Documentation - How the Database Works
Background
The present platform aims to support both this project's ends and to offer both a place for the extension of similar research using the same data model, while offering an open source data model and implementation modality that could be use of by similar historical projects to support their own research.
To achieve these aims, the project platform uses the Arches platform for its data management system and adopts the CIDOC CRM and Art and Architectural Argumentation Ontology (AAAo) as its basic data modelling framework. The Arches platform is open source and the implementation package for this project can be found here. The data models of this project were designed through dialogue between the projects researchers and the ontology modelling team at Takin.solutions. They adopt the CIDOC CRM as a backbone ontology in the cultural heritage and historical sphere and the AAAo for the purposes of modelling more accurately historical data demonstrating social facts or states (e.g.: kinship). The documentation of this data modelling can be found here.
Those interested in the ontological models used to represent the information in the GEMENE-ST project may wish to explore their formal documentation using the Zellij semantic data pattern library.
The GEMENE-ST Data Models
The GEMENE-ST data models are designed to support historical researchers to document their primary historical documents sources and the historical facts that they document using a semantic data graph. By documenting this data as graph historians are able to represent and query networks of relations between individuals and groups through legal acts of buying, selling, willing etc.
The data models that compose the project then are:
Legal Document: A text based work of legal significance, which can be carried by physical or digital objects.
Legal Act: A notarial activity such as a transfer of right, a transfer custody over an object, etc., or the legally binding establishment/annulment of a social role, such as procuration.
Physical Object: A physical object, including works of houses, ships, goods, and other valuables.
Person: An individual human person. This is used for notaries, merchants, and other people referred to in the archival sources.
Organization: Two or more people, potentially sub-divided into further groups, that can act collectively. For example a business or a religious organization.
Place: An area on the earth's surface, independent of time or any building or other material structure that might be located there.
The documentation process begins from the Legal Document model which captures metadata regarding the original document as an archival source. This document is the first evidence for the documentation of a historical legal act, as described in the document. Instances of the model Legal Act describe events of transfer of property, custody and right between individuals and organizations of both objects and enslaved people. Individual people are recorded with their own records in the Person model where historical information regarding their profession, sex etc. is recorded. Instances of groups of people like businesses, conglomerates etc. can be documented in the Organizations model with their particulars. The Physical Object model allows the documentation of individual real world things bought and sold in instances of Legal Act. Finally, the Place model allows the documentation of individual real places where instances of Legal Act occurred, to which instances of Person where related, at which instances of Physical Object had sometimes been, and where instances of Legal Document were created.
In this documentation we will illustrate the use and relations of the various models in the system with the example of a specific legal document that captures the sale of an enslaved woman from the Canary Islands, which will illustrate through one real world example how the data is modelled into and connected within the Gemene Arches semantic database.
To illustrate the database structure we have created both a semantic graph and an example graph. The semantic graph shows the properties and relations that can be documented about an individual entity or between two entities in the database.
In what follows, for each model we present a general description of the function of the model along with a semantic and example graph to support the new user of the system to understand what each model is able to represent and how it connects to other models in the system.
Document
A text based work of legal significance, which can be carried by physical or digital objects.
What you can document / ask:
Names, Identifiers, Identical Documents, Type, Creator, Creation Place, Creation Date, References: People, Place, Document, Legal Act, Description
Using the semantic graph, you can explore how to query this data. Hover over the relationship line and click on it. This will take you to the relevant search results in the database, where you can keep exploring by pressing 'Advanced'.
Example
In the Example graph we see an instance of a legal document, which refers to the legal act of selling an enslaved woman from the Canary Islands. The document refers to four different people — the enslaved woman (Caterina) and three other men, whose roles we'll see in the Legal Act model. It also refers to a specific place which is a shop. The document is a notary contract and was created in Genoa, by Tommaso Duracino on 11-10-1465.
Legal Act
A notarial activity such as a transfer of right, a transfer custody over an object, etc., or the legally binding establishment/annulment of a social role, such as procuration.
What you can document / ask:
Names, Identical Events, Type, Place, Date, Actors: People, Groups, Transfer of Rights, Custody, Ownership, Description, Source
Using the semantic graph, you can explore how to query this data. Hover over the relationship line and click on it. This will take you to the relevant search results in the database, where you can keep exploring by pressing 'Advanced'.
Example
In the Example graph we see that the Sale of Caterina (ZE13) took place at a shop (E53) on 11-10-1465 (E52). The sale consisted of the transferring (ZE20) of Caterina (E21)'s title from Marcus de Muste (E21) to Iohannis Fontecoberte (E21). The sale also involved the obligation (ZE27) of Iohannis Fontecoberte (E21) to pay the price of one hundred twenty-two Genoese lire (E54) to Marcus de Muste (E21). This act had (ZE64) a witness (E55), Domenico Belvisio (E21) and was referred to by a legal document (E33).
Physical Object
A physical object, including works of houses, ships, goods, and other valuables.
What you can document / ask:
Names, Identifiers, Identical Objects, Type, Owners, Kind of Use, Locations, Description, Source
Using the semantic graph, you can explore how to query this data. Hover over the relationship line and click on it. This will take you to the relevant search results in the database, where you can keep exploring by pressing 'Advanced'.
Person
An individual human person. This is used for notaries, merchants, and other people referred to in the archival sources.
What you can document / ask:
Names, Identifiers, Identical Individuals, Nationality, Gender, Social Category, Relatives, Birth Date, Death Date, Origin Place, Type, Description, Source
Using the semantic graph, you can explore how to query this data. Hover over the relationship line and click on it. This will take you to the relevant search results in the database, where you can keep exploring by pressing 'Advanced'.
Example
In the Example graph we see Marcus de Muste (E21), whose father (E55) is (ZE10) Antonio de Muste (E21). He resides (ZE43) in Genoa (E53) and is a man (E55), a sailor (E55) and belongs to the class of artefices (E55). He was referred to by a notary sale contract (E33).
Organization
Two or more people, potentially sub-divided into further groups, that can act collectively. For example a business or a religious organization.
What you can document / ask:
Names, Identifiers, Identical Organizations, Type, Founder, Founding Place, Foundation Date, Dissolution Place, Dissolution Date, Location of Activity, Timespan of Activity, Joining Events of Actors — Location, Date, Leaving Events of Actors — Location, Date, Parthood, Description, Source
Using the semantic graph, you can explore how to query this data. Hover over the relationship line and click on it. This will take you to the relevant search results in the database, where you can keep exploring by pressing 'Advanced'.
Example
In the Example graph we see that there is a group (E74) of artefices (E55), which was referenced by the notary sale contract (E33).
Place
An area on the earth's surface, independent of time or any building or other material structure that might be located there.
What you can document / ask:
Names, Identifiers, Identical Place, Type, Coordinates, Part of Place, Description, Source
Using the semantic graph, you can explore how to query this data. Hover over the relationship line and click on it. This will take you to the relevant search results in the database, where you can keep exploring by pressing 'Advanced'.
Example
In the Example graph we see there is a shop (E53) in Genoa (E53), which is referred to by the notary sale contract (E33) as "the shop of Hieronymus de Viganego, leather-strap maker" (E33_41).