Encoding and translation by Chiara Senatore (University of Rome), in collaboration with Roberto Rosselli Del Turco (University of Turin) and Rosa Maria Piccione (University of Turin).
The proposed digital edition concerns the papyrus P. Tor. Cat. 2147, a documentary papyrus from the 2nd century CE, written in Greek and preserving a legal dispute. The edition currently under development includes a transcription and translation of the text, along with lists of named entities (anthroponyms, toponyms, dates, political offices).
The Museo Egizio selected this papyrus as a case study for the project because it is the most important document in its Greek holdings. The challenge lies in making a complex topic accessible: the papyrus is a documentary text spanning ten columns and containing legal material. For this purpose, explanatory notes in the Italian translation will help simplify the text’s interpretation. An English translation may also be considered to further widen the edition’s reach.
This edition serves as a pilot case for a broader project focused on creating digital editions of manuscripts and ancient documents preserved by public and private institutions across the country. The aim is to engage a broader, non-specialist audience with digitized cultural heritage by producing digital editions in collaboration with cultural institutions, which will distribute them on their web portals and, where possible, integrate them into museum tours.
To this end, the project uses the software EVT (Edition Visualization Technology, http://evt.labcd.unipi.it), which has been adapted for case studies beyond the academic domain. EVT is an open-source software tool that enables the creation of digital editions by displaying a digital facsimile alongside a diplomatic and/or interpretative transcription, with the possibility of linking the text to the image. The digital edition is created from a text encoded in XML-TEI.
Given its flexibility, EVT was identified early on as the most suitable visualization software for this project. Semantic annotation and hyperlinks allow for in-depth exploration of marked entities in the text (such as individuals, political offices, associations, dates, etc.). Because the tool is configurable and customizable, the editor can choose which features to display.
Another key factor in the decision to use EVT was the intended deployment of the editions: from the outset, the plan has been to publish the editions on the TPOP portal and on touchscreen devices within the museum paths of the institutions preserving the physical documents. EVT was reaffirmed as the tool of choice for this purpose: once the folder is copied to the web or to the destination device, the edition is automatically generated, and the use of standard web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) ensures long-term accessibility.
