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¶ Textual Encoding Initiative

Textual Encoding Initiative (TEI) is a consortium and an XML standardized markup language used for encoding literary texts, historical documents, and the like. During the process, scholars use TEI to "markup" texts to indicate different aspects such as titles, chapter headings, line breaks, and handwritten marginalia, as well as to note significance and inscribe interpretation. Most commonly TEI is used to create critical editions and facsimiles.

Related terms:

Markup languages use tags to define elements within a digital document. XML (Extensible Markup Language) is used for encoding texts and employs a number of different standards and schemas.
Markup tags are in and out marks that “wrap” a text element, e.g., a title, header, single word, paragraph, etc. Below is a simple example using the more commonly known markup language, HTML (Hypertext Markup Language):

In a web browse the above looks like:

Their Eyes are Watching God

Their Eyes are Watching God was written by Zora Neale Hurston in 1937.

The <h2> tag marks the title as a header and determines the specific size of the header. The <p> tag marks the sentence as a paragraph or a general body of text and the <em> tag marks the title as emphasized (italicized).

What Does TEI Markup Look Like?

The following example is from The Walt Whitman Archive. It shows a portion of the markup written to create a facsimile of the original manuscript for Whitman's poem "The Argument."

As you can see in the TEI facsimile below, the Archive seeks to replicate the edits made in the manuscript as well as the layout of the text:

The TEI markup below looks very different from the facsimile but, if you look closely, you can probably understand some of what the markup is doing.

<text type="manuscript">
<body>
<pb facs="loc.00001.001.jpg" xml:id="leaf001r" type="recto"/>
<lg type="poem">
<head rend="underline" type="main-authorial">
After
<subst>
<del rend="overstrike" seq="1">an</del>
<add place="supralinear" rend="insertion" seq="2">
the
<del rend="overstrike">unsolv'd</del>
</add>
</subst>
argument
</head>
<l>
<del rend="overstrike">The</del>
<add place="supralinear" rend="insertion">
<del rend="overstrike">Coming in,</del>
<subst>
<del rend="overwrite" seq="1">a</del>
<add place="over" rend="overwrite" seq="2">A</add>
</subst>
group of
</add>
little children, and their
<lb/>
ways and chatter, flow
<add place="inline" rend="unmarked">in, </add>
<del rend="overstrike">
<add place="supralinear" rend="unmarked">upon me</add>
</del>
</l>
<l>
Like
<add place="supralinear" rend="insertion">welcome </add>
rippling water o'er my
<lb/>
heated
<add place="supralinear" rend="insertion">nerves and </add>
flesh.
</l>
<closer>
<signed>Walt Whitman</signed>
</closer>
</lg>
<pb facs="loc.00001.002.jpg" xml:id="leaf001v" type="verso"/>
</body>
</text>

Facsimiles & Critical Editions

includes TEI based facsimiles of Newton's alchemical manuscripts, critical materials, an analysis tool, and educational resources.

(Note that you can click on "page image" to see an image of the original manuscript.)

is a critical edition, scholarly study, and textual archive of the Old English poem Cædmon’s Hymn. It is a good example of the use of TEI in medieval studies, which is heavily focused on manuscripts.

What Does TEI Markup Look Like?

The following example is from The Walt Whitman Archive. It shows a portion of the markup written to create a facsimile of the original manuscript for Whitman's poem "The Argument."

As you can see in the TEI facsimile below, the Archive seeks to replicate the edits made in the manuscript as well as the layout of the text:

The TEI markup below looks very different from the facsimile but, if you look closely, you can probably understand some of what the markup is doing.

<text type="manuscript">
<body>
<pb facs="loc.00001.001.jpg" xml:id="leaf001r" type="recto"/>
<lg type="poem">
<head rend="underline" type="main-authorial">
After
<subst>
<del rend="overstrike" seq="1">an</del>
<add place="supralinear" rend="insertion" seq="2">
the
<del rend="overstrike">unsolv'd</del>
</add>
</subst>
argument
</head>
<l>
<del rend="overstrike">The</del>
<add place="supralinear" rend="insertion">
<del rend="overstrike">Coming in,</del>
<subst>
<del rend="overwrite" seq="1">a</del>
<add place="over" rend="overwrite" seq="2">A</add>
</subst>
group of
</add>
little children, and their
<lb/>
ways and chatter, flow
<add place="inline" rend="unmarked">in, </add>
<del rend="overstrike">
<add place="supralinear" rend="unmarked">upon me</add>
</del>
</l>
<l>
Like
<add place="supralinear" rend="insertion">welcome </add>
rippling water o'er my
<lb/>
heated
<add place="supralinear" rend="insertion">nerves and </add>
flesh.
</l>
<closer>
<signed>Walt Whitman</signed>
</closer>
</lg>
<pb facs="loc.00001.002.jpg" xml:id="leaf001v" type="verso"/>
</body>
</text>

¶ Textual Encoding Initiative

Related terms:

Markup languages use tags to define elements within a digital document. XML (Extensible Markup Language) is used for encoding texts and employs a number of different standards and schemas.
Markup tags are in and out marks that “wrap” a text element, e.g., a title, header, single word, paragraph, etc. Below is a simple example using the more commonly known markup language, HTML (Hypertext Markup Language):

In a web browse the above looks like:

Their Eyes are Watching God

Their Eyes are Watching God was written by Zora Neale Hurston in 1937.

¶ Textual Encoding Initiative

hashtag Their Eyes are Watching God

hashtag

What Does TEI Markup Look Like?

Facsimiles & Critical Editions

What Does TEI Markup Look Like?

¶ Textual Encoding Initiative

hashtag Their Eyes are Watching God

hashtag

Facsimiles & Critical Editions

Their Eyes are Watching God

Their Eyes are Watching God