Transcriber

“ TRANSCRIPTION. A term which in ils strict meaning should be the exact equivalent of Arrangement, but which in practice implies a different, and in most cases a far less worthy production, since the transcriber rarely if ever fails to add something of his own to the work he selects for treatment. Among the earliest examples of the transcription in this sense are the versions of tunes, sacred and secular, contained in the Virginal Books, which no doubt were executed to order, or to show off the skill of some illustrious performer. ”

“ Even while these were still in existence it was necessary to transcribe them in order that many persons in many places might possess and read them. In the work of transcription, however careful the transcriber might have been, errors of various kinds necessarily arose; some from mistaking one letter for another ”

“ In letter 421 on page 3, "Brighthelmstone, August 24th, 1871.", the transcriber has changed 1871 to 1781.
Page 229: "que vers la fin de ce periode"—the transcriber has changed "ce" to "cette".
Page 300: "With regard to those which are entrusted —— [1] it could not surely be offensive to ask him for a written acknowledgment." The transcriber has added the dash where the original had a blank space.
Index: "*Eyre, Mr., printer, 263". Since no volume number was given, the transcriber has appropriately added "i".
Index: "his daily life, ii. 189;" ”

“ Inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation have been retained from the original.
It is not always possible to determine if a new stanza begins at the top of a printed page, but every effort has been made by the transcriber to retain stanza breaks where appropriate. ”

“ The printed book did not number the pages in sequence; instead it numbered the recto (odd, right) pages of the first few leaves in each signature. Folio numbers in smaller print were added by the transcriber; all verso (even, left) pages are shown as ||. Two sets of pages were apparently printed out of sequence. Details are given at the end of the text, along with notes on a few other problems.
A few words such as “with” or “the” were printed as abbreviations: initial “y” (for þ, thorn) or “w” with small “t” or “e” above it. ”

“ But boys were never employed on the Gospels, or Church service books, these being reserved for men of perfect age, who would bring greater care to their responsible task. We have even the copy ordinarily set for beginners in the monastic scriptorium, a doggerel line, introducing every letter of the alphabet:
“Adnexique globum Zephyrique Kanna secabant.” That the labour of transcription was often exceedingly irksome, is evident from sundry notes scattered over these manuscripts. “As the sick man desireth health,” writes one, “even so doth the transcriber desire the end of his volume.” ”

“ This codex dates from the beginning, [Pg xx] probably, of the 14th century, and is remarkable for being the work of thirteen different transcribers. It is much to be lamented, that the greater part of it is lost; it begins from the end of the 12th book only, and a part of the last leaf of the 17th book is also destroyed; what remains to us surpasses all others in correctness of the text. The whole has been collated for the first time by Kramer.
No. 174 is of the 15th century, and contains the seventeen books: the first nine books are written by one transcriber, the last eight by another hand. ”

“ A troublesome question often arises as to what notice should be taken in reproducing the misprints which frequently occur in the original titles. Bibliographers who have satisfied themselves (and their readers) of their own accuracy may reproduce them in silence, though it will need constant watchfulness to prevent the printer from “setting them right.” Transcribers of only average accuracy will consult their happiness by indicating the misprint in some way, and the frequent use of (sic) , more especially when printed in italics, or of the German (!) ”

“ The darker, finer, and cleaner the lines it makes are, the fitter it is for drawing and writing. These lines are durable, and do not readily fade; but when one chooses, they may be readily rubbed out. Black lead, therefore, can be used with more convenience and speed than any coloured earth, charcoal, or even ink.
It is well known that transcribers, more than a thousand389 years ago, when they wished their writing to be in a particular manner beautiful and regular, drew fine parallel lines, which they followed in writing. These lines may be still clearly distinguished in old manuscripts. ”

“ These errors of the transcribers have been immeasurably increased by the translators. A perfect translation is impossible, and for these reasons: 1. No language has words to express [168] perfectly all the words of another language. 2. Languages change with time and the words of one age have a different meaning in the next. 3. Many writers do not express themselves clearly, and it is often impossible to fully comprehend their meaning. This is especially true of Bible writers. 4. No two translators will grasp the meaning of a writer in exactly the same manner, or convey it in the same words. ”

“ All honour to those who have transcribed these documents with much labour and endless pains and printed them. They will have gained no money for their toil. The public do not show their gratitude to such laborious students by purchasing many copies, but the transcribers know that they have fitted another stone in the Temple of Knowledge, and enabled antiquaries, genealogists, economists, and historical inquirers to find material for their pursuits. ”

“ To each county there should also be appointed one or more competent persons as collators, to correct the errors of the transcribers.
I throw out these rough hints in the hope that some of your correspondents will furnish their ideas on the subject, till we at last arrive at a fully practicable plan of carrying out Mr. Wyatt Edgell's suggestions, and, at all events, obtain transcripts, if not printed copies, of every register in the kingdom. ”

“ The end of a line should be indicated by an upright stroke. [1] It is a considerable gain to indicate to the eye in what types the words transcribed are printed, i.e. whether in roman, gothic letter, or italic, and in each case whether in majuscules or minuscules (“upper or lower case”) . To do this, however, adds greatly not only to the cost of printing, but also to the liability of error. If roman minuscules are used throughout, or roman for the text and italic for the imprint of colophon, the method of transliteration which the printer himself would have used should be adopted. ”

