Jun.-Prof. Dr. Elisa Cugliana

CV

During her doctoral studies in 2018, Elisa Cugliana was a visiting researcher at the Cologne Center for eHumanities (CCeH). Between 2022 and 2023, she worked as a research assistant at the CCeH as part of the NFDI consortium Text+. In 2023, she also worked as a research assistant on the project History as a Visual Concept: Peter von Poitiers’ “Compendium historiae” at the University of Wuppertal.

During her BA and MA studies in Linguistics and Philology, Elisa Cugliana focused on researching the Cimbrian language of the Seven Municipalities of Asiago (Vicenza, Italy) and collaborated on the creation of a digital dictionary of this language. For her master’s thesis, she developed a digital edition of a tape recording featuring one of the last native speakers of Cimbrian. As part of her doctorate, which she completed summa cum laude in February 2022 as part of a joint degree from the Universities of Cologne and Venice (Ca’ Foscari), she created a digital edition of a medieval German translation of Marco Polo’s travelogue. In this context, she developed a method for normalizing medieval texts using a computer-aided approach.

Since November 2023, she has been Junior Professor of Digital Humanities with a focus on digital editions at the Institute for Digital Humanities (IDH) at the University of Cologne. As part of her professorship, which is affiliated to the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts (AWK), she is also based at the CCeH, which acts as the Digital Humanities Coordination Center of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts.

Her current research interests include the study and edition of the genre of lot books, in particular the medieval German versions of the “Prenostica Socratis Basilei”, a lot book of Arabic origin. Methodologically, she is particularly interested in the computational turn in editorial studies and works with international colleagues on the development of strategies for formalizing and operationalizing the editorial workflow.

publications

Dissertation

Cugliana, Elisa. 2022. “A multidimensional digital edition of the medieval German Marco Polo”. Dissertation in the cotutelle procedure between the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and the University of Cologne [doppelte Peer-Review]. Online: http://dspace.unive.it/handle/10579/22707

Journal articles and papers

Cugliana, Elisa, Andreas Mertgens, Patrick Sahle, Johannes Ioannu, Lennart Rouxel and Eleanor Goerss. 2025. “Phylogenetic transmission analysis with feature matrices for image and diagram description. An experiment on the manuscripts of the ‘Compendium Historiae’ (12th century ff).” DHd 2025 Under Construction (DHd2025) Bielefeld, Germany. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14943154

Cugliana Elisa, Andreas Kuczera and Sebastian Enns. 2024. “Sortes Dictae Sunt: Methods for Editing Mediaeval Books of Fortune”, Zeitschrift für digitale Geisteswissenschaften. Online: https://doi.org/10.17175/2024_005

Cugliana, Elisa, Andreas Kuczera, Max Grüntgens, Aengus Ward and Joris Van Zundert. 2024. “Computational Approaches and the Epistemology of Scholarly Editing”, International Journal of Digital Humanities. Online: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42803-024-00088-z

Karoline Lemke, Elisa Cugliana and Philipp Hegel. Forthcoming. “The gap in the curriculum. Where the reception of (digital) editions begins”. Tagungsband der AG Germanistische Edition, Digital Edieren, gestern heute und morgen.

Bleier, Roman, Eleanor Goerss, Franz Fischer, Sina Krottmaier, Agnese Macchiarelli, Elisa Cugliana and Patrick Sahle. 2024. “History as a Visual Concept: Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium historiae”. Manuscript Studies, 9.2

Cugliana, Elisa and Tessa Gengnagel. 2024 “Diplomatic transcription”. In: KONDE White Paper. Ed. by Selina Galka and Helmut W. Klug in collaboration with Susanne Höfer in the project “Enlarging ‘Weißbuch Digitale Edition'”. Online: http://hdl.handle.net/11471/562.50.66. PID: o:konde.66.

