Software Applications

Geier, Erin, David A. Michelson, William L. Potter, Jeanne-Nicole Mellon Saint-Laurent, Winona Salesky, and Daniel L. Schwartz, developers. The Gaddel App. Srophé Software, 2024–present. Status: In development. Codebase: https://github.com/srophe/Gaddel.

This project is a collaboratively created open source software application designed to support digital publishing and research related to digital cultural heritage. The application is structured around TEI XML and RDF data standards.

Michelson, David A., William L. Potter, Winona Salesky, Jeanne-Nicole Mellon Saint-Laurent, and Daniel L. Schwartz, developers. The Srophé App. Srophé Software, 2014–2024. https://srophe.app/. Status: Development Complete. Codebase: https://github.com/srophe/srophe.

This project is a collaboratively created open source software application designed to support digital publishing and research related to digital cultural heritage. The application is an open source adaptation of the eXist-db framework customized for TEI XML data. The application has been adopted and further customized for use by more than 10 different digital humanities projects.

Digital Humanities Scholarship (Editor, Co-Editor, or Co-Developer)

Schwartz, Daniel L., general editor. Syriac Translation Corpus. Syriaca.org, n.d. Status: In development.

The Syriac Translation Corpus is in the early stages of development. It will eventually publish open source and public domain translations of Syriac texts. These texts will be marked up with Syriaca.org URIs for persons, places, works, and taxonomy concepts; thus integrating them into the Syriaca.org knowledge graph. There are currently 700 texts in development including letters, sermons, biblical commentaries, saints’ lives, chronicles, histories, theology, etc.

Michelson, David A., William L. Potter, Jeanne-Nicole Mellon Saint-Laurent, and Daniel L. Schwartz, general editors. Syriaca.Nexus: Linked Open Data for Syriac Studies. Syriaca.org, forthcoming 2025. Status: In development. Beta SPARQL Endpoint: https://5j6diw4i0h.execute-api.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sparql.

This project is an open-access data repository and SPARQL endpoint for Linked Open Data relevant to Syriac studies. This repository (an RDF triple store managed using the Neptune graph database) will contain an RDF serialization of all Syriaca.org data as well as data from Syriaca.org collaborator projects.

Minov, Sergey, and Daniel L. Schwartz, general editors; David A. Michelson, William L. Potter, and Daniel L. Schwartz, technical editors. The Syriac Taxonomy. Syriaca.org, n.d. Status: In development. https://dev.syriaca.org/taxonomy/index.html. Data: https://github.com/srophe/syriaca-data/tree/gaddel_development/data/taxonomy.

This project is a taxonomy of subject headings related to Syriac studies which will be published by Syriaca.org. New entries are being regularly added to this online reference work. It currently contains 1,463 subject headings relevant to the study of Syriac.

Michelson, David A., general editor; Daniel L. Schwartz, director; Jeanne-Nicole Mellon Saint-Laurent, associate director; Nathan Gibson, William L. Potter, and James E. Walters, editors; Erin Geier and Winona Salesky, senior programmers. Syriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portal. Founded 2012, online publication 2014-2025. Information: https://syriaca.org/project-team.html. Status: Ongoing development. Codebase: https://github.com/srophe/syriaca. Data: https://github.com/srophe/syriaca-data.

Syriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portal is a digital project for the study of Syriac literature, culture, and history. Syriaca.org’s publications compile and classify core data for the study of Syriac sources, offer the scholarly community digital tools for freely disseminating that data, and facilitate further research through the creation of shared digital tools and infrastructure.

Schwartz, Daniel L., general editor; David A. Michelson and Daniel L. Schwartz, technical editors. SPEAR: Syriac Persons Events and Relations. Syriaca.org, 2017-2025. Status: Initial release in Srophé App 2017, current beta public release in Gaddel, 2025. https://spear-prosop.org. Codebase: https://github.com/srophe/spear. Data: https://github.com/srophe/spear-data. Information: https://spear-prosop.org/documentation/schema/SPEAR.html.

This project is a prosopographical database providing information about persons and their relationships within the context of historical events. New entries are being regularly added to this online reference work. It currently contains 4645 prosopographical “factoids” relevant to the field of Syriac studies.

Michelson, David A., William L. Potter, and Daniel L. Schwartz, general editors. The Syriac Gazetteer. Syriaca.org, 2014-2025, http://syriaca.org/geo. Status: First edition 2014, second edition in 2019. Status: Ongoing publication. Codebase: https://github.com/srophe/syriaca. Data: https://github.com/srophe/syriaca-data/tree/master/data/places/tei.

This project is a multi-volume name and geographic authority file published by Syriaca.org. New entries are being regularly added to this online reference work. It currently has 3,030 records documenting places relevant to the field of Syriac studies.

