Cours du Programme doctoral en études numériques (PDEN) ouvert aux doctorant·e·s des universités de Lausanne, EPFL, Neuchâtel, Fribourg, Genève, Bâle et Berne. Participation gratuite et frais pris en charge par le PDEN pour les doctorant·e·s des universités partenaires.
Intervenants : Elena Spadini Université de Lausanne – Helena Bermudez Sabel Université de Lausanne – Elisa Nury Université de Genève
This two-day course offers an introduction to the theory and the practice of automatic collation (programme and details here)
Collation is the practice of comparing texts in order to identify their variant forms. It is used in the preparation of critical editions, as well in genetic criticism and in the study of textual transmissions. More in general, the alignment of two or more texts, which is the basis of collation, can be useful for analysing text reuse and intertextuality. Computers have been used to automatize collation since the 60’s, but even though several examples of stable software are available nowadays, this tedious task is still often done by hand. This workshop will show participants how to take advantage of automatic collation tools in the field of textual and genetic criticism. A brief history of collation together with a reflection about the practices of the research community in Humanities and Social Sciences when working on the digital ecosystem will contextualise the analysis of the tools.
During the course, we will address the basic principles of the theory of automatic collation and briefly present a number of programs. In the hands-on part of the course, we will use CollateX, a collation software, to put into practice what the participants have learned. Eventually, the last part of the course can be devoted to find the right software and parameters for the use cases brought by the participants.
