Projects

Apart from typesetting books, we also provide guidance for digitalization projects. One of our areas of expertise is the creation of database structures and the transfer of existing data to these structures. We also have extensive experience with coding data in XML. Most projects that we take on are eventually meant to be published in book form as well. For this reason we have developed several methods with which we can convert database or XML data to TeX. These methods have made it possible to pair typographical perfection with a user friendly way of data organization in a database management system or XML.

Digital Locke Project

The Digital Locke Project, sponsored by NWO, is a co-initiative of the philosophy faculty of the Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Digital Production Center of the University of Amsterdam and TAT Zetwerk. The project is lead by Dr. Paul Schuurman of the philosophy faculty. The aim of the project is to create an XML encoded critical edition of the works of the British philosopher John Locke (1632-1704). The project will be made available online (www.digitallockeproject.nl) and will be published in print by Oxford University Press.

The novelty of this project lies in the fact that both the online and the printed version will automatically be generated by using the same XML-code. The online edition presents the text in two parts, a diplomatic and a normalized part. The diplomatic part will comprise an explanation of all special elements in the manuscript, such as Locke’s own deletions and additions. The normalized section leaves out these interferences and only contains the final text. Here, the editor tries to approximate Locke’s intended text. In the print edition, all diplomatic information will be provided for in a critical footnote apparatus.

TAT Zetwerk’s role in the project is that of managing the project specific DTD’s, creating design and functionality for the online-presentation, managing the meta data, and converting the XML code to the typesetting system TeX.

A Cellist’s Companion

The aim of A Cellist’s Companion: A Comprehensive Catalogue of Cello Literature, a project which was supervised by Henk Lambooij and Michael Feves, was to create an all encompassing bibliography of cello literature. As a result, a comprehensive catalogue containing about 45.000 titles was published in october 2007.

Within this project TAT Zetwerk managed the administration of the FileMaker database structure, which contained all collected records and files. We also developed a method to convert files from the database so that it was legible for our typesetting system TeX. This has been an extremely complex process, since all relations from the FileMaker database tables needed to be transferred to a linear catalogue with cross references; examples of this are cello compositions that are adaptations of other compositions, compositions that were written by more than one composer and collections of works that were published together. In the future we will explore possibilities for an online presentation of the records and files. More information about the project and the printed catalogue can be found on the website www.cellocompanion.com.

Buridan’s De fallaciis

John Buridan (± 1300-± 1360) is one of the most influential philosophers of the late medieval period. Nevertheless, we have relatively little knowledge about this gifted thinker, since only few of his works are accessible in the form of modern editions and publications. In 1986, a few academics founded the Buridan society with the intention to publish his most important logical work, the Summa logicae.

Buridan’s Summa logicae is comprised of eight treatises:

1. De propositionibus
2. De praedicabilibus
3. In praedicamenta
4. De suppositionibus
5. De syllogismis
6. De locis
7. De fallaciis
8. De divisionibus, definitionibus et demonstrationibus

The first four parts have already been published by Brepols publishers, just like the edition of De demonstrationibus. Johannes Rustenburg has undertaken the task to make a critical edition of De fallaciis. The edition is now in its final stage; you can download the completed parts here.

Stoa Project

The Stoa Project, which is being carried out by the history department of the Department of philosophy of Utrecht University, will lead to a renewed publication of text fragments of the early Stoa, represented by philosophers such as Zeno, Chrysippus and Cleanthes. We know very little about the Stoa comes from primary sources; most of what we know about it has been derived from secondary sources. Our most important sources are other philosophers and doxographers, who have cited and paraphrased the learnings of the early Stoa. Through modern research on doxographic traditions and republications of many of the sources, the current publication of this material, J. von Arnim’s Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta (1903-1924), has become outdated.

TAT Zetwerk’s role in this project is managing the FileMaker database that contains Stoic text fragments (mainly in ancient Greek) accompanied by text critical and historic-philosophical notes, an English translation, and meta data. As soon as the text parts in the database have reached their final form, we convert them into a TeX-format, so that we can generate a mirrored critical edition. We can then create indices and concordances by using the meta data from the database. Currently, the Stoa Project does not have its own website.

Analecta Husserliana

The Analecta Husserliana, founded in 1968 by Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (Reidel/Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht), comprise an impressive series of works in the field of phenomenological philosophy. Currently, this series is published by Springer and counts more than ninety volumes.

For this series TAT Zetwerk developed a FileMaker database that comprises a cumulative table of contents for all volumes. We can convert data from this database to TeX. This way, we can produce an up-to-date cumulative table of contents and an index of authors which includes references to volumes and page numbers at any given time. More information about this series can be found on the website.