Scottish History Society

Publications Masterclass, Edinburgh 10 October 2015

Three fundamentals - A. Selection of Material and Sources; B. The editing process - from manuscript to printed text; C. Adding value to the transcribed manuscripts

Introductory comments

The theory and practice of editing are often taken for granted. The task of editing often seems so straightforward to the extent of being self-evident. On the face of it, given a single copy of a single document, what is needed other than accurately to convey what is in front of the editor with the minimum of obtrusiveness? In his book Editing Early Modern Texts: An Introduction to Principle and Practices (London, 2007), Michael Hunter says that there has grown up a libertarian streak in editors, a sense of self-sufficiency in the face of an ostensibly straightforward task. This has led to a proliferation of different practices, some more suitable than others. To a large degree, Hunter says, editors have been self-taught, making their own decisions about the problems facing them. Of course, the individual characteristics of each text should be the primary arbiter of how the text is edited, but decisions about editing a particular text will benefit from an awareness of what has been done elsewhere.

What follows may help the decision-making process by reference largely to examples from previous SHS editions. It is not intended to be either comprehensive or prescriptive in its approach, but rather to show what other SHS editors have done in the past and it is, of course, heavily influenced by my own views on the subject!

A detailed description of editorial processes for modern historical records is set out in the ‘Report on Editing Modern Historical Documents’, the Anglo-American Historical Committee in Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, Volume III, 1925-26, 13-25, and the other reference works referred to at the end will give other, and more objective views, and they are well worth considering before taking on an editorial project. They are, however, largely aimed at editing records, and editorial decisions about other texts such as narrative, religious or literary texts, (as in the case of many of the examples from SHS editions that follow) may well involve different editorial decisions. Editing Historical Documents - A Handbook of Practice, by Michael E. Stevens, Steven B. Burg, is, however, a more general guide and contains a very full and useful collection of examples of editorial practices across different kinds of text.

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To conclude these introductory comments, the words of Professor P. D. A. Harvey in his book Editing Historical Records, are worth remembering and although they refer to historical records, they apply to all categories of texts:‘There are only three rules that must be observed in editing historical records and they can be simply stated:1. Be accurate;2. Say what you are going to do and do it;3. Give full references to the document and describe it.’

A. Selection of Material and Sources

The first decision for the editor is probably what he or she should include. For example, in addition to his Journal, Wilson (Fifth Series, Volume 18, James Wilson, Journal, 2005) also wrote poems, lectures and essays and a selection of these is contained in Appendices; in John McAdam’s case (Fourth Series, Volume 16, Autobiography of John McAdam, 1980) there were letters to consider as well as the Autobiography. The crucial point to have in mind is: do the edited texts and, where applicable, appendices, present a picture that is coherent, representative, faithful to the original, and tell the story that the editor wants.

It may be important to discuss the history of the text and its physical forms, and the reasons for making the selection or choice should be set out in the edition. The source of the manuscript should be identified. If there is more than one source of the text - for example a manuscript and a typed version of the manuscript in the archives, there needs to be an explanation as to which source is used and why. There may be more than one manuscript source in archives (for example one in the National Archives at Kew and one in the National Records of Scotland); the editor should explain which source is used and, if necessary, why and where possible point out any differences there may be between the two.

Here are some examples of the decision making process in SHS editions that illustrate how decisions have been made on what to include and what to leave out:

1. The editor in The Highland Destitution of 1837 (Sixth Series, Volume 7, 2012) described his main objective: to provide a record of the destitution of 1837 through four sources; the eyes and ears of two men appointed by Government to go to the Highlands and Islands as recorded in their letters to Government and, in the case of Hill, also through the pages of his private daily journal. Secondly the words of memorials, petitions and resolutions seeking Government aid and subscriptions from the public, and the reports of the committees formed in Edinburgh, Glasgow and London to

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solicit these public subscriptions. Thirdly, the words of official and private Government letters. Fourthly, Treasury minutes that recorded Treasury decisions. The choice of material was aimed at fulfilling this objective. The edition contains information as to the sources of the documents transcribed and, where relevant, as to decisions taken as to which source is used for the transcription.

