Editing Early Modern Texts: An Introduction to Principles and Practice

Editing Early Modern Texts provides an approachable exposition of the rationale of textual editing with special reference to texts dating 1550-1800. It deals with electronic editions as well as printed ones and considers non-literary as well as literary texts, drawing out the common editorial principles underlying all activity in this field. The strengths and weaknesses of different editorial practices are evaluated in terms of their intelligibility and usefulness to the reader, as well as their fidelity to the original, while information is also given on how early modern manuscript and printed texts were actually produced, and the implications of this for their editorial treatment. Giving practical advice on how texts should be prepared and presented, it will be invaluable to all wishing to learn more about textual editing, whether they are putative editors or simply users of editions who wish to understand them better.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Manuscripts The Role of Print Types of Edition Works Correspondence and Papers Archives Presenting Texts (1) Printed Presenting Texts (2) Manuscripts Modernized Texts The Apparatus Front Matter End Matter/Appendices Annotation Translations Indexing/Searching Appendices Alternative Methods of Transcribing a Seventeenth-century Manuscript A Confusion of Brackets Separate and Combined Versions of a Revised Text: the 1597, 1612 and 1625 Versions of Francis Bacon's Essay 'Of Regiment of Health' Unmodernized and Modernized Versions of the last section of Chapter 47 of Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan Peter Nidditch's Explanation of the Evolution of his Editorial Method Notes Glossary Bibliography Index

About the Author :
MICHAEL HUNTER is Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London, UK. He has written or edited numerous books on the history of ideas and their context in late seventeenth-century Britain, and is the principal editor of The Works of Robert Boyle (14 volumes, 1999-2000) and The Correspondence of Robert Boyle (6 volumes, 2001).

Review :
'Michael Hunter's impressive and welcome book is not only conciliatory but shrewd, intellectual and tightly focused. Most of all, it is generous, both to trained and to untrained editors, allowing them to learn not only how to resolve their differences with each other but with the principles of the editions they produce. Editing Early Modern Texts would make a marvellous textbook for any course in editing or the history of the book. Hunter reminds us how much fun textual scholarship and editing can be, which is a wonderful accomplishment in itself.' - Grace Ioppolo, Journal of British Studies 'This volume is an accessible, thoughtful, clear and concise guide to editorial principles and practice. Hunter is particularly strong on both the possibilities and limitations of electronic editions. His book is as good a guide to editing early modern texts as exists and should find its way into university libraries, not only as a resource for would-be editors but also for students setting out on research. Hunter is an excellent guide and it will be no surprise if future editors of early modern texts refer their readers to the editorial principles which he sets out.' - Andrew Cambers, History 'Editing Early Modern Texts, itself always thoughtful and well informed, opens out the attractions of the appropriate and feasible in a way that will make it a wonderful starting point for beginning or would-be editors, and a useful resource for those already working in the field.' - Tom Lockwood, The Library