Using the entity browser
The Goetgevonden web application offers transcripts of the resolutions of the States General. Various types of entities have been recognised in these transcripts. When you click on an entity or a phrase with multiple entities, an entity screen appears displaying one or more recognised entities. If you click on the ‘More information about’ button for one such entity in the entity screen, you will be taken to the Goetgevonden entity browser. The entity browser also opens when you click on the name of one of the delegates in the metadata panel of the web application.
In both cases, you will be taken to the entity screen of the entity in question in the entity browser. This may involve all entities that are also available as a search filter in Goetgevonden: delegates, personal names, capacities, locations, organisations and committees.
Information about some of these entities is also available elsewhere. The entity screen of the entity browser always provides an overview of the places where this entity occurs other than in Goetgevonden. Here is an overview per entity type:
Provincial Executives
Repertorium of Office-holders and Civil Servants
Repertories of diplomatic representatives
The deputies who are listed in the resolution books in the daily attendance lists of the States General have been identified as much as possible. The entity browser contains links to data about these deputies in the Repertory of Office-holders and Civil Servants. In some cases, these deputies also had a diplomatic career. In those cases, links to data in the Repertories of diplomatic representatives have also been included.
Personal names
Repertorium of Office-holders and Civil Servants
Repertories of diplomatic representatives.
The personal names mentioned in the resolutions have not been identified. However, they often concern (sur)names that also appear in the repertories of office-holders and civil servants and of diplomatic representatives. Where this is the case, links to data on persons with this surname are included in the entity browser. The directories may contain several persons with the relevant surname. In that case, multiple options are given: you will always find the full name here and, if known, the age. You can check for yourself whether the personal names stated in the resolution indeed belong to persons with these surnames listed in the directories.
Naturally, the resolutions also mention many names of delegates of the States General. These (sur)names then correspond to the names of delegates that appear in the attendance lists. If this is the case, links are included to those delegates in the dataset ‘Delegates’ who have the same surname. Here too, because the personal names have not been identified, there may be several deputies with the same surname. You can check for yourself whether the deputy to whom the personal name refers is among them.
Capacities
No additional information available
Locations
Where possible, the locations that appear in resolutions have been identified and provided with geographic coordinates. If this is the case, a link to the Geonames geographic database is included in the entity browser. In addition, the browser has its own map on which the location is displayed. It also states in which region in the world, which current country and (in the case of locations within the Netherlands) which current province the location is situated.
Organisations
No additional information available
Committees
No additional information available
Searching and filtering in the entity browser
You can also use the entity browser to search for entities that appear in the transcripts of the resolutions in Goetgevonden. Because there are so many entities, the entities of the types ‘Capacities’, ‘Locations’, ‘Organisations’ and ‘Committees’ are divided into categories. In the entity browser, the entities can be sorted by type and by category. This makes it easier to get an idea of which entities there are.
The browser search screen provides a list of all entities in alphabetical order by default. Various filters are available in the search panel:
Entity – This is a list of all entities.
Type – This is a list of all entity types.
Category – This is a list of all categories.
These filters work differently from the Goetgevonden search screen. You can select one option at a time per filter. The other filters are then adjusted automatically. When you select an entity type, you limit your selection to those entities and categories that belong to this type. The same applies when you select a category. The results panel provides an overview of the entities that belong to the selected category or type.
The search panel also has a search field, which allows you to search all entities, categories and types. You can also filter the entities by the start and end years that have been assigned to each entity. This does not concern the years in which the relevant entities lived or existed, but the years in which they were first and last found in the resolutions.
When you have found a relevant entity in the entity browser, you can click on it in the results panel. You will then be taken to the entity screen where a link to Goetgevonden is shown. If you click on this link, a new search will be started in Goetgevonden in which the resolutions are filtered by the occurrence of the entity in question. In Goetgevonden you can further refine your search if desired.