2. In selecting his documents for Scottish Planned Villages (Fifth Series, Volume 16, 2002), the editor made an attempt to locate and include sources throughout Scotland.

3. In Scotland and the Americas (Fifth Series, Volume 13, 2000), the editors selected the documents to demonstrate some of the recurring themes in the study of Scottish interaction with the American continent during three centuries. The difficult task was selecting a representative sample.

4. In the case of the British Linen Company (Fourth Series, Volume 9, 1996), the choice of what documents to include from the huge volume of the Company’s records was aimed at providing an insight into the operations and management of the Company.

5. In Government and Social Conditions 1845-1919 (Fifth Series, Volume 1, 1988) the material was selected to reflect the totality of the work of the Board of Supervision.

6. In Papers on Peter May - Land Surveyor (Fourth Series, Volume 15, 1979) the aim was to gather together scraps of information and piece them together in the hope of forming at least a partial picture of the life of a professional man; to paint the overall pattern of May’s life.

7. One of the Society’s editions in preparation, an autobiography of a political figure, presents the question of the choice of material in interesting terms. There are 4 draft versions of the autobiography in the archives; one of the drafts has been selected as the principal source for full transcription and editing, but it might be supplemented with additional material from one of the other drafts. The editor has decided to produce, from these 4 versions, a readable text rather than an absolutely faithful reproduction of the politician’s drafts.

B. The editing process - from manuscript to printed text

It may seem too obvious to mention, but the expectation is that it will be the editor in person who transcribes the text; but when I spoke to colleagues about my editorial project, one or two of them asked if I was going to do the transcription myself or get it done by a third party. I confess it had never occurred to me that it would be

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appropriate for anyone else to undertake the transcription; for me it was a very important part of getting immersed in the texts and getting to understand them better. But it is interesting to note that in the Report on Editing Modern Historical Documents the committee said that ‘In dealing…with documents presenting no special difficulties, the editor wil often find it convenient to instruct the transcribe [on the method of transcription].’ I am not convinced that it will ever be appropriate.

The fundamental point is that the editor ends up with a printed record that is reliable, consistent, and faithful to the original and keeps the integrity of the original, but at the same time that is accessible to the modern reader. It is rare that a manuscript is rendered in print form without any changes at all. There are set out below a number of the points that the editor should consider as he or she transcribes the material. This is the engine room of editing. The editor should set out clearly his or her editorial decisions, so that the reader is clear in his or her understanding of how the edited text may differ from the manuscript. The editor should explain not just what the editor’s decisions, conventions or procedures are, but also why the editor adopted them.

The SHS Style Sheet - Style in editing

Each text has to be edited in its own way; consultation with the publication secretary helps to ensure consistency, and may be necessary when texts require difficult decisions. A section entitled ‘Editorial method’ is usually needed at the end of the introduction. Although there are no hard and fast rules, it is common to do the following.

Modernise punctuation, capitalisation and paragraphing. Keep original spelling but modernise u/v, i/j. Use y for yogh. Extend scribal abbreviations. The more recent the text, the fewer interventions may be needed; editions of eighteenth-century texts often keep original capitalisation as well as spelling. If any of these interventions have been carried out, the introduction should say so.

Use roman for [sic]. It is used only in cases where the error or unusual spelling or phrasing might otherwise have been thought to be the editor’s mistake.

An editorial omission in quoted text is denoted by three points, unspaced thus ... or by four if the first is a full-stop.... This should not be done without further explanation if the omission is in the original MS; whether it is a blank in the MS, or a damaged, altered or illegible MS, the reader should be told the reason and approximately how much text is missing.

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Interpolations should be placed in square brackets. In general, use square brackets only for omissions in, and expansions of, the original text—things that the original writer should or might have included: ‘it was surely [not] appropriate’; ‘12 January [1846]’. Explanations and editorial comments, by contrast, should generally be in footnotes.

Editions of letters usually retain the opening and closing salutations but run them into the text rather than paragraphing them separately. The signature is usually omitted.

