When to edit ab numbers

Remember we said earlier in the course that divs and abs will be used to tell the computer which bits of the various witnesses match up. Their use will allow scholars to easily search for the same section of the text in more than one manuscript, so they can be compared, contrasted and studied.

We also said that transcribers should not alter div or ab numbers, but that in very special circumstances they may need to add in an extra ab.

First, the theory...

Each div (division of text) can contain many abs (anonymous blocks of text). To say each ab is a sentence is far too simple, but in many cases this can be considered true. Deciding what constitutes one ab is a complicated matter even for experienced textual editors, who have to balance what counts as one section of meaning with the linguistic structures of the text (often, this means sentences). In many cases, a new ab coincides with a new sentence and a new pilcrow sign (¶), but this is not always the case. Medieval scribes sometimes used pilcrows to separate items in a list, such as lists of kings or cities. It is not necessary for us to give each item in the list its own ab, as we consider all the items in the list to be part of the same section of meaning.

Here comes the tricky bit...

You have already seen how the proofing section can highlight differences between the base text and the text in the folio image. Sometimes these differences can be small, for example if there is an extra word or a word missed out. There may also be spelling changes. These do not have any effect on the use of abs. However, sometimes the differences can be quite dramatic, with whole chunks of text included in the image and not in the transcription, and vice versa.

Where there is text in the base text which is not in the image the solution is simple: you edit the base text to match the image, deleting the text which is not in the folio image. If this means you have to delete an ab, then do so. It does not matter if the ab numbers jump from, for example, 100 to 300 (if you have had to delete ab 200).

Where there is text in the image but not the base text is much trickier. This is when you need to add in an extra ab.

To do this you close your current open ab using </ab> and open a new ab with <ab n="___">. The horizontal line between the inverted commas shows where you need to put your new ab number. This will be ten higher than the ab you have just closed. For example, if you were working in ab 100 and you found a significant section of text in the image which is not in the transcription you would close ab 100 and open ab 110. To open ab 110 you would use the tag <ab n="110">. If there was then another significant section, separate in meaning from ab 110 you could close ab 110 and open ab 120.

Deciding if the extra text requires its own ab is in no way simple, and essentially comes down to the opinion of the transcriber. A basic rule of thumb is if the extra section appears to be a full sentence (i.e. it has a verb of its own) it can have its own ab. Making such editorial decisions is one of the hardest things you will come across as a transcriber on the Estoria project, because this is, by its very nature, a matter for subjectivity and opinion. It is not something we can easily legislate for in the Transcription Guidelines or in a introductory course such as this one, as every single example will be different. If you are unsure at all, the best thing to do is always to ask on the bulletin board and a more experienced transcriber or textual editor will have a look at your particular case. It is always better to ask than to be unsure, and we will be more than happy to help you.