Faculty Sponsor
Timothy Tomasik
College
Arts and Sciences
Discipline(s)
French
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Symposium Date
Spring 5-1-2020
Abstract
Looking at a 16th-century cookbook/dietetic treatise can reveal ideas of health, wellness, and culinary practices of the Renaissance period, but what benefit can it provide if it merely exists as a photocopy of a dense, gothic printed edition that most people find difficult to understand? Using XML coding, the French translation of Platina's text can be transformed into a digital edition. By learning the coding structure of XML and using Oxygen editing software, we were able to add tags to the text which allows readers to search and locate keywords or subjects. For example, we tagged personal names and places, and we are beginning to tag food items in order to help future researchers analyze the contents of recipes. In the process of putting the text into a digital format, we had to make editorial decisions, such as expanding abbreviations, regularizing letter differences in the gothic script when appropriate, and capitalizing personal names and places. The next step in this process is for our collaborators in the Computer Science Department to create a web interface using our XML document.
Recommended Citation
Bohlin, Maddie and Brown, Annika, "Rediscovering Renaissance Recipes II: From Text to Code" (2020). Symposium on Undergraduate Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE). 901.
https://scholar.valpo.edu/cus/901
Biographical Information about Author(s)
Maddie Bohlin is a senior French and International Economics and Cultural Affairs major, and Annika Brown is a senior International Relations and French major. This project is part two of a larger project done with other senior French majors last fall in FREN 493: Senior French Seminar, a class requirement for all French majors.