Examples of Editorial Conventions, Methods or Procedures taken from publications of the SHS

Spelling (see separate sections for spelling of place names and personal names)

1. Spelling is modernised.(Sixth Series, Volume 7, Highland Destitution of 1837, 2012)

2. All spelling variations, grammatical and factual errors in the manuscript have been preserved.(Sixth Series, Volume 5, The McCulloch Examinations of the Cambuslang Revival (1742), 2011)

3. To retain a flavour of the period when the document was written, some idiosyncratic spellings have been kept. Spelling has been corrected where there is a possibility of misunderstanding.(Sixth Series, Volume 4, Miscellany XIV, 2010)

4. Wilson’s text required only very minor editing; there have been some changes to spelling: for example, he spelt colour as color.(Fifth Series, Volume 18, James Wilson, Journal, 2005)

5. Spelling has been kept as in the original.(Fifth Series, Volume 16, Scottish Planned Villages, 2002)

6. Spelling is generally accurate throughout the Minutes and is left largely as it was in the manuscript except where the misspelling was either clearly a slip or was likely to confuse the reader.(Fifth Series, Volume 12, Mid and East Lothian Miners’ Association, 2003)

7. In the original letters, spelling is erratic. Spelling has been modernised.(Fourth Series, Volume 20, A Scottish Firm in Virginia, 1984)

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8. In general, obsolete spellings, which were correct in the nineteenth century, have been retained, as well as spellings which are, or were unusual but acceptable alternatives according to the OED. Simple errors have been corrected.(Fourth Series, Volume 16, Autobiography of John McAdam, 1980)

9. Spelling has been modernised throughout.(Fourth Series, Volume 15, Papers on Peter May, Land Surveyor, 1979)

10. Original spelling has generally been retained.(Fourth Series, Volume 11, Scottish Electoral Politics, 1979)

11. Original spelling has been retained.(Fourth Series, Volume Volumes 8 &9, Sutherland Estate Management, 1972)

12. Spelling, however inaccurate or inconsistent, has with a few exceptions been preserved. The exceptions have been made in a relatively small number of cases where the misspelling was so bad as to be likely to puzzle the reader.(Fourth Series, Volume 5, The Minutes of the Edinburgh Trades Council, 1968)

13. Ramsay’s spelling has been retained.(Fourth Series, Volume 3, Letters of John Ramsay, 1966)

14. The original text has been preserved exactly except the pagination has been altered. The orthography, unstable as it is, has been retained.(Fourth Series, Volume 1, Argyll Estate Instructions, 1964)

Punctuation

1. Punctuation has been modernised.(Sixth Series, Volume 7, Highland Destitution of 1837, 2012)

2. Punctuation has been modernised except that the typically lengthy sentences have not been shortened by the insertion of full-stops as this would have considerably altered the style of the originals. So commas, semi-colons, dashes and occasionally brackets have been inserted to provide at least some respite.(Fifth Series, Volume 12, Mid and East Lothian Miners’ Association, 2003)

3. Punctuation could be very erratic and in places the editor has had to interfere in order to bring coherence (but he does not say how).(Fourth Series, Volume 9, British Linen Company, 1996)

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4. In the original letters, punctuation is erratic and punctuation has been supplied where necessary.(Fourth Series, Volume 20, A Scottish Firm in Virginia, 1984)

5. McAdam used virtually no punctuation or what he did use, he used interchangeably, and reproduction without change would act as a barrier to understanding. Appropriate modern punctuation has been substituted; standard single inverted commas are used for quotations.(Fourth Series, Volume 16, Autobiography of John McAdam, 1980)

6. Punctuation has been supplied where necessary.(Fourth Series, Volume 15, Papers on Peter May, Land Surveyor, 1979)

7. Original punctuation has generally been retained though excess commas have been removed, some apostrophes added and occasional adjustments made to clarify the sense of a passage.(Fourth Series, Volume 11, Scottish Electoral Politics, 1979)

8. Punctuation has been changed to conform with modern usage; in particular, dashes are replaced by full-stops and superfluous semi-colons, colons and commas and underlinings are diminished.(Fourth Series, Volume 10, William Melrose in China, 1973)

9. The original punctuation has been retained with the addition of a small amount of punctuation necessary to clarify the sense.(Fourth Series, Volume Volumes 8 &9, Sutherland Estate Management, 1972)

