Byzantine lead seals contain various kinds of information: images, as well as inscriptions, which give the name, title and oﬃce of the respective owner of the seal. Lead seals bring to our attention a large number of individuals not attested in other sources, but they also pass down revealing details of their social, cultural and political background. The frequently quoted number of 80,000 surviving seals is not likely to be exaggerated. One of the biggest challenges related to sigillography is to make the above features readily available for historians who use seals. The „SigiDoc“ project, carried out by Alessio Sopracasa (Sorbonne University) and a research team at the University of Cologne (Claudia Sode, Martina Filosa, Maria Catalano), building upon an almost ten-year discussion of an international network of Digital Humanists and Byzantinists aims at adapting the subset of TEI-XML markup known as EpiDoc (developed initially for inscriptions, coins and papyri) for seals as „SigiDoc“ which allows for search, indexing, links both within and between external databases, etc. This project will create a digital corpus of Byzantine seals, intended to serve as a pilot, and provide tools and standards that can be used by others. The paper will discuss the use that can be made of digital tools in Sigillography and present practical examples of a SigiDoc-based digital publication of seals. I was born in East Germany, and I studied Classical Philology in Jena while attending additional seminars in Church History, as well as courses on Georgian and Armenian Art History. As a consequence I developed an interest in Byzantine culture. Aﬅer the Wall came down I availed myself of the opportunity to take up Byzantine Studies at FU Berlin. I wrote my PhD dissertation at the University of Jena on the Lifes of saints from the period of iconoclasm and my Habilitation on the Book of Ceremonies of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus. In 2001 I was oﬀered a position at Yale, but turned it down and decided to continue my academic carrier in Germany. Aﬅer one year in Paris, I became professor at the University of Cologne in 2005. My research interests include Byzantine hagiography, ceremonial studies, the transmission of Byzantine texts, manuscript studies, sigillography, as well as the history of Byzantine Studies in modern times. I am currently engaged in a project devoted to the question of social, ethnic and religious identity in Byzantium, with a special emphasis on Byzantine seals, and take part in an endeavour to develop new methods for the digital analysis and publication of seals. DIGITAL SIGILLOGRAPHY: NEW APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF BYZANTINE SEALS ADM RESEARCH LECTURE SERIES About the speaker: Claudia Sode Bring your own mugs for hot drinks! Please note that photographs and videos of you might be taken during the event for publicity purposes. Date: Wednesday, 25 September 2019 Time: 1230 - 1400 Location: ADM Conference Room, #03-25 School of Art, Design and Media College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

DIGITAL SIGILLOGRAPHY - Nanyang Technological Universityclass.cohass.ntu.edu.sg/Documents/ADM-CLASS Research...research interests include Byzantine hagiography, ceremonial studies,

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Page 1: DIGITAL SIGILLOGRAPHY - Nanyang Technological Universityclass.cohass.ntu.edu.sg/Documents/ADM-CLASS Research...research interests include Byzantine hagiography, ceremonial studies,

Byzantine lead seals contain various kinds of information: images, as well as inscriptions, which give the name, title and office of the respective owner of the seal. Lead seals bring to our attention a large number of individuals not attested in other sources, but they also pass down revealing details of their social, cultural and political background. The frequently quoted number of 80,000 surviving seals is not likely to be exaggerated.

One of the biggest challenges related to sigillography is to make the above features readily available for historians who use seals. The „SigiDoc“ project, carried out by Alessio Sopracasa (Sorbonne University) and a research team at the University of Cologne (Claudia Sode, Martina Filosa, Maria Catalano), building upon an almost ten-year discussion of an international network of Digital Humanists and Byzantinists aims at adapting the subset of TEI-XML markup known as EpiDoc (developed initially for inscriptions, coins and papyri) for seals as „SigiDoc“ which allows for search, indexing, links both within and between external databases, etc. This project will create a digital corpus of Byzantine seals, intended to serve as a pilot, and provide tools and standards that can be used by others. The paper will discuss the use that can be made of digital tools in Sigillography and present practical examples of a SigiDoc-based digital publication of seals.

I was born in East Germany, and I studied Classical Philology in Jena while attending

additional seminars in Church History, as well as courses on Georgian and Armenian Art

History. As a consequence I developed an interest in Byzantine culture. Aster the Wall came down I

availed myself of the opportunity to take up Byzantine Studies at FU Berlin. I wrote my PhD

dissertation at the University of Jena on the Lifes of saints from the period of iconoclasm and my

Habilitation on the Book of Ceremonies of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus. In 2001 I was offered a position at

Yale, but turned it down and decided to continue my academic carrier in Germany. Aster one year in Paris, I

became professor at the University of Cologne in 2005. My research interests include Byzantine hagiography, ceremonial

studies, the transmission of Byzantine texts, manuscript studies, sigillography, as well as the history of Byzantine

Studies in modern times. I am currently engaged in a project devoted to the question of social, ethnic and religious identity in

Byzantium, with a special emphasis on Byzantine seals, and take part in an endeavour to develop new methods for the digital analysis

and publication of seals.