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 the 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. The letter Ÿ (y with dots) - should be written as y.

 

 

You can find the full principles of transcription here.

Helpful tips

1. There are no contractions in this document.
    
2. The scribe inconsistently used the Polish preposition 'z' (with), writing it separately from or together with the next word, e.g. z siostrÄ… (with sister), zbratem (withbrother). We should follow the form used by the writer.
    
3. The scribe wrote the letter h in two different ways. When he wrote it carelessly, it is possible to confuse it with the letter s. In addition, he sometimes used the letter H in the middle of a word.
    
4. The scribe wrote the letters s and z in a few different ways. Meanwhile, the letters p and y appear in versions which differ only slightly.
    
5. It is easy to confuse the letters c and e as well as h and k.
    
6. Remember about how the letter y was written in the past - with one or two dots.

 

 

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

Exercise 15

Model letters