## Text Encoding Initiative

### The XML Version of the TEI Guidelines

# readings

`readings` | defines a set of attributes common to all elements representing variant readings in text critical work.
Member of classes | (none)
Members | lem rdg rdgGrp

Declaration

    <!ENTITY % a.readings '
          wit CDATA #IMPLIED
          type CDATA #IMPLIED
          cause CDATA #IMPLIED
          varSeq CDATA #IMPLIED
          resp CDATA %INHERITED;
          hand IDREF %INHERITED;'>

Attributes

(In addition to global attributes)

`wit` | (witnesses) contains a list of one or more sigla indicating the witnesses which attest to a given reading.
| Datatype: CDATA
| Values: A space-delimited series of sigla; each sigil should correspond to a witness or witness group and occur as the value of the `sigil` attribute on a `<witness>` element elsewhere in the document.
| Default: #IMPLIED

Example:

    <rdg wit="El Hg">Experience</rdg>

Note

If the apparatus contains readings only for a single witness, this attribute may be consistently omitted.

This attribute may occur both within an apparatus gathering variant readings in the transcription of an individual witness and within an apparatus gathering readings from different witnesses.

In local encoding schemes, the value of the `wit` attribute can be enforced as IDREFS, such that only witnesses referred to in a `<witList>` element may occur as witnesses to a reading.

`type` | classifies the reading according to some useful typology.
| Datatype: CDATA

Sample values include:

substantive | the reading offers a substantive variant.
orthographic | the reading differs only orthographically, not in substance, from other readings.

| Default: #IMPLIED

Example:

`cause` | classifies the reading as original or non-original, according to some typology of possible origins.
| Datatype: CDATA
| Values: any word or phrase describing the cause: e.g. ‘homeoteleuton’, ‘homeoarchy’, ‘paleographic confusion’, ‘haplography’, ‘dittography’, ‘false emendation’.
| Default: #IMPLIED

Example:

`varSeq` | (variant sequence) provides a number indicating the position of this reading in a sequence, when there is reason to presume a sequence to the variants on any one lemma.
| Datatype: CDATA
| Values: a positive integer
| Default: #IMPLIED

Example:

Note | Different variant sequences could be coded with distinct number trails: 1-2-3 for one sequence, 5-6-7 for another. More complex variant sequences, with (for example) multiple branchings from single readings, may be expressed through the `<join>` element.
`resp` | (responsibility) identifies the editor responsible for asserting a particular reading in the witness.
| Datatype: CDATA
| Values: must be one of the identifiers declared in the document header, associated with a person asserted as responsible for some aspect of the text's creation, transcription, editing, or encoding (see chapter 17 Certainty and Responsibility).
| Default: %INHERITED;

Example:

Note | This attribute is only available within an apparatus gathering variant readings in the transcription of an individual witness. It may not occur in an apparatus gathering readings from different witnesses.
`hand` | signifies the hand responsible for a particular reading in the witness.
| Datatype: IDREF
| Values: must be one of the hand identifiers declared in the document header (see section 18.2.1 Document Hands).
| Default: %INHERITED;

Example:

Note | This attribute is only available within an apparatus gathering variant readings in the transcription of an individual witness. It may not occur in an apparatus gathering readings from different witnesses.

Note

This element class defines attributes inherited by `<rdg>`, `<lem>`, and `<rdgGrp>`.

Module Declared in file teitc2.ent; Additional tag set for Textual Criticism: enabled by TEI.textcrit
See further 19.1 The Apparatus Entry, Readings, and Witnesses

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