Preface This volume of proceedings collects the papers presented at the 2nd Workshop on Humanities in the Semantic Web (WHiSe II), which was held on October 22, 2017 during the 16th International Semantic Web Conference in Vienna, Austria. Cataloguing and curating digital collections is one of the core tasks of many disciplines in Digital Humanities, which very often cannot rely on the same vast amounts of data generated en masse as in other fields of data science. Large digital libraries and content aggregators in cultural heritage have largely demonstrated the potential of semantic technologies in these fields. However, the research landscape of the Humanities has seen the emergence of a multitude of potential application domains for Linked Data management techniques and Web ontologies, including the production of gazetteers and other concept schemes, annotated historical corpora, and even digital preservation of intangible culture, such as music and performing arts. It was postulated that these research strands had been seeing little exposure outside the scientific symposia in the Humanities and comparatively lower recognition from publications in the Semantic Web. Owing to the excellent response of the first edition, WHiSe II was once again co-located with a major international conference in Computer Science. The va- riety of topics covered by submitted papers confirmed the above assumptions to an extent, and reiterated the need for the workshop to broaden its scope even further. Similarly, the continued feedback received by the workshop by new and returning contributors also re-stated the importance of maintaining a live and smooth communication challenge between the two communities. The workshop programme consisted entirely of presentations of thoroughly peer-reviewed papers over a full day. Of the sixteen submissions originally re- ceived by WHiSe II, thirteen were accepted and are presented in this volume, comprising seven full papers of mature research and six short papers of early re- search, visions and positions. The program committee was expanded from WHiSe I to include more international researchers in the Humanities. Whereas the first edition of WHiSe partly focused on ongoing efforts to estab- lish research networks, detect synergies and define ecosystems for the adoption of semantics in Digital Humanities, the topics of submitted papers to WHiSe II covered more applied research in disparate fields such as classics, iconography, music preservation and musicology. Evolutions of previously presented work on cultural heritage, as well as in digital biography and prosopography, cemented the role of WHiSe as a scientific forum through which to follow the evolution of niche application domains of the Semantic Web in long-established academic disciplines. The editors would like to thank all the authors for helping broaden the scope of WHiSe through their contributions. Thanks are also due to the members of the program committee, for ensuring a quality standard of the workshop program through their reviews, and to the organisers of the ISWC 2017 conference for their continued support with setting up the workshop. 2 A. Adamou, E. Daga and L. Isaksen (eds.) Organising committee Alessandro Adamou, Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University, UK Enrico Daga, Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University, UK Leif Isaksen, Classics and Ancient History, University of Exeter, UK Program committee Elton Barker, The Open University Francesca Benatti, The Open University Gabriel Bodard, School of Advanced Study, University of London Marilena Daquino, Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna David De Roure, University of Oxford György Fazekas, Queen Mary University of London Benjamin Fields, Goldsmiths University of London Elena González-Blanco, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia Ethan Gruber, American Numismatic Society Laura Hollink, Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica Lorna Hughes, University of Glasgow Eero Hyvönen, Aalto University Antoine Isaac, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Albert Meroño Peñuela, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Sarah Middle, The Open University Elena Montiel Ponsoda, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid Ruth Mostern, University of Pittsburgh Paul Mulholland, The Open University Kevin R. Page, University of Oxford Michele Pasin, Springer Nature Silvio Peroni, Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna Davide Picca, University of Lausanne Mia Ridge, The British Library Ryan Shaw, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Rainer Simon, Austrian Institute of Technology Konstantin Todorov, University of Montpellier Francesca Tomasi, Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna Franois Vignale, Université du Maine