Best practice suggests the use of controlled vocabulary. Don't confuse this element with a figure caption. A caption is text primarily intended for display with an illustration. It may or may not function as a description of the illustration.
<elementSpec ident="pgDesc" module="MEI.shared">
<gloss xml:lang="en">page description</gloss>
<desc xml:lang="en">Contains a brief prose description of the appearance or description
of the content of a physical page.</desc>
<classes>
<memberOf key="att.common"/>
<memberOf key="att.lang"/>
<memberOf key="macro.metaLike.page"/>
</classes>
<content>
<rng:zeroOrMore>
<rng:choice>
<rng:text/>
<rng:ref name="model.graphicPrimitiveLike"/>
<rng:ref name="model.textComponentLike"/>
<rng:ref name="model.annotLike"/>
<rng:ref name="model.locrefLike"/>
</rng:choice>
</rng:zeroOrMore>
</content>
<remarks xml:lang="en">
<p>Best practice suggests the use of controlled vocabulary. Don't confuse this element
with a
figure caption. A caption is text primarily intended for display with an illustration.
It
may or may not function as a description of the illustration.</p>
</remarks>
</elementSpec>