Digital Encoding of Epigraphic Manuscripts and Surrogates
Friday 20th February 2026 14:00–15:30 GMT (online only)
Organisers: Caroline Barron (Durham University), Gabriel Bodard (University of London).
Page from Wood notebook 14 (Hellenic and Roman Library)
The primary source for some epigraphic editions may not be the stone, or the editor’s own autopsy and photographs, but epigraphic notebooks, manuscripts, squeezes or other archival material from earlier editors, travellers or collectors. Typical epigraphic editions, as currently well-supported in EpiDoc Guidelines (https://epidoc.stoa.org/gl/latest/), focus on the materiality, provenance and other context of the text-bearing object itself. When a historical surrogate is (additionally or solely) the object of study and sometimes the primary (or only) source for the inscription, different needs and priorities may shape the epigraphic edition.
This workshop seeks to open a discussion about what marking up such materials requires in the context of the existing EpiDoc Guidelines. These might include, but are not limited to, features of the surrogate edition that go beyond the epigraphic text, such as the relationships between texts and their layout on the page, manuscript features such as corrections, editorial errors, marginalia and later hands, the history of the surrogate’s discovery or collection and its object biography, its citation and inclusion in contemporary and later bibliographies. The discussion shall explore how these features can be expressed in EpiDoc, and their relationship to other formats (such as Genetic TEI and ALTO). It is hoped that this will ultimately lead to the coherent and transparent expression of the relationship between manuscript and epigraphic editions.
We hope the workshop will lead to concrete recommendations for the EpiDoc Guidelines and the definition of scope and collection of desiderata for further recommendations and questions. This discussion is likely to lead to further action and possibly the creation of a community of practice and working group, or at least some follow-up conversations.
All are welcome to join this workshop and working group, whether your interest is in EpiDoc, epigraphy, archives and manuscripts, early historiography, exploration and collection, or archives, and whatever your level of technical and epigraphic expertise.
