoria
LA  - English
UR  - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/moeml_quickstart.htm
UR  - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/xml/standalone/moeml_quickstart.xml
TY  - UNP
ER  -

RefWorks

RT Unpublished Material
SR Electronic(1)
A1 LeBere, Kate
A6 Jenstad, Janelle
T1 MoEML Quickstart
T2 The Map of Early Modern London
WP 2020
FD 2020/09/15
RD 2020/09/15
PP Victoria
PB University of Victoria
LA English
OL English
LK https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/moeml_quickstart.htm

TEI citation

<bibl type="mla"><author><name ref="#LEBE1"><surname>LeBere</surname>, <forename>Kate</forename></name></author>. <title level="a">MoEML Quickstart</title>. <title level="m">The Map of Early Modern London</title>, edited by <editor><name ref="#JENS1"><forename>Janelle</forename> <surname>Jenstad</surname></name></editor>, <publisher>U of Victoria</publisher>, <date when="2020-09-15">15 Sep. 2020</date>, <ref target="https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/moeml_quickstart.htm">mapoflondon.uvic.ca/moeml_quickstart.htm</ref>. Draft.</bibl>

Personography

Locations

Organizations