On Tuesday 14 April, Rolf Wissmann introduced the fundamentals of working with TEI and MEI—key formats at the core of our ongoing edition of Tartini’s didactic writings—during our weekly doctoral colloquium for the spring term 2026 at the University of Graz.

These Tuesday meetings have gradually become a cornerstone for everyone involved in the Tartini project. They are not only a space to discuss project-related issues, but also a fertile ground for methodological reflection, exchange of ideas, and dialogue across individual research paths.

Over the past weeks, the range of topics has been remarkably broad: from questions of prosopography and cultural mobility in the 18th century, to network visualisation and digital infrastructures, from the conceptual challenges of scholarly editing in the digital era to the material study of sources, including copyists’ hands and watermarks.

It is precisely this interdisciplinarity—combined with the diversity of perspectives brought by both internal members and invited guests—that makes the colloquium so stimulating. It continuously opens up new angles of inquiry, encourages us to question our assumptions, and sharpens our methodological awareness.

In connection with today’s introduction to TEI and MEI by Rolf Wissmann, in the past weeks our group has contributed to linking digital editorial practices with the material dimension of the sources. Contributions by Giulia Manfredini and Cristina Cassia, focusing respectively on copyists and watermarks, have been particularly valuable in grounding encoding and editorial decisions in the concrete realities of transmission. Their work highlights how the study of material features is inseparable from the challenges we face in producing a critical and digital edition.

Within this same framework, the group has also engaged in deeper reflections on the very notion of a scholarly and digital edition, especially following the introduction by Agnese Pavanello. This prompted a lively discussion on plurality, authority, and the status of the text in digital environments, reinforcing the need to think together material evidence, encoding strategies, and editorial responsibility.

Altogether, the colloquium continues to prove itself as an essential space where theory and practice meet—shaping not only our individual projects, but also a shared understanding of what it means to edit, interpret, and transmit musical knowledge today.

Slide by Rolf with a sketch of a TEI encoding of a title page

Slide by Cristina with watermarks of the manuscript of the “Regole” (I-Vc, 323)

Slide by Giulia concerning different writing ductus/style