Notes on the Texts

General

These notes describe the presentation of the texts in Women Writers Online and Renaissance Women Online. Because these texts are encoded in SGML, a single encoded transcription can be used to produce many different forms of output, and in a sense many different "editions". The current presentation of these texts represents one of these possible editions; in the future, the WWP will also make others available. In general, we have tried to present the information needed to grasp the visual language of the text--font shifts, alignment, and so forth--in a way which will also provide flexibility for an effective and consistent display on the web.

For more information on the underlying transcription and editing of these texts, please see our statement of editorial principles.

Documentation of source

Brief documentation of the source copy used for our transcription is presented at the top of each document, enclosed within a box. The first set of information (headed "Document") gives details about the electronic publication, including the WWP's title and edition, and a regularized form of the author's name. The WWP's title is an abbreviated version of the source title, with regularized typography (including use of i/j, u/v, and vv/w) but unchanged spelling. The second set of information (headed "About the Source") gives details about the source copy, including the edition, the length and size (if known), the library which holds the copy used in our transcription, the shelfmark or call number (if known), and the STC or Wing number, if applicable.

Pagination and collation

Page breaks are indicated by a bracketed comment which also gives the current signature. The printed page number is displayed in its original position at the top or bottom of the page; its alignment is regularized to the center. Printed signatures are also displayed in their original location but with regularized alignment. Catchwords are not displayed.

Lineation and hyphenation

Line breaks in prose are not retained in this display, except in headings and title pages, and in the openings and closings of letters and similar documents where lineation may be significant. Line-end hyphens are preserved in the encoded transcription, but are suppressed when the text is relineated for this display. Hard hyphens are retained in this display.

Treatment of document rendition

This display retains original capitalization and italics. The type sizes used in the display are governed by a style sheet rather than representing the original type size (either absolutely or relatively).

Alignment and indentation are displayed in a simplified form. Indentation in prose is only presented in title pages, headings, and the openings and closings of letters and similar documents. Indentation in poetry is always represented. Alignment is simplified to left, right, or center.

Regularization

Some regularization has been performed during the transcription and encoding of the document. Spacing between words has been regularized to a single space; Multiple hyphens have been regularized to an em-dash except in cases where the hyphens may represent missing letters (as in names: Mr. B-----).

Treatment of typographical errors in the original

Errors appearing in the original text are displayed in their corrected form. However, our identification of error is performed conservatively. Spellings which might be legitimate period variations are preserved unchanged.

Treatment of original typography

Long "s" is displayed as a standard "s". Early use of i/j, u/v, and vv/w is regularized in this display to conform to modern usage.

Treatment of abbreviations and brevigraphs

Common abbreviations whose expansions are clear from context are presented as they appear in the original text (for instance, Mr., etc., vol., and so forth). However, contractions deriving from early manuscript practice (often printed using a brevigraph or a diacritical mark to indicate omitted letters) are displayed in their expanded form.