Checklist
Description of Modern
Manuscripts (Irmscher)
(Definitions based on The Manuscript
Society Criteria for Describing Manuscripts and Documents, ed. Norman F.
Boas, The Manuscript Society, Burbank, California, 1990.).
A.
Physical Aspects
1.Where is it from? Note the name of the collection, box, folder
etc.
Example:
Scott Russell Sanders, Audubon Notebook I, Sanders Mss., The Lilly Library, box 5, folder 4
(“Audubon Novel—Notes”).
2.
Who wrote it and when? A
letter, document, manuscript, musical score? Note whether it’s an
autograph (handwritten by the author) or a typescript (with autograph- or, as
some prefer, “holograph”--corrections).
Common abbreviations: ALS
(autograph signed letter); AMsS. (autograph signed manuscript); TLS (typed
letter signed). LS is a signed letter written by someone other
than the signer (a secretary, for example).
A “holograph” is a letter written entirely in the handwriting of the
correspondent is a holograph of that person.
Note the date (the Manuscript Society wants a sequence of year, month, and day (1871 July
13), but for scholars this is not practical.
When the date is not shown but determined by internal evidence, it is square-bracketed,
e.g. [1872]. If a year or decade is not certain, they too should be
square-bracketed, e.g. [187?], [18?].
3.
What is it? Assess
the paper (is there a watermark?)
and medium or writing device used (ink, pencil, crayon, chalk, etc.).
Not relevant for most in the class: Parchment is the skin of a sheep or goat that
is prepared as a writing surface. Vellum is fine-grained unsplit lambskin,
kidskin or calfskin similarly prepared for writing). But note the difference between laid and wove
paper. Laid paper was produced by hand from moulds constructed by
stretching metal wire in a series of parallel lines from one side of the mould
to the opposite side ( laid wires), which were then linked together by a series of other wires
positioned at a right angle to the laid wires. The laid wires were placed
rather tightly together, while the linking wires were spaced farther apart.
This produced a mesh through which the water, but not the paper pulp, could
drain. It also produced a pattern of parallel, intersected lines in the
paper. Wove paper (created around 1757):
wire is woven into a mesh fabric, producing a smooth and even surface.
Paper produced in moulds with the woven mesh fabric became known as wove
paper. Note: it is not true (as you will read on Wikipedia
and elsewhere) that only laid paper has watermarks; any type of true watermark can be created
within either laid or wove paper. Note
also that wove, machine-produced paper can imitate the look of laid paper.
Is
this original really a copy? E.g. a fair copy (a neat and exact copy of a
letter, literary work or document in the hand of the author or a clerk), made
for a printer or as a souvenir. Contemporary copy: one known to have
been made by the author or in another person's hand at or about the same time
as the original. Retained copy: A
draft, carbon, fair copy or photocopy of a letter or document in the hand of
the author, kept as a record of the communication or transaction.
How
many pages are there? Measure the dimension of the sheet(s), in inches or
centimeters (don’t use the terms for book sizes). Rulers are available in the Lilly. The Manuscript Society recommends giving
height by width. If an author uses both
sides of a page, refer to front and back as recto and verso. Verso is the
reverse or (in a book) the left-hand side.
In the case of letters, more effort
might be required: modern letters are
generally enclosed in sealed envelopes and are delivered by hand or through the
mails. Before the 1840s separate envelopes were uncommon. A letter was usually written on a single
folded leaf, leaving the fourth side (page) for the address. In most cases the
letter was then folded four times, twice horizontally and twice vertically. The
resulting folded letter had an address portion on one side; the other side bore
a wax seal to hold the folds in place (note the holes that happen when the seal
is broken or removed).
Is
an envelope present? Before the introduction of adhesive
postage stamps, notations on covers were made by the postmaster which included
the town of origin in script, or with a hand-stamp, usually incorporating the
month and day and sometimes the year. The rate marking was either in script or
in hand-stamp form. The word "PAID" indicated that the sender had paid
the postage. Absence of the word "PAID" indicated that the postage
was to be collected from the addressee upon delivery. Envelopes were first
mass-produced in the U.S. in 1848, at which time folded letters began to
disappear. After the introduction of adhesive stamps in 1851, they were
canceled with hand-stamps, usually circular, with the town of origin and date
enclosed in the circle. These are referred to as circular date stamps.
4.
How is it? Assess the condition of the
manuscript/typescript. Determine if
there are signs of use. Is there any
browning (i.e. the process of tannish
discoloration of paper, most pronounced in paper with high acid content such as
newsprint, and other paper produced from wood pulp. Browning is accelerated
under the influence of light; it is also called age-toning, or yellowing),
foxing (spotting); staining; brittleness, bleaching? Note stains, separations, holes, tears,
trimming, wear, mounting, and laminating.
Example of a
manuscript description:
Emily Dickinson to
Edward Everett Hale, January 13, 1854. ALS, American Literature Manuscripts, The
Lilly Library.
Paper: wove, bifolium?. Medium: Ink (faded). Emboss/Watermark: No
watermark. Boss in upper left corner
unidentifiable. Ms. is very worn and has been repaired numerous times.
Laminated. No envelope present. Faint foxing, not affecting legibility.
B.
History
Who
Owned It?
Do you
know all there is to be known about the history of the ownership of the ms. (the provenance). Ask if there is any
information in the collection’s “vertical
file.” Are there signs of previous ownership?
C. Editorial Principles
Include
a statement of editorial principles.
Here’s an example from one of my recent projects (which was intended for
a broader audience):
The volume presents the text of the original
manuscript. It retains Audubon’s often
unconventional or inconsistent spelling and uses his format—the daily entry—as
its basic ordering principle. Audubon’s
frequent underlinings will be reproduced as italics. French words remain in the text without
alteration, with translations provided in the notes. Where Audubon canceled a word or phrase or
made a correction, only his final wording is reproduced; alterations made by
others are disregarded (but mentioned in the notes). Hastily written words
whose ends dribble off into illegibility are expanded to full correct endings
without any editorial comment.
Emendations are limited to obvious slips of the pen, such as inadvertently
repeated or omitted words; transposed, elided, or otherwise accidentally
miswritten letters. A list of those
silent corrections, cited by page and line number, is provided in the
appendix. Punctuation and capitalization
are expressive features and are will not be altered, even when inconsistent and
irregular. Where Audubon’s omission of
terminal punctuation might confuse a modern reader, a one em-space is inserted
into the text; similarly, quotation marks are added where an opening or closing
quotation mark has been omitted, if the end of that quotation can be
determined. Holographic features—such as
the long “s” or variation in the length of dashes—are not reproduced, for the
sake of better readability. In
accordance with the “expanded transcription” method, no attempt is made to
“reproduce the excessive spacing and physical layout” of the original (Michael
E. Stevens and Steven B. Burg, Editing
Historical Documents: A Handbook of
Practice, Walnut Creek, California:
Alta Mira Press, 1997, 76). In
quite a few cases, readings of Audubon’s handwriting are conjectural (where
these conjectures affect the sense of a passage, a full accounting is provided
in the index).
For
those who want to incorporate emendations in their text, here are some helpful
codes:
↑added
words↓ author’s
interlineations and other additions: material added at beginning or endings of
l ines, words squeezed in between
existing words or words moved by caret
[word
or letter] editorial insertion because of lost material
or material omitted by author
[---] illegible author’s deletion; unless noted one
or two words
[Illegible] indicates word or words that could not be deciphered
[?word] conjectured words or parts of words
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