EDITING OF SCRIBALLY TRANSMITTED CZECH TEXTS FROM THE 17TH AND 18TH CENTURIES

Focusing on transcription of handwritten texts, the study provides an addendum to Josef Vintr's Zasady transkripce ceskych textu z barokni doby [The Principles of transcription of Czech Baroque texts], published in Listy filologicke 121, 1998, pp. 341-346. It does not offer a normative instruction but a general methodological reflection and a summary of aids to creating principles of transcribing particular texts. After discussing basic differences between scribal and printing practices, it deals with some problematic features typical of scribal orthography. The study primarily concentrates on the problem of long and short vowels and the most frequent differences between modern and Baroque vowel length. It is argued that the principles of transcription should be formulated according to the individual grammatical usage of the individual scribe, and distinctive features of the text should be preserved as much as possible.