10. Punctuation has been modernised throughout.(Fourth Series, Volume 5, The Minutes of the Edinburgh Trades Council, 1968)

11. Ramsay’s punctuation has been retained, although occasionally a comma has been added for the sense of clarity. His habit of ending sentences with a dash has been kept but a full-stop has been added before the dash in accordance with modern typography.(Fourth Series, Volume 3, Letters of John Ramsay, 1966)

12. Punctuation has been modernised.(Fourth Series, Volume 1, Argyll Estate Instructions, 1964)

Capital letters

1. Capitalisation has been modernised.(Sixth Series, Volume 7, Highland Destitution of 1837, 2012)

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2. Capitals (or their absence) have been retained from the manuscript.(Fifth Series, Volume 12, Mid and East Lothian Miners’ Association, 2003)

3. In the original letters, use of capitals is erratic. Modern conventions of capitalisation have been introduced.(Fourth Series, Volume 20, A Scottish Firm in Virginia, 1984)

4. Many more nouns were capitalised in the manuscript than was customary in the nineteenth century or is customary today. Only where there is good reason for leaving them have they been retained. Where McAdam sometimes capitalised a word or type of word and sometimes not, editorial preference has been to use lower case letters.(Fourth Series, Volume 16, Autobiography of John McAdam, 1980)

5. Modern conventions of capitalisation have been adhered to.(Fourth Series, Volume 15, Papers on Peter May, Land Surveyor, 1979)

6. Original capitalisation has been generally retained.(Fourth Series, Volume 11, Scottish Electoral Politics, 1979)

7. Ramsay’s capitalisation has been retained although occasionally a capital letter has been added. His underlining has been retained, indicated in the printed text by italics.(Fourth Series, Volume 3, Letters of John Ramsay, 1966)

Paragraphing

1. Paragraphing has been modernised.(Sixth Series, Volume 7, Highland Destitution of 1837, 2012)

2. Excessively long paragraphs discussing several distinct subjects have been separated into shorter units.(Fourth Series, Volume 10, William Melrose in China, 1973)

3. Paragraphing has been largely altered or imposed.(Fourth Series, Volume 5, The Minutes of the Edinburgh Trades Council, 1968)

4. As Ramsay seldom paused to begin a new paragraph, the paragraphing has been inserted by the editor.(Fourth Series, Volume 3, Letters of John Ramsay, 1966)

Abbreviations

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1. Except in the case of Hill’s journal, scribal abbreviations are extended.(Sixth Series, Volume 7, Highland Destitution of 1837, 2012)

2. Ampersands have been left unaltered.(Fifth Series, Volume 12, Mid and East Lothian Miners’ Association, 2003)

3. Some familiar abbreviations have been left unaltered while others have been expanded either silently or in square brackets.(Fourth Series, Volume 9, British Linen Company, 1996)

4. Ampersands have been extended except in company names.(Fourth Series, Volume 16, Autobiography of John McAdam, 1980)

5. Common abbreviations including ampersands have been extended. Less obvious extensions have been placed in square brackets.(Fourth Series, Volume 11, Scottish Electoral Politics, 1979)

6. Abbreviations have been printed out in full, except for commonplace cases such as M.P.(Fourth Series, Volume 5, The Minutes of the Edinburgh Trades Council, 1968)

Textual issues

1. The opening and closing salutations in letters is included but run into the text rather than paragraphing them separately. The signature is usually omitted.The insertion of new matter or expansions of the original text are placed in square brackets. Editorial omissions are denoted by three points thus … or by four to include a full stop. If the omission is in the original this is explained in a footnote. Blanks, damage or alterations in the manuscript, resulting in the omission (represented by points) of words, are explained in the footnotes, Where a word is illegible this is denoted by three or four (as the case may be) points within square brackets thus […].(Sixth Series, Volume 7, Highland Destitution of 1837, 2012)