Cugliana, Elisa and Tessa Gengnagel. 2024 “Diplomatic Edition”. In: KONDE White Paper. Ed. by Selina Galka and Helmut W. Klug in collaboration with Susanne Höfer in the project “Enlarging ‘Weißbuch Digitale Edition'”. Online: http://hdl.handle.net/11471/562.50.65. PID: o:konde.65.

Cugliana, Elisa, Andreas Kuczera, Max Grüntgens, Aengus Ward, Joris J. van Zundert, Tara Andrews and Ronald Haentjens Dekker. 2024. “The Epistemological Value of the Computational Turn in Scholarly Editing”. 10th DHd Conference, Passau, 26.02.24-01.03.24. Online: https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.10698440

Cugliana, Elisa, Sina Krottmaier and Lennart Rouxel. 2024. “Über Den Text Hinaus: Die Edition Eines Historiogramms”. 9th DHd Conference, Luxembourg and Trier, 13.03.2023-17.03.2023. Online: https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.10706162

Cugliana, Elisa. 2023. “Coding Editions. Computational Approaches to the Editing of Pre-Modern Texts”. 9th DHd Conference, Luxembourg and Trier, 13.03.2023-17.03.2023. Online: https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.7715285

Blumtritt, Jonathan, Elisa Cugliana et al. 2023. “Open Editions – The Task Area Editions in the NFDI Consortium Text+”. 9th DHd Conference, Luxembourg and Trier, 13.03.2023-17.03.2023. Online: https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.7715484

Ciotti, Fabio, Elena Corradini, Elisa Cugliana, Giulia D’Agostino, Lorenzo Ferroni, Franz Fischer, Roberto Rosselli Del Turco, Patrick Sahle. 2022. “Manifesto per le edizioni scientifiche digitali”. Umanistica Digitale 6 (12), 103-108. online: https://dx.doi.org/10.6092/issn.2532-8816/14814

Cugliana, Elisa and Joris Van Zundert. 2022. “A computational turn in digital philology”. Filologia Germanica / Germanic Philology 14, 47-72.

Cugliana, Elisa and Gioele Barabucci. 2022. “Signs of the times: medieval punctuation, diplomatic encoding and rendition”. Journal of the Text Encoding Initiative 14. online: https://doi.org/10.4000/jtei.3715

Cugliana, Elisa. 2020 “Exploring a German version of Marco Polo’s ‘Devisement dou Monde'”. Ecdotica 16, 9-32 (ISSN 1825-5361).

Cugliana, Elisa. 2019. “On the traces of realia in the ENHG Marco Polo”. Filologia Germanica / Germanic Philology vol. suppl. 1, 77-97 (ISSN 2036-8992).

Other scholarly publications

Cugliana, Elisa. 2015. “Mittobàlle: Eine TEI-konforme digitale Ausgabe”. Master’s thesis at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. Online: http://hdl.handle.net/10579/9254

4th episode of the series Coding Codices (Digital Medievalist): “Marco Polo and the Art of Editing”, edited by Tessa Gengnagel. Online: https://codingcodices.wordpress.com/2021/04/02/episode-4-marco-polo-and-the-art-of-editing/

Online Dictionary of Cimbrian (collaboration with Prof. Luca Panieri):
Etymological dictionary of the Cimbrian language of the Seven Communities with documented phraselogy and Italian translations. Online: http://dizionario.cimbri7comuni.it

Conference presentations

• Bielefeld, DHd 2025 Under Construction (DHd2025). Paper: Phylogenetic transmission analysis with feature matrices for image and diagram description. An experiment on the manuscripts of the ‘Compendium Historiae’ (12th century ff). Co-authors: Andreas Mertgens, Patrick Sahle, Johannes Ioannu, Lennart Rouxel and Eleanor Goerss.

• Venice, 11-14/09/2024: International conference “Marco Polo, il libro e l’Asia. Prospettive di ricerca vent’anni dopo – Marco Polo, his book and Asia. Research perspectives twenty years later.” Paper: DEDM – modellazione e implementazione della prima edizione scientifica digitale del Devisement dou Monde basata sulla tradizione completa. Co-authors: Marina Buzzoni, Roberto Rosselli del Turco, Giulia Fabbris.

