Editorial Conventions for the Latin Text
The following is a quick guide to editorial conventions used for the Latin text, by Frank Thorn.
Please note that the conventions described here are for the text presented in semi-diplomatic form. However, this website is dynamic and allows you to change in some detail how the text is displayed. For this reason what you see may not match what is described here. In these cases, instructions are provided below explaining how to show or hide the various features where this is possible. For further information see The In-Pane Menu Bar in the Getting Started FAQ (under User Guidance in the top menu-bar).
Abbreviations
DB: Domesday Book, as a whole; the Domesday process and Survey, the Domesday corpus of texts specified below.
EDB: Exon, or Exeter Domesday Book
GDB: Great Domesday Book
LDB: Little Domesday Book
TO: The Exon Terrae Occupatae
REFERENCES
Folio References
Folio numbers indicate recto (r) or verso (v) folios of the MS as used in the 1816 edition of Sir Henry Ellis.
All numbered folios are noticed, even when they are blank; these are recorded as [Blank].
References to individual entries
References such as 156a1, 334b3 indicate the folio, the recto (a) or the verso (b) numbered from the top to the bottom in a straight numerical sequence.
FONTS
Roman Letters are those which appear in the MS.
Italic letters are extensions of the Latin implied by abbreviation signs.
Capitals are used for the first word in a sentence, for Place-Names and Personal names, and for headings, whether or not they are so used in the MS.
BRACKETS
Note that brackets and the text they contain may or may not be visible, depending on your settings for the website. In order to hide or show the brackets in the text view, move your mouse over the menu-bar immediately above the text, then over the icon shaped like an eye, and you will see a list of options that you can change (show/hide folio numbers, show/hide entry numbers, etc.).
Square Brackets […] enclose folio numbers.
Curly Brackets {...} enclose an interlineation whether consisting of a letter or figure in correction to a word below, or of one or more whole words or figures, including those that extend into the margin.
Angle Brackets ⟨...⟩ enclose letters or whole words that have been omitted by the scribes but are necessary for the understanding of the text; also words or letters which are difficult to read or have to be conjectured. They further indicate the need for an extension of a word where there is no abbreviation sign. For this purpose puncti are not treated as marks of abbreviation.
Because the letter q (except where is stands for a c) implies a following letter u, the u has not been placed in angle brackets, but in italics: thus qui rather than q⟨u⟩i
MARGINALIA
Text added in the margin contemporaneously by the scribes of the original text is marked by a superscript word “margin” in blue against a lighter blue background. Signs (signes de renvoi) used by the scribes to show its relation to the text are not reproduced since each marginalium is here inserted in its proper place embedded in the body of the text. Some marginalia begin in spaces within the part of the folio ruled to receive text.
Note that marginalia may not be visible if you have changed the default settings for the website. In this case, in order to see them again, move your mouse over the menu-bar immediately above the text, then over the icon shaped like an eye, then deselect 'hide marginalia'.
GAPS
.... indicate that a sentence breaks off, or normal information such as the figure for a particular resource is missing or that the text cannot be read.
ERASURES
---- denote the erasures of whole entries, with or without a 'gallows-sign'. Such whole entries are allotted a reference number.
DELETIONS
A single strike through indicates a deletion marked as such by the scribe.
Underlining indicates something which, in the editor's judgement, the scribe should have marked for deletion.
Note that deletions may not be visible, depending on your settings for the website. In order to see deletions in the text view, move your mouse over the menu-bar immediately above the text, then over the icon shaped like an eye, then select 'show deletions'.
INDIVIDUAL LETTERS
The digraph æ is reproduced as such.
The e caudata (ę) becomes ae.
The ampersand (&) becomes et.
The tironian nota normally becomes et. If you wish it to remain as ⁊ in the text view then move your mouse over the menu-bar immediately above the text, then over the icon shaped like an eye, then select 'show tironian sign'
The Rustic U (Ų/ų) is treated as an ordinary letter (U/u)
U/u and V/v: Where a lower-case letter has to be converted to upper case (see under Fonts above) a lower-case u becomes V. Where a capital has to become a small, a capital V becomes a u. uu becomes Vu. However, where, unusually, a U or a v occur and the conventions do not require that one becomes a small and the other a capital, they are left as they are.
PUNCTUATION
Full points which appear in the text are reproduced but are also applied systematically before and after numerals and supplied at the end of sentences if they are missing.
Colons, semi-colons and commas are eliminated where they are marks of abbreviation or insertion. The semi-colon is retained if used to end a clause, as in 259b1.
The Punctus Elevatus (ː) is treated as an ordinary punctus(.).
NUMERALS
Generally in the MS a numeral is surrounded by puncti (.iii.). Where missing, they are supplied.
Some numerals have letters after them indicating how they should be read. These additions are written above the line but are not, strictly interlinear insertions. Thus .xx{ti). (for uiginti) appears here as .xxti.
WORD DIVISION
Prepositions are separated from their dependent nouns where they are fused with them in the MS.
Elements of place-names where separated are not re-coupled.