2. Text in some locations has been partially obscured or rendered illegible owing to multiple factors, including unclear script, crowded text, ink stains or smears, closely cut or badly worn page edges, tight bindings, or textual strikethroughs. Every effort has been made to supply the actual text if possible, and in the case of duplicate accounts, a comparison of identical texts has been made to supply the correct text, if possible. Words deemed illegible are indicated by a horizontal ellipsis within square brackets ‘[…]’ if it belongs to the

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main body of the text, and by a horizontal ellipsis in angle brackets ‘<…>’ if it belongs to a marginal annotation.(Sixth Series, Volume 5, The McCulloch Examinations of the Cambuslang Revival (1742), 2011)

3. Changes have been confined to the removal of greetings, information on other subjects, minor details, farewells.(Fifth Series, Volume 16, Scottish Planned Villages, 2002)

4. Where a word is indecipherable, or a tired or bored clerk has lost a word, the omission is noted by three dots … or a given word is supplied in square brackets.(Fourth Series, Volume 9, British Linen Company, 1996)

5. Opening salutations and extended farewells have been excluded. Some letters or parts of letters have been omitted because the information contained in them was either trivial or repetitive.(Fourth Series, Volume 20, A Scottish Firm in Virginia, 1984)

6. Opening salutations, extended compliments and farewells, irrelevant personal passages have been omitted.(Fourth Series, Volume 15, Papers on Peter May, Land Surveyor, 1979)

7. Small parts of the Autobiography and of the letters to his mother and brother are missing because of tears or holes in the paper. Where the sense is obvious, the missing sections have been supplied in square brackets, without explanation.(Fourth Series, Volume 16, Autobiography of John McAdam, 1980)

8. All salutations and conventional endings to letters have been omitted but a heading has been added to each letter not addressed to William’s father. Passages which repeat subject matter more effectively described elsewhere have been omitted and cross-referenced in the footnotes.(Fourth Series, Volume 10, William Melrose in China, 1973)

9. Miscellaneous and personal material in the correspondence irrelevant to the political theme have been omitted. Uncertain readings have been placed in square brackets.(Fourth Series, Volume 11, Scottish Electoral Politics, 1979)

10. Conventional openings and closings of letters have been omitted together with a small number of paragraphs not relevant to Sutherland (the subject matter of these omissions is indicated).(Fourth Series, Volume Volumes 8 &9, Sutherland Estate Management, 1972)

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11. Cuts have been made where the subject is of the narrowest family interest. Cuts are indicated by dots.(Fourth Series, Volume 6, The Dundee Textile Industry, 1969)

12. Certain deletions, transpositions and other changes have been made. Some repetitious and purely formal matter has been deleted. Some tautological matter and verbiage have also been cut from the minutes. Omissions have been dealt with either by the insertion of the missing word or words in square brackets wherever the meaning was obvious or where it was not, by the insertion of three dots.(Fourth Series, Volume 5, The Minutes of the Edinburgh Trades Council, 1968)

13. The bulk of the manuscript letters made it impossible for them to be printed in full and the editor has therefore pruned them by about one third. Considerable care has been given to the procedure in cutting them, since it is not the intention to present only selections chosen at random (the editor then gives examples). It has been the editor’s intention to cut nothing of value to the social historian, but at the same time to make the material more tolerable to the modern reader. Omissions are indicated by dots. Unless otherwise stated in footnotes, the letters are in Ramsay’s own hand. When a letter was sent by carrier, Mrs Dundas’s address was written on the back. The envelopes for the posted letters are missing.Throughout, editorial matter has been placed in square brackets.(Fourth Series, Volume 3, Letters of John Ramsay, 1966)

Place names

1. Place names in the Highlands and Islands have undergone frequent changes of spelling over the years; in order to reduce confusion, place names are given the spellings found in the OSG or the OGazS, and parish names are given in accordance with the FES.(Sixth Series, Volume 7, Highland Destitution of 1837, 2012)

2. There is considerable variation of place names within the Journal. As a general rule, Wilson’s spelling has been followed, unless it is unclear, when it is modernised.(Fifth Series, Volume 18, James Wilson, Journal, 2005)

3. Place names are kept as in the original.(Fifth Series, Volume 16, Scottish Planned Villages, 2002)

4. Identifiable place names have been rendered in their modern form, but names now lost, such as former muirs or mosses, are given as they appear in the documents.(Fourth Series, Volume 15, Papers on Peter May, Land Surveyor, 1979)

