Factual commentary (history)
In historical studies , a factual comment is understood to mean certain statements made by the person who introduces or deals with a source .
The factual comment is used to better understand a source. For example, the people and facts that occur in it are explained. The factual comment can be based on the target audience. Particularly when editing a source , one expects the editor to provide an appropriate commentary that represents a significant part of the editor's performance. But also in general, in specialist and non-fiction literature, a historian would only perform his work incompletely if he left the reader alone with incomprehensible information from one source.
The classification of the source in a larger context or the critical appraisal of the source's value are no longer part of the factual commentary; that would already be an interpretation of the source. The boundaries can, however, be fluid, for example if the processor makes the comment that an allegation in the source could not be verified.
The bibliographical information (the location of the source or the literature published on it) is not a factual comment either.