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# Digitizing theatre repertories: an example of crossing methodological and disciplinary borders

Ada Desideri

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## To cite this version:

Ada Desideri. Digitizing theatre repertories: an example of crossing methodological and disciplinary borders. DH Benelux, May 2023, Bruxelles, Belgium. hal-04093638

HAL Id: hal-04093638

https://hal.science/hal-04093638

Submitted on 15 Jun 2023

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Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
# Digitizing theater repertories
an example of crossing methodological and disciplinary borders

Ada Desideri – ada.desideri@sorbonne-universite.fr

How to formally integrate the interpretational process in the DB creation ?

**Method** : analyze choices and adjustments to use the existing digital technologies for managing historical and literary objects.

## Introduction

This poster concerns a French **DH PhD project** that has started this year (2022/23) : "Comédie-Italienne of Paris: creation of database to study French and Italian repertory (1716-1792)", supervised by Andrea Fabiano, Glenn Roe et Emanuele De Luca.

This project aims to create a public database of the repertory of the Comédie-Italienne theatre company of Paris for the 18th century period. Several repertories of the Comédie-Italienne company already exist (in hard copy or pdf format); the goal is to digitize their content, as to facilitate quantitative analyses.

In addition, the whole process involves an improvement in understanding the historical object, while formalizing this kind of object brings out ontological and relational questions that are often assumed implicitly or obscured by disciplinary frames.

> We will consider the creation of a database for historical and literary objects as an *interpretative* work.

## Repertory

### Computer science

Classified and semi-structured information. A necessary step toward the creation of a database.

### Literature/history

Ordered and homogeneous set of information concerning a particular topic, created to simplify the information retrieval.

### Theater studies

For theaters in France in the 18th century, a "repertory" is the set of plays performed in a particular theater, and it was regulated by a system of "privileges" decided by the king, defining which kind of plays was allowed and prohibited in each company/theater. Thus, a repertory is the realm of possibilities assigned by the king to a given company.

## Final results

The file reporting the final results that we wish to obtain from the database was the **first document created in this project**, in collaboration with researchers in theater studies.

The content of this document involves:

* Searching the particular information;

* Creating lists of entities;

* Visualizing collaborations;

* Visualizing people working on the particular date, or on a particular play;

* Analyzing the genre and the number of acts of plays through time;

* Analyzing the organization of the events;

* Analyzing the influences between plays, authors, actors;

* Analyzing the language of the plays and the one spoken by the actors;

* Analyzing number and kind of novelties through time.

## Repertories

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Brenner, Clarence D. *A Bibliographical List of Plays in the French Language, 1700-1789*. Berkeley, Calif., 1947

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Brenner, Clarence D. *The Theatre Italien, Its Repertory, 1716-1793: With a Historical Introduction*. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1961.

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Spanu Fremder, Silvia. 'Le répertoire et la dramaturgie de la Comédie-Italienne de Paris durant la seconde moitié du XVIIIe siècle'. PhD in Italian studies (advisor: Andrea Fabiano), Université Paris-Sorbonne, 2010.

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De Luca, Emanuele. 'Il repertorio della Comédie-Italienne di Parigi (1716-1762)'. University of Pisa and University Paris-Sorbonne, 2011.

## Workflow

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Software employed for the design and creation of the database: DB Designer, Jupyter Notebook (Python), nodegoat.

Poster created on LiberOffice Impress, for the conference DH Benelux 2023 (Royal Library of Belgium, Bruxelles, May 31 – June 2, 2023).