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5. McAdam’s spelling of place names is erratic. Simple misspellings have been corrected but spellings which represent older usages have been retained with clarification in the notes if necessary.(Fourth Series, Volume 16, Autobiography of John McAdam, 1980)

6. No attempt has been made to standardise place names.(Fourth Series, Volume Volumes 8 &9, Sutherland Estate Management, 1972)

7. The orthography, unstable as it is, has been retained unchanged and often provides evidence of the pronunciation of pace names.(Fourth Series, Volume 1, Argyll Estate Instructions, 1964)

8. Place names have been a particular challenge; some are spelled phonetically according to what the traveller heard and some have changed or faded away. Where it is clear what is meant, they have been left - for example, Inveraray or Inverary - and on occasion modern equivalents have been suggested [thus].(Travels in Scotland 1788-1881, 2012)

Personal names and biographical information (see also C. below)

1. The spelling for names of people has generally been standardised to provide some consistency. The names of ministers are given in accordance with the FES and the names of Roman Catholic priests are given in accordance with the lists given in SSC. Graham’s and Hill’s letters and Hill’s Journal contain many personal names but in almost all cases they give just the title of the person and the surname. Where it has been possible positively to identify a person (by the use, largely of the contemporary post office directories Pigot and Findlay and The Edinburgh Almanac or Universal Scots and Imperial Register for 1837), the Christian name is added in square brackets and, if it is thought of particular interest, further information is given by way of a footnote. Biographical Notes have been added in a separate section and extensive referencing is made where relevant in the footnotes to the ODNB and where relevant, to the FES.(Sixth Series, Volume 7, Highland Destitution of 1837, 2012)

2. Biographical information on narrative respondents and persons mentioned in the text is drawn from both internal and external sources. Most of the biographical information on the clergy mentioned in the text has been derived from FES, and whenever other external sources have also been utilised, they are specifically identified in the footnotes.

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(Sixth Series, Volume 5, The McCulloch Examinations of the Cambuslang Revival (1742), 2011)

3. Abbreviations or contractions of first names (Wm. Thos. Geo., etc) have been retained but with the deletion of full-stops at the end of the contraction.(Fifth Series, Volume 12, Mid and East Lothian Miners’ Association, 2003)

4. There are long lists of names in the Autobiography. To attempt to identify these in footnotes would have resulted in a vast disproportion between footnotes and text. The biographical footnotes have been replaced by a Biographical appendix except in a small number of incidental mentions of a person where there is a brief clarification. It has not been possible to identify with certainty all the persons mentioned. The Biographical appendix may therefore contain some errors. Some names have been omitted because no information could be found without extensive search not warranted by the value of the information, and others have been omitted because they are so well known (e.g. Lord Palmerston).The spelling of names: sometimes it was incorrect but also inconsistent. If McAdam had once spelt the name correctly, other erroneous spellings have been corrected without mention, but, if has spelt it incorrectly throughout, a footnote draws attention to the misspelling on its first occurrence. If the correct spelling is in doubt, McAdam’s spelling has been retained. Abbreviated first names have been extended when the person is generally referred to by the full name and the correct extension of the abbreviation is known. (Fourth Series, Volume 16, Autobiography of John McAdam, 1980)

5. In identifying persons and events, only references to manuscript sources and published material not easily available are cited in the footnotes.(Fourth Series, Volume 10, William Melrose in China, 1973)

6. An attempt has been made to identify all individuals mentioned in the Midlothian Papers except where they are sufficiently identified from the context or where passing reference is made to a person so well known that further comment is unnecessary. In the election surveys where it is not practicable to footnote all of the many individuals listed, additional information has been provided in the text in square brackets. Further biographical information on many members of Parliament referred to in the surveys can be obtained from general works of reference (the editor gives examples of these). In many of the biographical footnotes no source is given because the entries have been compiled from such miscellaneous sources that citations would occupy an excessive amount of space. A great many reference works have been used (the editor gives examples).