• Wittenberg, 28-30/08/2024: HGWL (Historisches Wissens- und Gebrauchsliteratur) conference “Sprachliche Faktur und Textlichkeit historischer Wissens- und Gebrauchsliteratur.” Paper: The modeling of language and content in the computer-assisted edition of the German versions of the Prenostica Socratis Basilei.

• Cologne, 05/06/2024: Inaugural lecture. Paper: All just a game? Computational approaches to the indexing of medieval lot books using the example of the Prenostica Socratis Basilei.

• Rostock, 30/05/2024: Lecture series “Digital Humanities in Focus: Methods, Applications and Perspectives.” Paper: “Ob man gewynne oder verlier”: Methodological considerations on the computational edition of a lottery book.

• Wuppertal, 19/03/2024: Keynote at the I|D|E (Institute for Documentology and Editing) Winter school “Digital Editions.” Paper: Beyond linearity: Prolegomena to the computational edition of a lot book.

• Passau, 26/02/2024 – 01/03/2024: DHd Conference, “DH Quo Vadis.” Poster: Beyond the Text: The Edition of a Historiogram. Co-authors: Sina Krottmaier, Lennart Rouxel.

• Passau, 26/02/2024 – 01/03/2024: DHd Conference, “DH Quo Vadis.” Panel: The Epistemological Value of the Computational Turn in Scholarly Editing. Co-authors: Andreas Kuczera, Max Grüntgens, Aengus Ward, Joris van Zundert, Tara Andrews, Ronald Haentjens Dekker.

• Wuppertal, 21-24/02/2024: International conference of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für germanistische Edition. Conference title: “Edition as Transformation. Conditions, Forms, Interests and Goals of Editorial Presentations.” Paper: The edition sub specie aeternitatis. Infrastructural conditions of sustainable digital editions. Co-authors: Tessa Gengnagel, Philipp Hegel, Kilian Hensen.

• Saarbrücken, 20/02/2024: I|D|E (Institute for Documentology and Editing) Masterclass “Digital Scholarly Editing” 2024. Paper: TEI Transcription and Critical Apparatus.
  
• Regensburg, 02/02/2024: Workshop “From Place to Place: Digital Editing of Travel Narratives – New Perspectives.” Paper: From glyphs to graphs. Paths into computational editing science.

• Zurich, 24-26/01/2024: Conference “Open Up Digital Scholarly Editions.” Paper: Opening Up Scholarly Observation Of Textual Phenomena: A Fundamental Proposal. Co-authors: Max Grüntgens, Andreas Kuczera, Aengus Ward, Joris J. Van Zundert.

• Vienna, 07/11/2023: Lecture series “Introduction to Digital Humanities,” invited speaker. Paper: What will the future bring? New methods for editing the sortes.

• Wolfenbüttel, 25-26/09/2023: Conference “Digital Editing Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.” Paper: The gap in the curriculum. Where the reception of (digital) editions begins. Co-authors: Philipp Hegel and Karoline Lemke.
  
• Trier and Luxembourg, 13-17/03/2023: DHd 2023 “Open humanities, open culture.” Poster: Open Editions – The Task Area Editions in the NFDI consortium Text+. Co-authors: Blumtritt, Jonathan, Hegel, Philipp, Hensen, Kilian, Hörnschemeyer, Jörg, Kudella, Christoph, Lordick, Harald, Neuber, Frederike, Neuefeind, Claes, Schulz, Daniela, Seltmann, Melanie Elisabeth-H., Sievers, Martin, Gengnagel, Tessa, Lemke, Karoline.

• Trier and Luxembourg, 13-17/03/2023: DHd 2023 “Open humanities, open culture.” Paper: Coding editions. Computational approaches to the editing of pre-modern texts.

