Exploring a Multilingual Digital Edition of Early Modern European Theater

The Classics of Early Modern European Theater (EMOTHE) project, based at the University of Valencia (Spain) and directed by Professor Joan Oleza, represents a significant expansion, in a European direction, of the former experience of the international research team led by Oleza on early modern Spanish theater and new research tools and strategies. The group's previous focus was the creation of ARTELOPE, http://artelope.uv.es, a powerful database on Lope de Vega's plays (including summaries of their plots) published online in 2011.

The main objective of EMOTHE is the creation of a repertory of classics of early modern European theatrical texts. The project's foundations have already been established by the ARTELOPE group, which has developed a database hosted on a server at the University of Valencia, where the different researchers have personalized privileges for remote access.¹

Included in the database is a repertory of plays from the four basic traditions of the early modern European theater (Italian, English, French, and Spanish) and the database uses the four corresponding languages. The edition of each play must contain at least two versions, one in the original language and the other in a language of translation. However, the aim is to present each play in the original language and in all three translations; there can also be different versions of the play. The structure is conceived as a galaxy of texts, as a set of planetary systems, in which each star (play) is the orbiting center of its planets, which are other texts related to it. These other texts may be translations of an original play into other languages (this is the most frequent case), but can also be different textual versions in the original language of that play, and may also be later adaptations of the play in the same language or in other languages. The database, for example, allows room for other texts of the same play reflecting different early testimonia in their original language, like in the case of La Estrella de Sevilla, a drama that has come down to us through two very different ancient testimonia. Also it is possible to insert subsequent adaptations, including those versions in different languages: this is, for instance, the case of the Italian comedy Gl'Ingannati, by the Intronati di Siena, adapted (not translated) into Spanish by Lope de Rueda as Los engañados, and the case of La verdad sospechosa, by Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, adapted to the French by Corneille with the title of Le Menteur. Some exceptional cases showing the European circulation of an extremely popular theme will incorporate more adaptations and derivative versions than translations: that is the case of plays featuring the figures of Don Juan or Faustus, for example.

The original texts consist of reliable scholarly editions. Permissions to use already existing critical texts are requested, and, if necessary, copyright is paid. The team counts on the collaboration of prestigious editors who are specialists in the different theatrical traditions. In the case of the translations, we attempt to use translations of historical value, which exemplify the circulation of texts in Europe since the sixteenth century. If they cannot be found or do not exist, we use either translations by scholars associated with the team who transfer us their rights, or translations commissioned and subcontracted to specialists. A prose translation will be used if an existing verse translation cannot be found or if a new translation into verse is not feasible.

The team's work is structured according to three research lines. Line 1 structures the data that is to be inserted into the different sections of the EMOTHE database and introduces the different versions of a text, where they are marked up in XML/TEI language through a tool already designed for this purpose, and prepared for its subsequent Web and EPUB publication.² Line 2 focuses on choosing philologically reliable texts of the plays that can be used and describing their characteristics:

• — Ancient Testimonia

• — Text collatio (only in the case of critical editions)

• — Authorship

• — Date of writing

• — Paratexts: dedicatory, dramatis personae list, prologue, etc...