Wittgenstein's Nachlass, The Bergen Electronic Edition

Wittgenstein's Nachlass, The Bergen Electronic
Edition

Claus
Huitfeldt

Wittgenstein Archives
University of Bergen
Claus.Huitfeldt@hit.uib.no

1999

University of Virginia

Charlottesville, VA

ACH/ALLC 1999

editor

encoder

Sara
A.
Schmidt

The Bergen Electronic Edition is the first edition of
Ludwig Wittgenstein's 20,000 page Nachlass with any claim to completeness. The
first CD-ROM volume was published in 1998. The remaining three are due to appear
in 1999 and 2000.
The edition presents transcriptions of Wittgenstein's writings in two formats: an
uncluttered, Normalized reading-text and a detailed,
Diplomatic study-text. It also includes a Facsimile containing digitized images for every page
of text.
The publication uses FolioViews for presentation and retrieval of the
transcription text. InfoVIEW has been used to display the facsimiles.
In the preparation of the edition, transcriptions are encoded using MECS
(Multi-Element Code System). MECS software provides transcription support and
ensures that transcriptions can be formatted for output in a variety of formats
and styles.
The Nachlass has been photographed on standard colour film. The photographs are
digitized and transferred to Photo-CDs. From the Photo-CDs JPEG-compressed
versions of the images are produced.
The edition is the result of a co-operation between the Wittgenstein Archives and
the HIT Centre at the University of Bergen and Oxford University Press. The work
is made possible through an understanding with the Wittgenstein Trustees.
In the software demonstration, we will mainly show the published product. We will
also be prepared to demonstrate some of the production tools and methods on
request.
In the poster presentation, we will describe the edition's design and production
methods. We will present the various facilities offered end users.