The TEI Header is an element within the TEI encoding that contains metadata and other descriptive information about the document.  It is indicated by <teiHeader>. I is the first mandatory element of a TEI document and so will always appear as the first element after <TEI>.

The metadata contained in the header includes things like:

• a bibliographic record of the electronic text as well as the source from which the electronic text is derived
• documentation of the encoding and editorial principles used in tagging the electronic text
• terms for indexing, searching, and retrieval
• a record of changes made to the electronic document 

Adapted from:

See also: