Principles of transcription

1. Maintain the original entry - carry out the transcription as faithfully as possible to the original, without correcting the writer's mistakes.
    
2. Lines of text - the transcription should be written in lines (fragments in grey should be omitted). If a word is divided between two lines, it should be written as in the original, that is, without connecting it.
    
3. Punctuation - all punctuation marks or others (e.g. commas, full stops, hyphens, etc.) appearing in the original should be ignored.
    
4. Writing capital letters - the mechanism recognises both small and capital letters as correct.
    
5. Shortening - the general rules accepted by us say that a contraction used by the scribe should be developed, giving the full word.
    
6. Letters with diacritic marks - we should omit diacritic marks when deciphering, for example, we write ü as u.

 

 

You can check all the principles of transcription here.

Helpful tips

1. The document was generally written in German, however, Latin is also used. In addition, selected words and expressions are written using Latin writing (as opposed to the Neo-Gothic writing that dominates in the document). To help in deciphering, in Model letters there is a set of letters used in both types of writing.
    
2. The first word in the document begins with a decorative initial. In the event of problems with deciphering it, use the Model letters.
    
3. This document contains a contraction written in Latin. In the event of problems with deciphering it click Abbreviations.
    
4. The numbers that appear in the text do not need to be deciphered and should be written as numbers.
    
5. The scribe wrote the letter s in a few different ways. Remember that the letter ß (scharfes S) that appears in the document should be written as ss (double s).

 

You will find more useful tips for transcribing old texts here.

Exercise 26

Model letters

Exercise 26

Abbreviations