“ It is a complete retelling. So, the translation bears more in common with its source text than a retelling. Under our current Versions page structure, both novels would be listed on the same Versions page because they derive one from the other. But an English translation from a German copy would be placed on a separate page, simply because it is a translation. Translations in library catalogs and on Wikidata are treated simply as editions of the source text, with only a data code indicating that the language has changed. Retellings and derivative works are treated completely separately. ”

“ Nothing here is an issue; merely an explaination of why things have developed the way they have. It still boils down to hosting the video in addition to its transcription. Currently we try to host the scans in addition to the transcription of those scans. And all I've tried to rebuke so far is your unfair claim we are being intentionally biased towards text when the truth is we are biased to hosting the [scans of] the original in addition to the transcription/proofreading of it. Text was/is just easier to manipulate and that is why it became more popular than other formats. ”

“ In the Translation he has endeavoured, as much as in him lay, to convey the meaning and sentiments of his original: in doing of which, he may perhaps be thought sometimes too literal; but if the meaning be conveyed, surely the error is on the safest side; for many of our translations may with much more propriety be called paraphrases than translations; and at least in the Translator's opinion, it is much better to err in keeping rather too closely to the text, than by studiously avoiding the appearance of literality, to render the sense both obscure and unintelligible. ”

“ No one in our sphere of studies would call himself a scholar who has not edited a text never edited before, or at least translated a text that never was translated before. There are some critics who think they have done their duty if they can discover a few flaws in a translation, though they cannot even appreciate the labours and the brilliant though silent discoveries of a first translator. The work that has to be done by a first translator of an ancient text is often the work of a real decipherer. ”

“ It seems that people are going to do whatever they think best for each project. Some will maintain linebreaks, while some will fix spelling — most will do something in between. Is that a fair thing to say? I prefer using the unicode characters in the text, and not templates, just because it's so much easier to write (and read whilst editing) . But I take back what I said before about trusting the Unicode Consortium to determine what characters we can and cannot use — I am currently transcribing Terræ-filius, and I want the st (that's a long s joined to the top of the t) ligature! ”

“ Wherever an approved translation in English has been found, it has been substituted for the original text; where translations have not been approved, they have been made anew. Writing for the general reader, I have assumed that he would prefer, as I do, in every book to be read and not studied, a version in English rather than the original text. Believing that the frequent citation of authorities, especially in instances where the facts are undisputed, or where the books are inaccessible, is an annoyance, I have refrained from the presentation of foot-notes which refer to books only. ”

“ If it is necessary that a translator should give a complete transcript of the ideas of the original work, it becomes a question, whether it is allowable in any case to add to the ideas of the original what may appear to give greater force or illustration; or to take from them what may seem to weaken them from redundancy. ”

“ An author will not employ more or other words than those he thinks necessary for being understood by readers of his own nation, religion, school; he writes, for instance, as a Muhammedan for Muhammedans, a Súfi for Súfis. But a translator must do his best for uniting faithfulness with clearness, the indispensable condition of any speech or writing; he must add what is required for illustrating the original text, and thus submit to a charge, now and then heavier than he can bear. ”

“ In some cases, indeed, it is possible to combine strict adherence to the original text with graceful language and harmonious metre in the translation, but in a large number of instances the translator has to sacrifice one language or the other. He has to choose between being blamed by the purist who will not admit of any expansion in the ideas of the original writer, or being accused of turning the King's English to base uses by the employment [Pg 234] of doubtful rhythm or cacophonous expressions. ”

“ Then anyone who knows the language can put the word back into its own letters. He who does not will be puzzled as to how it should be pronounced; but this is the case always when we do not know the language in question. Now, the first principle of exact transliteration is to use one Roman letter for one letter of the original alphabet. The reason of this is plain. In English we use combinations of letters to represent one sound, such as sh, th, ph. In Semitic languages (and Coptic and Armenian) these sounds have each one letter. ”

“ Proper names, technical expressions, quotations from foreign languages, and frequent change of subject, are all likely to cause difficulty to a scribe and error in his work.
Careful and continuous regard to the various kinds of errors and defaults that are found in transcription will enable us to judge whether a reading which it is suggested stood in the archetype of our text is likely to have been corrupted to the reading, or readings, which stand in the extant manuscripts or editions. ”

“ According to his theory, then, as we gather it from these volumes, translation is not paraphrase, is not interpretation, is not imitation, but is the rigorous rendering of word for word, so far as the original difference of idioms permits. Its basis is truth to the form as well as to the thought, to the letter as well as to the spirit, of the text. The translator is like the messengers of the Bible and Homer, who repeat word for word the message that has been confided to them. ”

“ He purged the sacred volume of the inadvertencies of the scribes, and restored the purity of the text; for transcribing after transcribing had caused some errors and diversity of readings to occur, between the English and foreign codices, in spite of all the pious care of the monastic copyists; this was perplexing, an uniformity was essential and he undertook the task; [137] labors so valuable deserve the highest praise, and we bestow it more liberally upon him for this good work than we should have done had he been the compiler of crude homilies or the marvellous legends of saints. ”

“ Ten years ago, being ignorant of OCR, I raised this issue in the Internet Archive Forum, when I started editing on French Wikipedia. The French text layer was accurately and cleanly scanned +90% of the time, which included the standard 26 characters. It is then I found out that there are different software for languages scanned. My next question, was why bother with an English version? English text was always interspersed with text from other languages of the Latin family, but the basic 26 characters were the same. ”