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(Fourth Series, Volume 11, Scottish Electoral Politics, 1979)

7. No attempt has been made to standardise proper names.(Fourth Series, Volume Volumes 8 &9, Sutherland Estate Management, 1972)

8. One of the chief problems has been the identifying of some of the delegates and other persons mentioned in the minutes. Each case of unknown or uncertain identity has been footnoted. Identification of persons belonging to more exalted classes has generally been based on (the editor gives examples).(Fourth Series, Volume 5, The Minutes of the Edinburgh Trades Council, 1968)

9. Identification of individuals in the footnotes are based mainly on (the editor gives examples of reference works). When these are used the source is not usually stated.(Fourth Series, Volume 3, Letters of John Ramsay, 1966)

Money, numbers and dates

1. Where the equivalent of the value of the £ is given in 2010 money, this is based on the retail price index using (the editor gives the reference work).(Sixth Series, Volume 7, Highland Destitution of 1837, 2012)

2. Money amounts are standardised in form.(Fifth Series, Volume 12, Mid and East Lothian Miners’ Association, 2003)

3. The form of numerals and dates used by McAdam has been retained. (Fourth Series, Volume 16, Autobiography of John McAdam, 1980)

4. As William Melrose’s use of numerals is not always self-evident, we have introduced conventions to provide clarity. All British monetary references have been uniformly re-written in the form 4s. 6d.; to all Chinese monetary references are added T. or Tls. For tael or taels; for dates, abbreviations such as st, nd, rd. th, etc., have either been spelled out or deleted according to context. Numbers which appear as the first word of a sentence have been spelled out.(Fourth Series, Volume 10, William Melrose in China, 1973)

5. A standard form of date heading has been adopted throughout.(Fourth Series, Volume 6, The Dundee Textile Industry, 1969)

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6. The form of the date at the head of each minute has been standardised but that of dates in the body of the minutes has been left untouched.(Fourth Series, Volume 5, The Minutes of the Edinburgh Trades Council, 1968)

7. Some letters have no dates. Where a date can be worked out the editor has added it in square brackets. Where no date is discoverable, the letter has been inserted in the chronological series at the point where the context suggests it to be most appropriate.(Fourth Series, Volume 3, Letters of John Ramsay, 1966)

C. Adding value to the transcribed manuscripts (i) The art of footnoting

It is, perhaps, again a statement of the obvious that the presentation of the material transcribed and edited in an SHS edition will not be of real value unless it has been interpreted, explained and put in context. The bare text is very rarely enough. It will have been apparent from the examples in section B above - the engine room of editing - that a number of the editing decisions are taken with the express aim not just of making the transcribed text accessible to the reader but also of providing explanations where the text is not clear or where it is necessary to link together parts of the transcribed text. The art of footnoting is, in my view, the key to adding value (and we have already touched on footnoting in the context of providing biographical information).

Richard Davenport-Hines and Adam Sisman, the editors of One Hundred Letters from Hugh Trevor-Roper (Oxford, 2014) put the point rather well: ‘Readers of the letters assembled in this book, where they are arrayed with elucidatory footnotes, will experience them differently from their recipients. Many of his correspondents might have spurned our provision of translations and glosses as fussy or condescending. Hugh Lloyd-Jones, Trevor-Roper’s fellow classicist, annotated a draft of Letters from Oxford [also edited by Davenport-Hines] with pungent marginalia expressing his distaste for explications which, he felt, should be unnecessary to anyone of culture. But for other recipients, particularly younger ones who had been educated amid the decline of classical studies, Trevor-Roper’s allusions and quotations must have been a test, as they might be to unaided readers, now.’