• Cologne, 14/12/2022: Digital Humanities Colloquium, invited speaker. Paper: The Computational “Prenostica Socratis Basilei”: Editing the Sortes of the German Middle Ages.

• Mannheim, 12-13/09/2022: NFDI Textplus Plenary 2022 Poster: The TA Editions portfolio. Co-authors: Tessa Gengnagel and Kilian Hensen.

• Tallinn, 05/10/2022: 8th Estonian Digital Humanities Conference: “Shifts in language and culture: computational approaches to variation and change.” Paper: The Computational Edition. Co-author: Joris van Zundert.

• Bergen, 30/06/2022: Studia Stemmatologica, conference “New Insights in Stemmatology.” Paper: Realia and other clues for stemmatological wayfinding: The case of the Early New High German Marco Polo and its Tuscan model.

• Cologne, 07/05/2020: Digital Humanities Colloquium, invited speaker. Paper: Something old, something new, something borrowed, something digital: The edition of the FNHD translation of Marco Polo’s travelogue.

• Münster, 09-10/03/2020: Conference “Historical Ontology of Urban Spaces, state of the art,” invited speaker. Paper: Mapping toponymic variance. Co-author: Marcel Schaeben (University of Cologne).

• Nuremberg, 17-18/02/2020: International Conference “Marco Polo in the Spotlight: Perception and Reception,” organized by the International Consortium for Research in the Humanities (ICRH), invited speaker. Paper: Translating Marco Polo’s Travel Narrative in the German Middle Ages: Prognostication, Astrology, and Marvelous Tales in the DI Version.

• Wuppertal, 06-07/02/2020: Conference “The (hyper-)diplomatic transcription and its cognitive potentials.” Paper: Microtranscription as a prerequisite for multidimensional editing.

• Venice, 29/01/2020: Humboldt Kolleg. Paper: Normalization levels as automatically generated ‘disposable’ outputs. The case of the early New High German Marco Polo.

• Malaga, 28-29/11/2019: Conference of the “European Society for Textual Scholarship.” Paper: A German sister in Marco Polo’s family tree. Exploring version DI of the Devisement dou Monde.

• Graz, 16-20/09/2019: TEI Conference 2019. Paper: A sign of the times: medieval punctuation, its encoding, and its rendition in modern times. Co-author: Gioele Barabucci.

• Hanover, 9-12/09/2019: Volkswagen Foundation Symposium: “Positioning the Humanities in the 2020s.” Poster: (ENH)German Marco Polo. A Digital Scholarly Edition. Presented with scholarship.

• Bergen, 29-30/08/2019: Seminar “Digital Approaches to Transcribing and Analyzing Medieval Texts,” invited speaker. Paper: OCRopus: A Helping Hand – or Tentacle – for your Transcriptions.

• Lund, 13-24/05/2019: Lund University, workshop “Digital tools for text transcription, encoding, and visualization.” Paper: Facsimiles, transcriptions, levels of normalization: a critical reappraisal. Co-author: Marina Buzzoni.

• Venice, 11/04/2019: Workshop BIFLOW – Bilingualism in Florentine and Tuscan Works, ca. 1260 – ca. 1416 invited speaker. Paper: On the DI branch of Marco Polo’s Devisement dou Monde: stemmatic configuration and digital scholarly edition.

• Venice, 12/02/2019: PhD Seminar at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. Paper: Facsimiles, transcriptions, levels of normalization: a critical reappraisal. Co-author: Marina Buzzoni.

• Cologne, 21/11/2018: Colloquium in Digital Cultural Heritage 2018/2019 (University of Cologne), invited speaker. Paper: Named entities as index fossils in the Medieval German translation of Marco Polo’s travel account.

• Verona, 28-30/05/2018: XLV Convegno dell’Associazione Italiana di Filologia Germanica “La letteratura storiografica nel medioevo germanico.” Paper: Il Milione medio-tedesco e i realia.