XQuery for VIAF id numbers

Our bibliography has (too many) authors for whom we need VIAF numbers. Using VIAF API (as described), we get numbers from the database in several steps.

1. find distinct values of unassigned authors in the bibliography
2. turn these values into a XML sequence
3. use the sequence to query VIAF

For the last phase, we use this XQuery (and BaseX GUI):

declare namespace ns2="http://viaf.org/viaf/terms#";
declare namespace ns3="http://viaf.org/viaf/terms#";
(: address to which we are sending the queries :)
let $url := 
("http://www.viaf.org/viaf/search?query=local.personalNames+all+%22REPLACE_URN%22&maximumRecords=1&sortKeys=holdingscount&httpAccept=text/xml")
(: our sequence :)
let $rijeci := 
<a>
  <n>Adelmann von Adelmannsfelden, Konrad</n>
  <n>Aegidii, Guillermus</n>
  <n>Alexander, Natalis</n>
  <n>Algerus</n>
<!-- many more -->
  <n>Zoller, Martin</n>
</a>

(: for each item in sequence, batches of 100 :)
for $r in $rijeci/n[401>position() and position()>=301]

let $qrijeci := replace($r, " ", "+")
let $parsed := (doc(replace($url,'REPLACE_URN',$qrijeci)))

return element author { 
element ref { 
attribute type { "viaf" } , 
attribute target { data($parsed//ns2:VIAFCluster/ns2:viafID) } , 
data($r) } 
}

Structuring the Mercurius Croaticus

Mercurius Croaticus is currently a set of TEI XML files containing bibliographical records. These files will be served and made accessible via the BaseX XML database, once we decide on how to present the records; our working premise is that, if researchers want to discover something really interesting, they'll be willing and ready to learn XQuery (not least because it's a powerful tool for more than one research project). And Mercurius Croaticus will help them learn.

To get a clear idea on what exactly is in the bibliographic collection, and to avoid confusion, we organised the files in three sets of folders, following the FRBR concept. There is a folder for authors (auctores), a folder for works (opera), and one for "manifestations" (it is interesting that a term for the third category is not readily available in any language I know); "manifestations" have two subfolders: manuscripts (MS) and printed books (typis edita). Obviously, the "internet" subfolder could also be included.

The folder auctores contains our starting prosopography — a set of 244 personal records for Croatian Latin authors included in the Leksikon hrvatskih pisaca (A Lexicon of Croatian Writers, Zagreb 2000) — and the "additions" file, containing currently 70 more neo-Latin authors of Croatian origin.

Main part of opera is also culled from the Leksikon hrvatskih pisaca — there are 1784 items listed — and there are 18 additional items as well.

The manifestations/MS subfolder has one special collection, with excerpts from Paul Oskar Kristeller's Iter Italicum (no, we don't have the money to subscribe to Brill's internet edition); it was excerpted by Darko Novaković, who kindly lent his notes to Mercurius for TEI XML conversion. And there are records collected from other sources, more or less obiter.

Finally, there is the manifestations/typis edita subfolder, where the basis is the bibliography made by Šime Jurić (1915–2004) in late 1960's: Iugoslaviae scriptores Latini recentioris aetatis (that is, its "Pars I. Opera scriptorum Latinorum natione Croatarum usque ad annum MDCCCXLVIII typis edita. Bibliographiae fundamenta. t. 1. Index alphabeticus. t. 2. Index systematicus. Additamentum I."), later improved by the Croatian National and University Library, and encoded by the Croatiae auctores Latini project. This collection contains 5867 bibliographic records on printed Latin publications with works by Croatian authors. Jurić's bibliography breaks off with the year 1850. Mercurius Croaticus should urgently supplement it with data on later publications, all the way up to the present.

Preparing to launch the Mercurius Croaticus

Mercurius Croaticus, a prosopographical and bibliographical collection of data on Croatian Latin writers, their works, editions, and manuscripts, is nearing its launching point.

The starting dataset comprises information on:

• 269 authors


• 1808 works


• 5867 printed editions


• 58 manuscripts (more to be added soon)


• digitised copies, where available

Working on a Work entry

Here's what an entry for a work of a Croatian Latin author — in this case, Beninj Albertini — looks like when it's encoded in TEI XML courtesy of Tamara Runjak, librarian in the HAZU (Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts):

<bibl xml:id="alb-c01-1825">
   <author><ref target="alb03">Albertini, Beninj</ref></author>
   <title lang="la">Elegia in Arcadum coetu 
       anno jubilaei MDCCCXXV recitata </title>
   <date when="1825">1825</date>
   <note type="metrum">elegijski distih</note>
   <note type="genus">latinski stihovi</note>
   <note type="genus">prigodnice</note>
   <relateditem><ref target="alb1825car">Romae 1825</ref></relateditem>
</bibl>

The whole entry has an identifier in its "bibl" element. The "ref" element in "author" points to the entry in our List of Authors (where all authors' names and known data will be listed).
The date is the creation date (when we know it).
Notes typed "metrum" tell in which metre the poem is (currently this information is in Croatian); others, with type "genus", show different levels of genres. Finally, the "relatedItem" points to the List of Manifestations (i. e. editions, manuscripts etc).

Oh, and by the way, here is "just the text" from this entry, reminding us how much implied information a cultured human being can understand:

   Albertini, Beninj
   Elegia in Arcadum coetu anno jubilaei MDCCCXXV recitata
   1825
   elegijski distih
   latinski stihovi
   prigodnice
   Romae 1825