Davenport-Hines said in the Preface to his edition of Trevor-Roper’s Letters from Oxford (London, 2006) that Trevor-Roper himself lamented that the art of footnotes had perished and that he delighted in books such as Pierre Bayle’s Dictionnaire historique et critique with its biographical entries on biblical, classical and

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historical characters accompanied by a panoply of analytical, argumentative, philosophical and theological footnotes. But he also said that the key to making editorial footnotes are the four watch words devised by Anne Olivier Bell when she was preparing her edition of Virginia Woolf’s diaries: Accuracy, Relevance, Concision and Interest. Bell said that the most difficult part of her work, after deciding what in Virginia Woolf’s Diary required explanation, was the actual writing of the annotations, and that she pinned these words to her desk as a reminder. A review of Bell’s edition of the Diaries said that no one would deny the brilliance of her work on them. Her work, the reviewer said, was a marvel of editorial restraint, clarity, and intelligence, the footnotes alone constituting an education in British history and cultural life of Woolf’s time. However, Davenport-Hines goes on to warn of the dangers of the potential for oversimplification in these 4 watchwords and that, in particular Relevance and Interest require editorial judgement about readers’ taste and needs. He explains that he has not indulged in Bayle’s style but that he has provided more notes than Trevor-Roper himself, in certain moods, might have judged necessary, and explains by giving some examples.

The point I am making here is that I believe that the footnote is the mechanism for enlightening and explaining to readers about words and passages in the text; the mechanism and the key for adding value. Academics are more used to providing footnotes to back up a factual claim, to identify a quotation or to make an interpretative point by identifying relevant works. Adding footnotes to illuminate edited text goes, I suggest, much further.

There are other views, however, on the extent to which footnoting should be used: ‘…everything possible should be done to keep [the number] of footnotes to a minimum, and they should contain the smallest number of words’ (R. R. Hunnisett, Editing Records for Publication (London, 1977), 45); and the Report on Editing Modern Historical Documents’, the Anglo-American Historical Committee in Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, Volume III, 1925-26, 13-25 says that ‘Footnotes should as a rule be reserved for textual criticism. Explanatory matter should not be put in footnotes if it can conveniently be conveyed to the reader in some other place (introduction, appendix, etc). Thus cross references to other parts of the text, unless they bear on the accuracy of the passage, are as a rule best omitted from footnotes. Nor should these contain identifications of persons or places; these may be inserted in the text (between square brackets), unless they can be reserved for the index. The editor may of course use his discretion as to exceptions in particular cases, always remembering that to a certain extent all notes are an interruption to the reader. Long footnotes are to be avoided.’ I think that the vital words here are that the editor should use his discretion! In any event, these were remarks aimed at

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editing records, and in his very helpful book Editing Historical Records, Professor P. D. A. Harvey does say that in editing other texts there may well be a ‘frequent need for full and elaborate footnoting’.

The editing issues that arise with personal names was discussed in B. above, and the examples given usually referred to the provision of information by footnoting, (c.f. the Report on Editing Modern Historical Documents) but consideration should also be given to providing the information by, for example, a separate section of Biographical Notes, especially where the multiplicity of names would have led to a vast disproportion between text and footnotes (as in Fourth Series, Volume 16, Autobiography of John McAdam, 1980); references to biographical source books, for example the ODNB and the FES may also be another way of dealing with the issue. See The Apparatus below.

(ii) The Apparatus (as it is often called)

In many ways as important as the text transcribed, are the parts of the edition that codify and encapsulate for the benefit of the reader all the research that the editor has done to make sense of and to explain the text transcribed. Hunter says that in many ways this is where editors are at their most important. This scholarly apparatus will include all or any of the following: introductory material, appendices, a glossary, biographical information and source books, maps, a bibliography and an index. It will also include the annotation of the text as discussed above, and an explanation of the Editorial Methods or Conventions and of the Sources used.

Some useful reference works

New Hart’s Rules - The Handbook of Style for Writers and Editors (Oxford, 2014).

P. D. A. Harvey, Editing Historical Records (London: British Library, 2001)

Michael Hunter, Editing Early Modern Texts: An Introduction to Principle and Practices (London, 2007).

‘Report on Editing Historical Documents’, the Anglo-American Historical Committee in Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, Volumes I and II, 1923-25, 6-25.

‘Report on Editing Modern Historical Documents’, the Anglo-American Historical Committee in Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, Volume III, 1925-26, 13-25.

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R. R. Hunnisett, Editing Records for Publication (London, 1977).

Michael E. Stevens, Steven B. Burg, Editing Historical Documents - A Handbook of Practice (California, 1997).

Dr John MacAskillUniversity of Edinburgh

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