An Information System for Biblical Manuscripts Paratexts: Modeling, Implementation, and Future Directions

Paratexts-such as prologues, summaries, prefaces, and annotations-shape the presentation, interpretation, and transmission of texts across audiences and periods. Their study provides critical insights into the historical, philological, and socio-cultural dimensions of manuscript production, use, and dissemination. Yet, a comprehensive analysis of Latin biblical paratexts remains lacking despite notable efforts on specific subsets, such as Marilena Maniaci's researches on Atlantic Bibles and Chiara Ruzzier's studies on 13th-century portable Bibles. This article takes part at addressing such a gap presenting an information system for managing paratexts in medieval Latin biblical manuscripts. Our contribution is twofold: (1) we propose a conceptual model of the domain of medieval Latin biblical manuscripts paratexts to standardize the field and support future research; and (2) we implement such a model through a relational database, which acts as the core of an information system for documenting and analyzing paratexts. Its open access prototype, already available, facilitates data organization and analysis, enabling prospective advanced applications, including artificial intelligence techniques.