Transcription (Edition Studies)
Transcription is called in the editorial theory , the (original letters) exact copy of this text. Every transcription needs transcription rules about which an introduction to the edition should provide information. In the end, a transcription is often edited, in which - in contrast to the so-called diplomatic (i.e. corresponding to the document) transcription - compromises are made between the original text form and an easily legible final text.
The handling of orthographic peculiarities, the type of printing, any comments and notes on editing as well as obvious typing errors in the text must be taken into account.
spelling
When publishing modern books, the spelling of the text is usually determined by the publisher in consultation with the author . Since the set text is sent back to the author to correct the flags , the author can decide for himself where he wants to deviate from the spelling. With older manuscripts , things are more complex. While it can be assumed for the 19th and 20th centuries that a certain adjustment to the current spelling was made in the print, it is not the case that older texts with standardized spelling appeared in print. In addition, it has to be clarified whether it should be adapted to today's spelling, whether it should be left in its old text form or whether it should be brought closer to modern standards or at least standardized.
The strict literal transcription is a disadvantage if the same words are spelled differently in the original text (if, for example: "And" is written once "vnd" and once "vnndt"). Even if the viewpoint is justified that printers at that time did not make any standardizations either, the modern reader often has to intervene in the text: In manuscripts, endings are often blurred and abbreviated without it being clear how the author used them would have dissolved. In German manuscripts of the 17th century, the endings -en and -em are often not spelled out in words such as “ein” and “ein”; one can add to them according to today's grammar or assume that instead of an -em sometimes an -en im Print would have appeared. The problem is similar with uppercase and lowercase letters, which are handled variably in many manuscripts - here, too, it is not known how a contemporary printer would have treated them - different printers had different rules here.
Alignment with today's spelling is an option with its own disadvantages. It removes the text from the author's intention and template. The following example makes the distances clear, on the left a page from a travel report by Gottlieb Stolles from 1703, on the right a transcription:
| makes, as the Religio Medici, so if he had time he would kill it.
Monsieur Sanson is a little melancolique who has quite a mind, not a little ambition and a bit of singularity. He himself admits that he is sad Humeur. He is pale in face, and with his short stature as gaunt as if he had consumed consumption for six years. But you have to let him have a handsome nose. He |
Medieval texts were regularly converted into a “normalized Middle High German ” in the 19th century - a Middle High German that was introduced in the 19th century as the standard for Middle High German phoning and spelling. This decision has a lot to offer when the text is composed of a whole series of manuscripts that come from different times and places and have neither a uniform historical language nor a uniform dialectal expression of the spelling.
Most transcriptions choose a key manuscript that provides the guidelines and hold back when regulating the spelling at every point so that the original sound is preserved.
Standardizations and tenders are carried out in most editions without labeling. An editorial preliminary report provides information on the basic interventions. More serious text interventions will be placed in square brackets in the text and a "device" (for example in footnotes or endnotes ) will be given more detailed insight into the original text .
typography
Prints of the 17th century usually have a diverse typography : There is Fraktur for German words, Antiqua for foreign words, italics for emphasized Antiqua and bold or blocked Fraktur for emphasis in the German Fraktur script. A transcription into modern antiqua can attempt to provide information about the fonts used, for example using italics for antiqua in the original text. Here, too, the introduction should provide information about which types were transcribed and how.
Printing set
Title pages and poems show decisions made by the author and typesetter, which one might want to preserve in a transcription because of their own informational value. If there is not enough space for this, you can use special characters to provide the relevant information. In particular, the vertical line has become established as a symbol for line changes. The transcription of the following title page from the 18th century gives an example - in this example red print is noted alongside:
| Hell | the | Living, | that is | The world-professional | BASTILLE | to Paris, | What the well-known | Abbot, Count of Buquoy, | through his clever and heartfelt attacks | happy with the escape | and saved; | In addition to the now-mentioned abbot | Life run, | presented in a curious and true description, and translated anietzo from the French; | which also includes a message from the Bastille and its commanders. | [Line] | At the expense of good friends, | Printed in the month of May, anno 1719. |
At the end of the day, the transcription of the title page allows the reader to understand what information the original title page actually put in front of the book, how it positioned it and whether it emphasized it graphically - information that is lost as soon as the same title is noted after a current unified citation. See the title recording article in more detail .
Revision notes
Manuscripts or typescripts often show traces of revision. One speaks of different text versions or text layers on a text witness . In order to represent different versions of a text on a text witness, either the topmost text layer can be printed as reading text and earlier versions can be pointed out in a variant apparatus in the appendix, or deletions, insertions, etc. are typographically or with text-critical characters directly recognizable in the printed text made.
Obvious mistakes
If the manuscript or the text on which it is based show obvious errors, more important corrections are noted in a separate " annotation apparatus " in careful editions .