Editorial mark-up

This explains the editorial divisions of the manuscript-text.

Text blocks and Sentence numbers

All manuscript-text in a dynamic edition is divided into the same number of text blocks.

The text blocks are numbered sequentially.
The numbering is consistent across all types of text. Therefore, if there are four text blocks in manuscript-text, there will be four text-blocks in all version texts and the work text.
If a particular manuscript-text does not have a text-block when other manuscripts do, the absence of that text block is noted in the same manuscript-text.

The text block is defined by the chapter divisions in the earliest known structure of the work. This will allow us to see change in the manuscript tradition over time (not necessarily developmental change).

In the case of Regiam, the manuscript-text which provided the definition of the text block was manuscript F (BL Additional MS 18111).
In the case of the Declaration, there is only one text block, as all the early manuscripts all present the Declaration as a single chapter.

All text blocks are divided into sentences

Although the number of sentences differ between text-block, the same text block will always be divided into the same number of sentences.
Therefore, if manuscript A has five sentences in Text block 2, then all -texts will have five sentences in Text block 2, even if a particular sentence is absent from a manuscript-text.

Why divide text into block and sentence?

The aim of artificially dividing text into blocks and sentences is to create, through the mark-up, comparable blocks of text which can be displayed in the dynamic search.

This has to be artificial because, in larger works, scribes structured their texts in different ways (e.g. different numbers of books; differing numbers of chapters). n order for content to be compared, however, we need a mark-up which structures all texts in an identical way.

The rules are, therefore:

The work is made up of X number of text blocks.

Each text block is made up of Y number of sentences.

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