Editing Early Modern Texts: An Introduction to Principles and Practice [Hardcover]

Michael Hunter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 30, 2006 | ISBN-10: 0230008070 | ISBN-13: 978-0230008076

Editing Early Modern Texts provides an approachable exposition of the rationale of textual editing with special reference to texts dating 1550-1800. It deals with electronic editions as well as printed ones and considers non-literary as well as literary texts, drawing out the common editorial principles underlying all activity in this field. The strenghts and weaknesses of different editorial practices are evaluated in terms of their intelligibility and usefulness to the reader, as well as their fidelity to the original, while information is also given on how early modern manuscript and printed texts were actually produced, and the implications of this for their editorial treatment. Giving practical advice on how texts should be prepared and presented, it will be invaluable to all wishing to learn more about textual editing, whether they are putative editors or simply users of editions who wish to understand them better.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Michael Hunter's impressive and welcome book is not only conciliatory but shrewd, intellectual and tightly focused. Most of all, it is generous, both to trained and to untrained editors, allowing them to learn not only how to resolve their differences with each other but with the principles of the editions they produce. Editing Early Modern Texts would make a marvellous textbook for any course in editing or the history of the book. Hunter reminds us how much fun textual scholarship and editing can be, which is a wonderful accomplishment in itself.' - Grace Ioppolo, Journal of British Studies 'Editing Early Modern Texts, always thoughtful and well informed, opens out the attractions of the appropriate and feasible in a way that will make it a wonderful starting point for beginning or would-be editors, and a useful resource for those already working in the field.' - Tom Lockwood, The Library

About the Author

MICHAEL HUNTER is Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London, UK. He has written or edited numerous books on the history of ideas and their context in late seventeenth-century Britain, and is the principal editor of The Works of Robert Boyle (14 volumes, 1999-2000) and The Correspondence of Robert Boyle (6 volumes, 2001).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 171 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan (December 30, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0230008070
• ISBN-13: 978-0230008076
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,872,472 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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