Home > Project documentation > Documentation for encoders

Quickstart: Adding Places

roseList documents mentioning Quickstart: Adding Places

Introduction

When you come across a place that has not yet been added to MoEML, you may need to create a new location page. This document outlines how to (1) determine what constitutes a place for our project, (2) create a location file, (3) reroute a place from another place, (4) add temporal data to a location file, (5) write an abstract, and (6) cite sources within an abstract.

Determining whether to Add a Place

MoEML is concerned with documenting representations of space in the early modern social imaginary. Our temporal scope is roughly bounded by the moment just before the dissolution of the monasteries (1536) and just before the Great Fire of London (1666), two events that caused major toponymic and platial change in the city. (Note: changes resulting from the dissolution of the monasteries are significant to our project, while changes resulting from the fire are considered to be beyond the project scope.)
The representation of place in early modern London is not, however, limited to places that were physically present between 1536 and 1666. As a document like Stow’s Survey of London makes evident, the past of a place is in many cases inseparable from its significance in the early modern social imaginary. To account for this broader conception of an early modern place, MoEML uses the following decision tree to determine whether a place should be added to our Placeography:
location_flowchart.png
Two characteristics of a place (with some exceptions) determine its uniqueness within the MoEML project scope. Those are coordinates and function. A change to either of these characteristics warrants the creation of a new place (a new location document with unique xml:id). Other characteristics (e.g., name, ownership, building materials, paint colour) are considered non-essential or accidental. Changes to non-essential characteristics do not warrant the creation of a new place in our Placeography. For example, the timbers of the Theatre were moved and used in the construction of the Globe. Although the two places share certain accidental characteristics (in this case, the building material) the coordinates of the two locations are different. The two locations are therefore considered distinct and have their own unique location files. Similarly, although the Globe burned down and was rebuilt, the rebuilt Globe is not given its own location file because its essential characteristics (function and location) remain the same, even if the buildings themselves are different.
As another example, the initial headquarters of the Stationers’ Company was on Milk Street but then moved to the site of St. Peter’s College Rents in 1554 and then to the site of Pembroke’s Inn in 1611. The three halls thus have a common function and common owner but different coordinate locations. Therefore, we have separate ids and location files for the three distinct locations—Stationers’ Hall (Milk Street), Stationers’ Hall (St. Paul’s), and Stationers’ Hall (Ave Maria Lane).
Researching a place begins with determining whether to add it to the Placeography. Be sure to record this research if you determine it necessary to add the place to the Placeography so work is not repeated . See Researching Locations and Writing Abstracts for a list of helpful resources to get started.

Creating New Location Documents

Once you have determined that you need to add a new location file, follow these steps:
  1. Determine an authority name and unique xml:id for the location.
  2. Create a new XML file in Oxygen, and save it into the appropriate alphabetical folder in db/data/locations.
  3. Copy the text from the locations template, found in db/data/templates. Paste it to your new XML document.
  4. Change the value of the xml:id attribute in the TEI element to your chosen xml:id for the new location (do not include the mol: prefix).
  5. Ctrl + F and replace [Add Place Name Here] with your authority name.
  6. Follow the instructional comments. Delete the comments as you go.
  7. Update the @status attribute of the <revisionDesc> to "draft". Another team member will proofread the document before the next release.
  8. When writing a stub (a short encyclopedia article, around one paragraph long), use the same text for both the abstract and the main body. Encode dates, places, and people mentioned in your writeup. If writing a stub, in order to ensure consistency, fully encode your abstract and then copy the whole <p> element into the main body.
  9. In Terminal, navigate to locations and type svn add FILENAME.xml. Then commit.
  10. Leave a reminder to check the page for any major problems on the Jenkins site once it goes through the build, keeping in mind that the page will still undergo further revision by other team members before publication.
  11. Add any relevant LINKS1 entries. This will appear under the Related documents / disambiguation link at the top of the document. See Linksography (LINKS1.xml) for further details.
See Location Documents for further details on how to create location files.

