Home
The Research Environment for Ancient Documents (READ) is an open‐source software system for epigraphic and manuscript research. READ supports the transcription and analysis of ancient documents and the preparation of scholarly editions and studies. Its defining characteristic is an atomized data structure that represents a text on the basis of its smallest orthographic units (as opposed to lines or words as base units). This structure reduces data duplication and solves the problem of overlapping hierarchies while supporting higher‐level textual analysis ranging from physical to more interpretive aspects.
READ provides semi‐automated facilities for linking images of an inscribed object with transcriptions, for handling multiple transcriptions of the same object in parallel, for linking original‐language texts with translations, and for producing glossaries and paleographic charts. The initial focus of READ development has been on supporting documents in South Asian writing systems, but the software is intended to be general and useable for documents from all writing traditions. READ can be used offline on a scholar’s personal computer, or it can be installed on a server in a multi‐user setup. It uses PostgreSQL for storage, HTML/PHP/JavaScript for display and interaction, and TEI P5 XML for export and import, allowing for integration of READ with existing TEI-based workflows.
Primary workflow when using READ:
Core entity model of READ:
(image by Andrea Schlosser)
(image by Stefan Baums)
(image by Andrea Schlosser)
(image by Andrea Schlosser)
(image by Andrea Schlosser)
READ is being developed by a core team consisting of Stefan Baums (Munich, academic lead), Andrew Glass (Seattle, system design), Ian McCrabb (Sydney, project management) and Stephen White (Venice, programming), with additional contributions by Arlo Griffiths, Yang Li and Andrea Schlosser. READ development has received generous funding from the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the University of Lausanne, the University of Washington, the Prakaś Foundation, the École française d’Extrême‐Orient and the University of Sydney. READ is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 3.