Towards the creation of a dynamic critical digital library for Tanhuma Yelammedenu literature

• In Event: Computational Approaches

Abstract

This lecture will discuss the exclusion of Tanhuma Yelammedenu Literature (TYL) as a test case for the creation of online digital editions in the form of a Dynamic Critical Digital Library. This paper is part of an ongoing project led by Dr. Moshe Lavee.

The TYL genre consists of a variety of inter-connected texts, documented in distinct print collections, in distinct manuscripts representing unique compositions, as well as fragments documented only in medieval anthologies or found in the Cairo Genizah. The digital era provides us with the opportunity to cope with the complexity of the genre that the linear progression of the print form failed to meet.

To address the challenge of creating a digital edition, we propose the concept of a dynamic critical digital library in response to this challenge. This presentation discusses some of the current trends in the creation of digital editions and how they might contribute to our effort to present the diversity and complexity of TYL in a meaningful way. We will also present guidelines for the development of a Dynamic Critical Digital Library that will include both Birds-eye views of the literature and a representation of every text in TYL as well as its connections to other texts in the library.

Lastly, we will describe our experience (which is currently a work in progress) of data modeling the TYL material in Deuteronomy, as well as some new conclusions about the classification of TYL texts.

Authors

• Shimon Fogel, University of Haifa

• Eliezer Baumgarten, Haifa University