Gibson, Nathan P., David A. Michelson, Jeanne-Nicole Mellon Saint-Laurent, and Daniel L. Schwartz, general editors; Daniel L. Schwartz and William L. Potter, technical editors. The Syriac Biographical Dictionary. Syriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portal, 2016–2025. Status: Ongoing publication. http://syriaca.org/persons. Codebase: https://github.com/srophe/syriaca. Data: https://github.com/srophe/syriaca-data/tree/master/data/persons/tei.

This project is a multi-volume name and biographic authority file. New entries are being regularly added to this online reference work. It currently has 3,029 records documenting persons relevant to the field of Syriac studies.

Digital Humanities Scholarship (Technical Editor)

Minov, Sergey, general editor; David A. Michelson, William L. Potter, Jeanne-Nicole Mellon Saint-Laurent, and Daniel L. Schwartz, technical editors. The Comprehensive Bibliography on Syriac Studies. Syriaca.org, forthcoming 2025. Status: In development. https://dev.syriaca.org/cbss/index.html. Codebase: https://github.com/srophe/syriaca. Data: https://github.com/srophe/syriaca-data/tree/gaddel_development/data/bibl/tei. Zotero Backend: https://www.zotero.org/groups/4861694.

This project is a subject classified bibliography related to Syriac studies which will be published by Syriaca.org. New entries are being regularly added to this online reference work. It currently contains 27,022 citations relevant to the study of Syriac.

Michelson, David A., and William L. Potter, general editors; Daniel L. Schwartz, technical editor. Syriac Manuscripts in the British Library: A New Digital Edition of Wright’s Catalogue. Syriaca.org, 2024-2025. https://bl.syriac.uk. Status: Beta public release, ongoing development. Codebase: https://github.com/srophe/britishLibrary. Data: https://github.com/srophe/britishLibrary-data.

This project is a digital enhancement of William Wright’s Catalogue of Syriac Manuscripts in the British Museum (London, 1870-72) published in partnership between Syriaca.org and the British Library as an open access online resource. It has 1,207 entries or distinct codicological units (i.e. manuscripts).

Gibson, Nathan P., and David A. Michelson, general editors; Daniel L. Schwartz, technical editor. A Guide to Syriac Authors. Vol. 1 of The Syriac Biographical Dictionary. Syriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portal, 2016–2025. Status: Ongoing publication. http://syriaca.org/authors. Codebase: https://github.com/srophe/syriaca. Data: https://github.com/srophe/syriaca-data/tree/master/data/persons/tei.

This project is a multi-volume name and biographic authority file. New entries are being regularly added to this online reference work. It currently has 948 records documenting historical authors relevant to the field of Syriac studies.

Saint-Laurent, Jeanne-Nicole Mellon, and David A. Michelson, general editors; Daniel L. Schwartz, technical editor. Qadishe: A Guide to the Syriac Saints. Vol. 2 of The Syriac Biographical Dictionary. Syriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portal, 2016–2025. Status: Ongoing publication. http://syriaca.org/q. Codebase: https://github.com/srophe/syriaca. Data: https://github.com/srophe/syriaca-data/tree/master/data/persons/tei.

This project is a multi-volume name and biographic authority file. New entries are being regularly added to this online reference work. It currently has 1,153 records documenting persons venerated as saints in the Syriac religious communities.

Brock, Sebastian, George A. Kiraz, Lucas Van Rompay, and Aaron Butts, editors; David A. Michelson, Ute Possekel, and Daniel L. Schwartz, technical editors. e-GEDSH: Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage, Electronic Edition. Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute, 2018. Status: Published in 2018. https://gedsh.bethmardutho.org/index.html. Codebase: https://github.com/srophe/e-gedsh-app. Data: https://github.com/srophe/e-gedsh.

This project is an open-access online encyclopedia. It has 622 entries related to Syriac cultural heritage.

Roggo, Silvio, general editor; David A. Michelson, William L. Potter, and Daniel L. Schwartz, technical editors. Prosopography to John of Ephesus’s Ecclesiastical History. Vol. 3 of The Syriac Biographical Dictionary. Syriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portal, 2016–2025. Status: Forthcoming in 2025. https://dev.syriaca.org/johnofephesus/persons/index.html. Codebase: https://github.com/srophe/syriaca. Data: https://github.com/srophe/syriaca-data/tree/gaddel_development/data/persons/tei.

This project is a name and biographical authority file published by Syriaca.org. New entries are being regularly added to this online reference work. It currently has 250 records documenting persons relevant to the study of the historical figure John of Ephesus.

Roggo, Silvio, general editor; David A. Michelson, William L. Potter, and Daniel L. Schwartz, technical editors. A Gazetteer to John of Ephesus. Vol. 2 of The Syriac Gazetteer, edited by David A. Michelson and William L. Potter. Syriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portal, forthcoming 2025. Status: Forthcoming in 2025. https://dev.syriaca.org/johnofephesus/places/index.html. Codebase: https://github.com/srophe/syriaca. Data: https://github.com/srophe/syriaca-data/tree/gaddel_development/data/places/tei.