Rerouting Closely Related Places

Our principle of adding new locations based on change of function or location sometimes means that two places whose histories are inseparably connected will still require two different location documents. In such a case, one article will contain all of the information relevant to the place and its related places, including aspects of that history that are technically about a different place in our Placeography. We call this rerouting
For example, the physical site of Charterhouse (Residence) was later used as a more general site, Charterhouse (Site). The history of these places are so interconnected that both places are best understood within the broader history of the physical site. However, because they have different functions, the two places must have different location documents. Charterhouse (Residence) is given a full-length encyclopedia entry, with different <div> elements describing different phases in the site’s broader history, including the information about Charterhouse (Site):
<div xml:id="CHAR2_residence">
  <head>Private Residence, <date from-custom="1541" to-custom="1609" datingMethod="mol:julianSic" calendar="mol:julianSic" cert="medium">c. 1541–1609</date></head>
  <p>Following the departure of the Carthusians, purchased the land in <date when-custom="1545" datingMethod="mol:julianSic" calendar="mol:julianSic">1545</date> and began <!-- abridged --> </p>
</div> <div xml:id="CHAR2_school">
  <head>Hospital, School, and Pensioners’ Home, <date when-custom="1609" datingMethod="mol:julianSic" calendar="mol:julianSic">1609</date>–Present</head>
  <p>In <date when-custom="1609" datingMethod="mol:julianSic" calendar="mol:julianSic">1609</date>, <name ref="mol:SUTT4">Thomas Sutton</name>, one of the wealthiest commoners in <ref target="mol:LOND5">London</ref>, purchased the land <!-- abridged --> </p>
</div>
The other location file, Charterhouse (Site), is only a stub. A <back> element after the main <body> links to the relevant <div> in the Charterhouse (Site) article:
<back>
<p>For a full history of the site, see the <ref target="mol:CHAR2#CHAR2_residence">full-length article on Charterhouse (Residence)</ref>.</p>
</back>
A <linkGrp> with corresponding <note> in LINKS1 gives a succinct statement of the relation between the places. See Linksography (LINKS1.xml) for further details.

Adding Temporal Data

MoEML’s Temporal Range

The temporal range of a place is encoded in the <location> element of the place document’s <div> with a @type attribute and "placeInfo" value. Temporal boundaries on a place means that, outside of that boundary, the place no longer exists according to MoEML’s definition of a place. This may be because of a change of function (e.g., the building was repurposed or abandoned) or a change of coordinates (relocated). Though we may record founding dates of churches and other institutions that are prior to 1536, we generally only record the dates bounding the temporal existence of a place when those boundaries land within our temporal scope. MoEML’s definition of places and their functions are particular to its own temporal scope and do not necessarily apply to all periods. For example, hospitals had evolved so drastically between 1536 and the Victorian period that the same hospital (e.g., St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, which stood through both times) might be said to have gained an entirely new function as time progressed. Therefore, changes to the existence of a place that occur outside of MoEML’s scope are left to be determined by other projects with their own conceptions of platial ontology suited to their own temporal scope.

Temporal Range Encoding Examples

Bridewell Palace was built as a royal estate in 1510. It was repurposed as a prison and hospital in 1553. This latter change is an essential change and warrants a different location in our Placeography, Bridewell. According to MoEML’s definition of platial existence, therefore, Bridewell Palace existed between 1510 and 1553. The place’s <location> element in its <div> with @type "placeInfo" is as follows:
<div type="placeInfo" xml:id="BRID11_placeInfo">
  <head>Bridewell Palace</head>
  <listPlace>
    <place>
      <placeName>Bridewell Palace</placeName>
      <location from-custom="1510" to-custom="1553" datingMethod="mol:julianSic">
        <geo>
        </geo>
      </location>
    </place>
  </listPlace>
</div>
Bridewell, the hospital and prison into which the site of Bridewell Palace was converted, was destroyed in the fire of 1666 but rebuilt and persisted into the 18th and 19th centuries. Although the building was destroyed and rebuilt, the site itself did not cease to exist under its pre-fire function after 1666. Although it eventually ceased to function as a prison in the 18th century, we do not encode this information. Instead, we just leave an open upper bound on the location element, as follows:
<div type="placeInfo" xml:id="BRID2_placeInfo">
<listPlace>
  <place>
    <placeName>Bridewell</placeName>
    <location from-custom="1553" datingMethod="mol:julianSic">
      <geo>
      </geo>
    </location>
  </place>
</listPlace>
</div>

Researching Locations and Writing Abstracts

The following list offers helpful resources for researching places and writing encyclopedia entries. In addition to these, our major source for all location entries are our editions of Stow’s Survey.
  4. Harben (helpful resource with detailed descriptions of London places)
  5. Carlin and Belcher and 1520 Map (British Historic Towns Atlas) (helpful resource, but keep in mind that the map is from before our temporal scope. Many places may have moved between 1520 and Stow’s time)
  11. London Topographical Society (see especially the websites linked from here)

