Many scholars, in a broad range of disciplines, are working on the transmission of textual information in manuscripts. These manuscripts may be of very different types and materials, from different time periods, containing texts in different languages and scripts, but the scholars working on them still confront many of the same issues and questions in their research, and encounter similar problems and obstacles when trying to keep track of, and analyze, their materials.
About the Tool
The TinTraMaC research tool was created to remedy the situation described above. It is specifically designed to enable scholars to easily trace the geographical and diachronic spread and development of textually transmitted information, concepts, and ideas and to keep track of the details of the material artifacts in which these texts were copied. It can be applied to a wide range of manuscripts, texts, languages, and genres. In concrete terms, TInTraMaC is a package that consists of a detailed user guide, a set of tables, and a number of Python scripts that enable the import of data from the tables into a dedicated relational database application (e.g., PostgreSQL or MySQL). The user guide also gives pointers as to how this data may be queried using SQL scripts, and explains how to export data for further analysis using other applications for statistical or network analysis (e.g., Gephi).
With the TInTraMaC tool, users will be able to trace – across time and space – the development and transmission of concepts and ideas within a chosen corpus of texts. It is a tool that can be applied to a variety of manuscripts, texts, languages, and genres, and is intended as a springboard for the development of a wide range of research projects.
Download
Download the TInTraMaC package, including the tool and user guide!
The tool and user guide was last updated 30 January, 2025.
Background
Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the number of research projects which require the development of digital databases and the application of advanced analytical methods and tools for the analysis of large amounts of data. The complexity involved in implementing such methods, and inadequate resources, nevertheless often force researchers to rely on traditional methods and smaller-scale research questions. Moreover, when researchers in the humanities do adopt advanced digital methods, productivity often suffers due to a lack of standards (best practices) and a dearth of accessible, user-friendly, and flexible tools fit for the purpose.
Financing
The project was funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme through a Proof of Concept (PoC) grant for the period 2023-2024 (grant agreement no. 101113421), and is a spin-off from the Consolidator Grant (CoG) project APOCRYPHA, funded by the Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 865971).
