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 - should be written in lines. 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. Use of capital letters - the programme does not distinguish between lowercase and uppercase letters and treats both as correct.
    
5. Shortening - a contraction used by the scribe should be written in full, giving the full sound of the word. Do not use square brackets to designate additional letters, completing the contractions.
    
6. The letters u and v - In Latin texts they are often exchanged or written in an identical way. While transcribing, the actual phonetic sound of the word should be used.

 

You can read the full transcription rules here.

Helpful tips

1. There are many contractions in this document, and their transcription is helped by knowledge of Latin. Remember that you can find a set of contractions used by the scribe at Used contractions. For general information about the ways of shortening words, check here.

2. The scribe wrote the contraction et in a few different ways.

 

You can find more tips to help you transcribe old texts here.

Exercise 33

Model letters

Exercise 33

Abbreviations