Reading note
How transcriptions are written
A transcription is a copy of the page in modern type. Editions broadly agree on what to keep and what to change, but not on the signs they use for it. Read an edition's key before you trust its brackets.
What editions keep
- Spelling
- The scribe's own spelling, and in some editions his slips too.D&K-S pp. 22–24; P&Y pp. xi–xii; Petti pp. 34–35
- u and v, i and j
- As the writer used them (vnto, Iohn), though an edition may pick one form for the capital I/J throughout.D&K-S pp. 22–24; P&Y pp. xi–xii; Petti pp. 34–35
- ff for a capital F
- Kept: ff is how the capital was written.D&K-S p. 14; P&Y pp. xi–xii; Petti pp. 34–35
What editions change
- Abbreviations
- Written out in full. Some editions do it silently (keeping Mr and &); others print the letters they supply in italic, so you can see what was on the page.D&K-S pp. 22–24; P&Y pp. xi–xii; Petti pp. 34–35
- Raised letters
- Brought down onto the line, except in sums of money, or numbers and money, depending on the edition.D&K-S pp. 22–24; P&Y pp. xi–xii
- Empty flourishes
- Ignored, or shown as an apostrophe where it is unclear whether they mean anything.D&K-S pp. 22–24; P&Y pp. xi–xii; Petti pp. 34–35
- Line-fillers
- Left out.D&K-S pp. 22–24; P&Y p. xii
- Capital C and D
- When written as plain large initials inside a sentence, they may be printed as small letters.D&K-S pp. 13–14, 22–24
Brackets differ
The same sign can mean opposite things.
- Square brackets [ ]
- Letters the editor supplied in one edition; words the scribe deleted in another.D&K-S p. 23; Petti p. 35
- Deletions
- In angle brackets ⟨ ⟩ in one edition, in square brackets in another, and in others simply marked as struck.D&K-S pp. 22–24; P&Y pp. xi–xii; Petti p. 35
- Insertions
- Put silently in place in one edition; set in half-brackets, with the caret kept, in another.D&K-S pp. 22–24; Petti pp. 34–35
- Dates
- Some editions give the modern (New Style) year in their headings; the page itself may use the old year, which began on 25 March.D&K-S p. 24; P&Y pp. x–xi
In Leo Academy
- Either way is right
- When you type a reading, you may keep an abbreviation or write it out, use u or v and i or j, and bring raised letters down to the line. Punctuation and square brackets are ignored.
Sources
- Petti: A. G. Petti, English Literary Hands from Chaucer to Dryden (1977)
- D&K-S: G. E. Dawson and L. Kennedy-Skipton, Elizabethan Handwriting 1500–1650 (1966)
- P&Y: J. F. Preston and L. Yeandle, English Handwriting 1400–1650 (1999)
Facts from these books, in our own words. Page numbers are the printed pages.