USC Digital Voltaire

Transcription Conventions for the Voltaire Correspondence at USC

Danielle Mihram, March 2017

Paleographers may choose to transcribe manuscripts by making as many, or as few changes as necessary for the intended use of the transcription. For letters in the Voltaire Correspondence Collection at USC, the following conventions are used, based on the suggestions made by Gabriel Audisio[1], [2] and, in particular, by Béatrice Beaucourt-Vicidomini[3].

The transcriptions fall between modernized and semi-diplomatic[4]: the transcription for each letter records as much detail from the original manuscript as is practical.
 
[1] Audisio, Gabriel.  “Transcrire un Texte.” La Revue Française de Généalogie, vol. 208, Oct-Nov 2013, pp. 52-53.
 
[2] Audisio, Gabriel and Isabelle Rambaud. Lire le Français d'hier : Manuel de Paléographie Moderne XVe-XVIIIe siècle. Cinquième édition revue et augmentée. Paris: Armand Colin, 2016.
 
[3] Beaucourt-Vicidomini, Béatrice.  Manuel de Paléographie Moderne, XVIe-XVIIIe Siècles. Paris: Archives & Culture, 2012, p. 44.
 
[4] For an explanation of “diplomatic” and “semi-diplomatic” transcriptions, click here.

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