Lead White in Context Across Greco-Roman Sources: The First TheSu XML Annotation Dataset of Arguments and Recipes, with Graph Visualisations and Discussion of their Design
Under peer review
Type: Journal Article
Author: Daniele Morrone
Submitted: June 2025
Journal: Journal of Open Humanities Data
Special Collection: Data-Driven History of Ideas
Status: Invited full submission following abstract selection (June 2024)
Presents the first public dataset encoded with TheSu XML. The dataset contains annotations of Greco-Roman sources discussing lead white (ฯฮนฮผฯฮธฮนฮฟฮฝ / cerussa) from four ancient Greek texts (Plato, Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Plutarch) and two modern scientific studies. The annotations capture both explicit content and implicit reasoning through close reading, following established practices in history and philology. A custom Python pipeline converts the annotations into hierarchical argumentation maps for close analysis and network graphs for comparative analysis across sources. The paper examines the rationale for this dual visualisation strategy and presents case studies including individual arguments, cross-source discourse comparisons, and detailed breakdowns of lead white recipes.
Plutarch's Chemistry of Stones and Metals: Conceptions and Explanations. With an Appendix on the TheSu XML Annotation Scheme
Type: Doctoral Dissertation
Author: Daniele Morrone
Supervisor: Matteo Martelli
Year: 2022
Institution: Alma Mater Studiorum - Universitร di Bologna
URN: urn:nbn:it:unibo-28772
Examines Plutarch's discussions of stones and metals, analysing how he explains chemical processes and material properties. The appendix presents human-readable definitions of all elements and attributes of the TheSu XML annotation scheme, exported from the digital documentation of its XML Schema Definition document (version 0.72).
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Argumentation Mapping for the History of Philosophical and Scientific Ideas: The TheSu Annotation Scheme and Its Application to Plutarch's Aquane an ignis
Type: Conference Paper
Author: Daniele Morrone
Year: 2020
Venue: Atti del IX Convegno Annuale AIUCD
DOI: 10.6092/unibo/amsacta/6316
Presents the TheSu XML annotation scheme as an indexing and mapping tool for intellectual historians. Provides examples from an exhaustive case annotation of Plutarch's Aquane an ignis utilior sit (Whether Fire or Water Is More Useful). Compares TheSu to annotation schemes in Argumentation Mining to show its individual features and aims.
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