Editorial note

Editorial note (also known as "editorial report") is a term from edition science or edition philology . The editor of a work gives an account of the method he used to edit a text. This is usually necessary where he can fall back on several older versions of the text to be edited, which can differ in spelling, punctuation, vocabulary, language level and scope and therefore require the editor to decide which of his templates and which possibly modified form he intends to follow this. In this way the reader is able to understand the editorial process of the editor.

The older the original of a text to be edited and the more versions of it are available, the more urgent it is to add an editorial note to the respective text edition. Nevertheless, it is not uncommon for cheap expenses to do without it. In extreme cases, even shortening of the templates, modernization of the language level or other arbitrary interventions by the publisher are not noted. The appearance of an editorial note (sometimes also formulated in the foreword or in the afterword of the editor) is therefore an important indicator of a reliable edition.

history

The editorial note has its historical roots in the method of text criticism , as it was developed in the period around 1800, especially by the German Philology of the Middle Ages and Classical Philology . Most of the texts to be edited at the time had not yet been published in printed form and were available in numerous medieval manuscripts from different epochs and in some very different forms. This made it necessary for the editors to carefully consider the way in which they could arrive at a critical edition of the text.