Digital editions as a new model of conceptual authority data

Abstract

Projects related to cultural heritage enhancement are facing a gradual transition from the description of the sources, at the level of metadata, to their digitization. When this heritage is textual a special attention is recognized to digitization as annotated or "marked-up" transcription, having the aim of textual or documentary edition. Each feature of a document that can be element of annotation - and is therefore subject of interpretation - takes the form of an authority data to be analyzed under the different aspects that attest the specific instance of the element in context. Tools of description of resources, as product of context and domain, contribute to transform the edition of a document in a knowledge base. Semantic Web and Linked Data provides the theoretical and technological tools to convert siloed authority files, which represent the conceptual or semantic access points to digital editions, in interoperable resources.