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Introduction to the Resolutions
of the Council of Policy of Cape of Good Hope
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Transcription and editing policy
The rules for the transcriptions of the directly digitised Resolutions (1744-1795) deviate from those adhered to in the earlier printed Resolutions (1651-1743).
Rules for the printed Resolutions (1651-1743)
- In accordance with the “Regels voor het uitgeven van historische bescheiden” [Rules for the publishing of historical documents] by the Historisch Genootschap [Historical Society] (Utrecht) issued in 1954 the specific rules how to approach 17th century VOC texts were compiled and approved by the Archives in 1957.
- Apart from the use of brackets (see 3.), the rules regarding issues such as spelling, punctuation marks, compounds or separate words, capital or small letters, and abbreviations were formulated.
- The next rules were followed in the use of brackets and other punctuation marks:
- ( ) these brackets were used for words, phrases or sentences appearing between brackets in the original text.
- [.....] these brackets represent gaps caused by damage to the original text.
- < > these brackets refer to parts that were inserted during transcription. (Due to the use of XML coding the < > were substituted by [ ] during the conversion process.)
- ... these were used where part of the original text was omitted or where it was impossible to complete the damaged text.
- – – – these were used where, according to the editor, parts of the text containing unimportant information were omitted and their omission noted in footnotes. The texts that were omitted, however, often concerned groups of people (e.g. a list of sick sailors on a Danish ship). It is desirable that these omitted texts be transcribed and added to the rest of the text in future.
Rules for the directly digitised Resolutions (1744-1795)
The two editors decided to have the texts transcribed exactly as written in the original documents, thus with punctuation marks, writing, spelling, language and other errors, for example of dates as written, without any changes or additions. This way of transcribing has both advantages and disadvantages. The normalisation of words and the writing in full of abbreviations always result in a personal interpretation of the text. Due to this approach the researcher has a neutral copy of the original text. The researcher should however be prepared for unusual word images (e.g. gesonden Worden and in Steede van in the minutes at the beginning of the Introduction, as well as examples such as geExcuSeerd, VerEijschte and geCommitteerd that appear elsewhere in the Resolutions. The reading process may also be complicated by the writing of parts of compounds or derivations as individual words, especially prefixes and suffixes not connected to the word stem, the linking of words that do not belong together, the use of punctuation marks at unexpected places, and the use of unfamiliar abbreviations.
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