This project is a name and geographic authority file published by Syriaca.org. New entries are being regularly added to this online reference work. It currently has 166 records documenting places relevant to the study of the historical figure John of Ephesus.

Walters, James E., general editor; Aaron Butts, Muriel Debié, Kristian S. Heal, George A. Kiraz, David A. Michelson, Daniel L. Schwartz, David G.K. Taylor, and Dorothea Weltecke, editors; David A. Michelson, Daniel L. Schwartz, and James E. Walters, technical editors. Digital Syriac Corpus. The Digital Lab, Vanderbilt University, 2018–present. Status: Ongoing publication. https://syriaccorpus.org/. Codebase: https://github.com/srophe/syriac-corpus-app. Data: https://github.com/srophe/syriac-corpus.

This project is an open-access online corpus of Syriac literature. New entries are being regularly added to this online reference work. It currently has 573 texts.

TEI ODD Schema Customizations

Schwartz, Daniel L. “Encoding Manual and TEI Customization for SPEAR: Syriaca Persons, Events, and Relations” Second Edition. Syriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portal. 2019-2025. https://github.com/srophe/spear/blob/main/documentation/Schema/SPEAR.odd. HTML: https://spear-prosop.org/documentation/Schema/SPEAR.html.

Prose description of guidelines for encoding SPEAR factoid prosopography data. TEI ODD schema customization that constrains the use of the TEI for encoding factoids and integrating them with the Syriaca.org knowledge graph.

Schwartz, Daniel L. “TEI Customization for the Srophé Application.” Syriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portal. 2019-2025. https://github.com/srophe/Gaddel/blob/main/documentation/schemas/srophe.odd.

A TEI ODD schema customization for use by any project employing the Srophé Application or the Gaddel Application. This offers a minimal customization of the TEI P5 schema and serves as the first layer of Syriaca.org’s chain of TEI ODD customizations. No project currently uses this layer of the chained ODD for document validation but it is an essential component of Syriaca.org’s documentation and data integrity.

Schwartz, Daniel L. “TEI Customization for Syriaca.org.” Syriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portal. 2019-2025. https://github.com/srophe/Gaddel/blob/main/documentation/schemas/syriacaAll.odd.

A TEI ODD schema customization layer for Syriaca.org’s chained ODDs. This ODD uses the “TEI Customization for the Srophé Application” layer as its starting point and customizes it with the portions of the TEI that are common to all Syriaca.org authority file projects. No project currently uses this layer of the chained ODD for validation but it is an essential component of Syriaca.org’s documentation and data integrity. It allows Syriaca.org to maintain the portions of the TEI ODD customization common to all authority file projects in one location. This ODD forms the basis of the other ODDs against which specific publication files are validated.

Schwartz, Daniel L. “TEI Customization for Syriaca.org Persons Data.” Syriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portal.2019- 2025. https://github.com/srophe/Gaddel/blob/main/documentation/schemas/syriacaPersons.odd.

A TEI ODD schema customization layer for Syriaca.org’s person data. This ODD uses the “TEI Customization for Syriaca.org” ODD as its starting point and customizes the Syriaca.org schema for validating person data. This ODD allows us to produce the final RelaxNG file against which Syriaca.org validates the XML files in the Syriac Biographical Dictionary.

Schwartz, Daniel L. “TEI Customization for Syriaca.org Place Data.” Syriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portal. 2019-2025. https://github.com/srophe/Gaddel/blob/main/documentation/schemas/syriacaPlaces.odd.

A TEI ODD schema customization layer for Syriaca.org’s place data. This ODD uses the “TEI Customization for Syriaca.org” ODD as its starting point and customizes the Syriaca.org schema for validating places data. This ODD allows us to produce the final RelaxNG file against which Syriaca.org validates the XML files in the The Syriac Gazetteer.

Michelson, David A., William L. Potter, and Daniel L. Schwartz. “Syriac Manuscripts in the British Library: TEI P5 Customization and Encoding Guidelines for Manuscript Description.” Syriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portal. 2024. https://github.com/srophe/britishLibrary/blob/main/documentation/schema/Syriacamsdesc.odd.

This TEI ODD schema customization constrains the TEI P5 schema for describing manuscript data in “Syriac Manuscripts in the British Library: A New Digital Edition of Wright’s Catalogue.” It is based on those published by the Bodleian Library, Oxford and James Cummings as “TEI P5 Customization and Encoding Guidelines for Manuscript Description,” licenced under CC BY 4.0. In turn, the work of the Bodleian Library, Oxford and James Cummings was based on the medieval manuscript guidelines written by James Freeman and Matthew Holford and encoded by Matthew Holford.