Editorial Guidelines

The complete editorial guidelines are currently prepared for publication on the Web and will be made available here soon.

Diplomatic representations

Diplomatic representations reproduce all philologically relevant characteristics of manuscripts and typescripts using a unified system of abstracted signs. In this context, “philologically relevant” refers to information that enables and advances the legibility and interpretation of the text. Diplomatic representations therefore do not alter variant spellings, they reproduce strikethroughs and transpositions, and the preserve the orthography and punctuation of the source text.

The webportal of the Critical Edition uses interactive functions to represent philological information in the diplomatic transcriptions. For example, layers of text that have been obscured by cutting and pasting can be exposed and hidden on the website. These methods bring the author’s writing process into clear view.

Reading aid for diplomatic representations

Constituted texts

In the case of manuscripts and typescripts, the diplomatic transcription serves as the basis for the production of edited or constituted texts. In the constitution of a text, all of the author’s interventions are implemented, with the aim of producing a text that corresponds as precisely as possible to the intentions expressed through those authorial interventions, without, however, emending the text in response to obvious or perceived mistakes or gaps. (For a detailed overview of the editorial process see the editorial guidelines.) Missing or redundant blank spaces are corrected.

Reading aid for constituted texts