Transcription Principles for the Text and Rubrics of the Commedia* Guidelines for the encoding of abbreviations, lacunae, scribal corrections, additions, revisions etc.
1) No diacritical signs 2) Spelling forms are to be respected 3) Abbreviations 4) Word separation 5) Corrections 6) Deliberate, Mechanical and Presumed Lacunae 7) Filling in of Lacunae 8) Deletions and Crossings out 9) Corrections 10) Interpolations 11) Unforeseen Phenomena 12) Transcribers Notes And Comments 13) Titles and Rubrics 14) Pages and Columns
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In the spirit of a transcription which is as faithful as possibleto the text of the manuscripts, no diacritical signs (accents, apostrophes, punctuation) are to be inserted. |
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- register all the spelling forms of the manuscript exactly as they appear (eg.: lgl for gl, ngn for gn, ç for z, etc.) |
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- Tironian note: |
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In order to make the transcription of a manuscript usable, the words in the text are to be separated in accordance with the corresponding reading in the text of the Comedy in the National Edition of Dante's Works, edited by Giorgio Petrocchi, where this is appropriate, otherwise in accordance with the logical meaning of the line. qual era è cosa dura (Petrocchi text) qualeraecosa dura (manuscript) qual era e cosa dura (transcription)
Where the manuscript reading can be interpreted in different ways this rule is to be applied using the sign _ (or else the sign -) rather than normal spacing. Eg.: disfrenata saetta (Petrocchi text) differrata saetta (manuscript) di_fferrata saetta (transcription)
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The addition of letters within words, of words within lines or rubrics, or of whole lines, is to be indicated between angled brackets thus: < >. <+m0 nostra> <+i0 nostra> <+r0 nostra> <+m nostra> <+i1 nostra> <+r2 nostra> |
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Deliberate, mechanical and presumed lacunae of letters within words, of words within lines or rubrics, or of whole lines, are to be indicated between square brackets [ ], bearing in mind the following points: |
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Filling in of lacunae, whether of letters within words, of words within lines or rubrics, or of whole lines, is to be placed within square brackets [ ]. [... +m0 nostra] [... +i0 nostra] [___ +r0 nostra] [... +m nostra] [^^^ +i1 nostra] [___ +r2 nostra]
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Letters and words which have been deleted in whatever way (by lines through them, by dots underneath, by erasure), whether such deletions are of letters within words, of words within lines or rubrics, or of whole lines, will be indicated by angled brackets thus: < >. |
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Corrections of letters within words, of words within lines or rubrics, or of whole lines, are to be placed within angled brackets < >; the deleted text is to be recorded followed by the sign + followed immediately by: <... +r0 nostra> <vostra +i0 nostra> <vostra +r0 nostra> <vostra +m nostra> <vostra +i1 nostra> <1 vostra +r2 nostra>
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Should the transcriber encounter additions to the text of letters, words or whole lines which cannot be considered part of the text of the Commedia, such additions are to be placed between angled brackets thus: > <. > 0 Ei fu, siccome immobile ... < > Quel ramo del lago di Como ... < > 1 Fu allora che vidi il Pendolo. < > 2 Era una notte buia e tempestosa ... <
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Should the transcriber encounter cases not covered by the above guidelines, such cases should be marked by being enclosed between question marks thus: ? ? |
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Where the transcriber feels the need to add notes and comments, this can be done, at any point in the transcription, by enclosing such notes and comments between curly brackets thus: { } |
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Before the text of the canto transcribe the Title and the Rubric of the canto, if these exist. Where the transcriber finds an R before the text of the canto, which in this case stands not for Respondeo as it usually does, but for Rubrica, it should be transcribed R(ubrica), with the abbreviated part of the word in brackets. Eg.: [Inferno, Canto I] [Inferno, Canto II] The text of the canto is to be separated from what precedes (Title or Rubric) and from what follows (explicit, Title or Rubric) by two lines of space.
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The transcriber should indicate page and column number (where the text is set out as two or more columns), beginning from the first column of the file (the column to be indicated by lower-case letters a b): |
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Florence, 9th July 1996 |