teiHeader

teiHeader is the metadata header of a TEI XML document. It is a child of the TEI element and holds information about the text’s identity, origins, and encoding. The header is designed to provide a machine-readable description that supports discovery, preservation, and interoperability of digital texts.

The teiHeader typically contains several sections. The fileDesc section is the bibliographic description of the text and its physical description. It commonly includes a titleStmt with the work’s title and the people responsible for it (such as authors and editors), a publicationStmt with publication details (publisher, place, date), and an extent element describing the length or size of the item. Other possible subelements in fileDesc are editionStmt, seriesStmt, and related metadata about the physical format.

The profileDesc section describes the text’s content and context. It can cover language usage, subject matter, and descriptive notes about the manuscript or edition, along with other descriptive details that help characterize the text.

The encodingDesc section records the encoding information used in the TEI document itself. This may reference the TEI schema, encoding practices, and any custom encoding conventions relevant to the project.

Optional or additional sections such as revisionDesc, sourceDesc, and projectDesc may appear within teiHeader. revisionDesc logs changes to the text and metadata over time; sourceDesc describes the textual sources used to create or edit the document; projectDesc provides information about the project that produced the TEI document.

Overall, teiHeader consolidates essential metadata to support access, provenance, and reuse of TEI-encoded texts.