Citing Sources

For a full breakdown of how to create in-text citations and link them to BIBL1.xml, see Link to Reference Material in BIBL1.xml. Below is a summary of the most important points.
These are the elements, attributes, and values you will use to tag in-text citations in location articles and abstracts:
  1. Element: <ref>
  2. Attributes: @target, @type
  3. Values: "mol:xml:id", "bibl"
Tag the entire parenthetical reference (excluding the parentheses themselves) with the <ref> element:
<p>Throughout the early modern period, <ref target="mol:LUDG1">Ludgate</ref> held a number of celebrity inmates, detained for their <quote>extravagances</quote> (<ref type="bibl" target="mol:HEMI3">Heminges 8</ref>).</p>
Always include the author’s name in the in-text citation, even if they are mentioned within the sentence:
<p>According to Haynes, <quote>at its greatest extent the sculpture collection is said to have comprised no less than thirty-seven statues, one hundred and twenty-eight busts and two hundred and fifty inscriptions, as well as a large number of sarcophagi, altars and fragments</quote> (<ref target="mol:HAYN1" type="bibl">Haynes 10</ref>).</p>
If the author is a historical person, tag their name with the <name> element and their @xml:id:
<p><name ref="mol:STOW6">Stow</name> asserts that <ref target="mol:LUDG1">Ludgate</ref> was constructed by <name ref="mol:KLUD1">King Lud</name> who named the gate after himself <quote>for his owne honor</quote> (<ref type="bibl" target="mol:STOW1">Stow 1:1</ref>).</p>
To reference a MoEML page as a bibliographic item within another MoEML page, use the <ref> element with a @type value of "mol:bibl":
<p><ref target="mol:SHOR1">Shoreditch</ref> followed Roman roads near Kingsland Road, a continuation of Ermine Street, and <ref target="mol:OLDS1">Old Street</ref>, a continuation of <ref target="mol:WATL1">Waitling</ref> or <ref target="mol:WATL1">Watling Street</ref> (<ref type="mol:bibl" target="mol:SHOR2">Campbell</ref>).</p>
To reference one of MoEML’s editions of Stow’s Survey, find the xml:id of the page you want to cite in the <pb> element:
<pb facs="" n="B6v" xml:id="stow_1598_waters_sig_B6v"/>
Then cite the page by pointing directly to the xml:id:
<p>(<ref type="mol:bibl" target="mol:stow_1598_waters#stow_1598_waters_sig_B6v">Stow 1598, sig. B6v</ref>)</p>
Make sure to include the date of the edition (1598, 1603, 1618, 1633) and signature number in your in-text citation, as done in the example above.
When citing from Harben, Sugden, or Carlin and Belcher, include the headword of the entry in your in-text citation if your information is from a different entry than the location you are writing about or if the title of the entry is notably different from MoEML’s authority name:
<p><ref target="mol:FAGS2">Fagswell</ref> was a natural well in the Clerkenwell area and a source of fresh water for inhabitants of the City of <ref target="mol:LOND5">London</ref> (<ref type="bibl" target="mol:HARB1">Harben, Water Supply of London</ref>).</p>
For documentation on how to encode block quotations, see Encode Block Quotations.

Cite this page

MLA citation

Simpson, Lucas, and Kate LeBere. Quickstart: Adding Places. The Map of Early Modern London, Edition 6.6, edited by Janelle Jenstad, U of Victoria, 30 Jun. 2021, mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/quickstart_adding_places.htm.

Chicago citation

Simpson, Lucas, and Kate LeBere. Quickstart: Adding Places. The Map of Early Modern London, Edition 6.6. Ed. Janelle Jenstad. Victoria: University of Victoria. Accessed June 30, 2021. mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/quickstart_adding_places.htm.

APA citation

Simpson, L., & LeBere, K. 2021. Quickstart: Adding Places. In J. Jenstad (Ed), The Map of Early Modern London (Edition 6.6). Victoria: University of Victoria. Retrieved from https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/editions/6.6/quickstart_adding_places.htm.

RIS file (for RefMan, RefWorks, EndNote etc.)

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

TY  - ELEC
A1  - Simpson, Lucas
A1  - LeBere, Kate
ED  - Jenstad, Janelle
T1  - Quickstart: Adding Places
T2  - The Map of Early Modern London
ET  - 6.6
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/06/30
CY  - Victoria
PB  - University of Victoria
LA  - English
UR  - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/quickstart_adding_places.htm
UR  - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/xml/standalone/quickstart_adding_places.xml
ER  -

TEI citation

<bibl type="mla"><author><name ref="#SIMP5"><surname>Simpson</surname>, <forename>Lucas</forename></name></author>, and <author><name ref="#LEBE1"><forename>Kate</forename> <surname>LeBere</surname></name></author>. <title level="a">Quickstart: Adding Places</title>. <title level="m">The Map of Early Modern London</title>, Edition <edition>6.6</edition>, edited by <editor><name ref="#JENS1"><forename>Janelle</forename> <surname>Jenstad</surname></name></editor>, <publisher>U of Victoria</publisher>, <date when="2021-06-30">30 Jun. 2021</date>, <ref target="https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/quickstart_adding_places.htm">mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/quickstart_adding_places.htm</ref>.</bibl>

Personography

Locations