A Handbook of Editing Early Modern Texts provides a series of answers written by more than forty editors of diverse texts addressing the 'how-to's' of completing an excellent scholarly edition. The Handbook is primarily a practical guide rather than a theoretical forum; it airs common problems and offers a number of solutions to help a range of interested readers, from the lone editor of an unedited document, through to the established academic planning a team-enterprise, multi-volume re-editing of a canonical author. Explicitly, this Handbook does not aim to produce a linear treatise telling its readers how they 'should' edit. Instead, it provides them with a thematically ordered collection of insights drawn from the practical experiences of a symposium of editors. Many implicit areas of consensus on good practice in editing are recorded here, but there are also areas of legitimate disagreement to be charted. The Handbook draws together a diverse range of first person narratives detailing the approaches taken by different editors, with their accompanying rationales, and evaluations of the benefits and problems of their chosen methods. The collection's aim is to help readers to read modern editions more sensitively, and to make better-informed decisions in their own editorial projects.

A Handbook of Editing Early Modern Textsprovides a series of answers written by more than forty editors of diverse texts addressing the 'how-to's' of completing an excellent scholarly edition. The Handbookis primarily a practical guide rather than a theoretical forum; it airs common problems and offers a number of solutions to help a range of interested readers, from the lone editor of an unedited document, through to the established academic planning a team-enterprise, multi-volume re-editing of a canonical author. Explicitly, this Handbookdoes not aim to produce a linear treatise telling its readers how they 'should' edit. Instead, it provides them with a thematically ordered collection of insights drawn from the practical experiences of a symposium of editors. Many implicit areas of consensus on good practice in editing are recorded here, but there are also areas of legitimate disagreement to be charted. The Handbookdraws together a diverse range of first person narratives detailing the approaches taken by different editors, with their accompanying rationales, and evaluations of the benefits and problems of their chosen methods. The collection's aim is to help readers to read modern editions more sensitively, and to make better-informed decisions in their own editorial projects.

This book provides an approachable exposition of the rationale of textual editing with special reference to texts from between 1550-1800. The volume explains how manuscript and printed texts were produced, indicating the implications of this for their editorial treatment and giving practical advice on how texts should be prepared and presented.

The essays in this volume challenge current 'givens' in medieval and early modern research around periodization and editorial practice. They showcase cutting-edge research practices and approaches in textual editing, and in manuscript and performance studies to produce new ways of reading and working for students and scholars.

This collection of essays links current research in the writings and editing of early modern women and in those women who were themselves early editors with a new methodology of editing currently titled “the new textualism.” As such, the collection seeks to solve two problems. The first concerns the difficulty of editing the works of early modern women writers for whom there is little biographical data, a challenging task when the standard “life and works” format is thus inhibited. Second, related but slightly different, occurs because, although we know that there were women who edited in the early modern and even later periods, we know little about them as well. The new textualism approach to editing, which focuses on the material properties of the manuscript or book, its print or performance history and records of its dissemination, and the sociology of texts, provides a fruitful solution to both problems by broadening the concept of agency and hence provides a richer context for the production of a given text. The collection includes two sets of essays. One set has been reprinted from seminal works in the field of new textualism. These include writings by recognized figures like Jerome McGann, Leah Marcus, and Wendy Wall, among others. As such, that set provides background for the reading of the second, a group of six original essays by scholars now working in the field of early modern women writers who directly apply aspects of the new textualism in their research. The fusion of the research field of retrieving early modern women writers with the practices of new textualist editing is thus the core of this collection of essays and is illustrative of what can be achieved in the field of editing when this new approach to texts is put into practice.

This collection of new essays is a comprehensive exploration of the theoretical and practical issues surrounding the editing of texts by early modern women. The chapters consider the latest developments in the field and address a wide range of topics, including the 'ideologies' of editing, genre and gender, feminism, editing for student or general readers, print publishing, and new and possible future developments in editing early modern writing, including digital publishing. The works of writers such as Queen Elizabeth I, Mary Wroth, Anne Halkett, Katherine Philips and Katherine Austen are examined, and the issues discussed are related to the ways editing in general has evolved in recent years. This book offers readers an original overview of the central issues in this growing field and will interest students and scholars of early modern literature and drama, textual studies, the history of editing, gender studies and book history.

This book explores literary and non-literary texts, along with their early manuscripts and subsequent printed and digital editions, covering a time span extending over 1000 years.