1. Principles of Edition
All the texts of the French edition are based on absolute trustworthy archival documents. In most cases, they are documents written by St. Emilie herself (either the original document or a copy thereof that she made for her own use). The editors tried to establish a text of reference that would be at the same time trustworthy and complete, and remains available to the common reader.The editors guarantee:
– to have eliminated nothing from the text of Emilie de Vialar (except passages crossed out by herself);
– to have added nothing to the text of Emilie de Vialar unless clearly in brackets [ ], cf. Conventions of Reading;
– to have modified no text save in what regards spelling, punctuation or use of capitals, paying special attention not to alter the thought of Emilie de Vialar (cf. Rules of Transcription).
The reference to the archives at the top of the French documents shows which document is considered a trustworthy original, or, when this is missing, a trustworthy copy. These documents can be directly consulted by pressing the small button
at the top of the document.
Conventions of Reading
[recte …]: meaning “rightly”, shows the correction of a fault, though the text is clear.[…]: words missing in manuscript; indicates in no way that the passage has been omitted by the editor.
[illegible]: shows an illegible word (one word unless stated otherwise
[?]: the preceding word is not clearly readable. This does not show a doubt in the sense of the sentence or surprise at the thought expressed by the author.
Parentheses retain words present in text of the author; brackets [ ] show always an addition by editor:
– to complete a date, specify a given name of person, insert an omitted word;
– to explain sense of an abbreviation;
– to correct a slip of the pen.
Rules of Transcription
The choices carried out are purely formal and do not change the sense of the text.1. Spelling
French spelling was aligned with spelling in use today.
Spelling of famous names of persons and places is based on that of dictionaries,
e.g. Drouyn of Lhuys not Drouin de l’huys, Civitavecchia not Civita Vecchia, etc.
We tried also to correct names of persons according to available lists-this applies in particular to ministers and prelates :
Archbishop de Gualy not Guali-or on the basis of bibliographical research : the spelling of Clauzel, Gaultier, Landmann for instance, is known by the books they published.
The same can be said of streets: via Monserrato (in Rome) not Monsserato, etc.
As for the rest, we hesitated between a more or less arbitrary harmonisation (e.g. Teyssonnières rather than Tessonnière or Tessonnières, Aubilly rather than Aubilli)
and the retaining of different forms of one name (e.g. Crociani and Cruciani).
Dates are written in the form: day in number, month in letters, year in 4 numbers;
e.g. 21 Dec. 1843 becomes 21st December 1843.
Abbreviations, if not ambiguous, have been written in full, except current abbreviations;
for instance : Vicar general and not Vic. Gen. (cf. Abbreviations). Abbreviations whose sense is uncertain have been left.
For abbreviations of documents, see Document Identification Number.
2. Punctuation
Punctuation marks are very often missing in St. Emilie’s handwritten texts, and when these exist they do not always correspond to our current use.
There are marks or capital letters in the middle of sentences, punctuation marks are missing at the end of a sentence,
sentences start without a capital letter; quotation marks are almost completely missing. Besides, especially in letters, there are few breaks for paragraphs.
A minimum of punctuation has been put in by the editors to facilitate reading.
The reader must bear in mind that other punctuations or breaks of sentences are always possible, at times the sense would be slightly different.
3. Capitalisation
The use of capital and small letters in the papers of the 19th century is little in keeping with the current use, this being, besides, not quite regular.
Apart of some rules in use (Church / church, holy Scripture, etc.), we are dealing here with personal style and aesthetic feel.
We have corrected according to the modern rules. As for the rest, we have followed the modern tendency to limit the use of capitals,
without however seeking to be perfectly coherent.
Document Identification Number
Every document is identified by a reference number in two parts:
– An abbreviation of one or two letters:
CR: Constitutions and Rules of the Congregation;
EC: Running of Christian Schools;
L: Letters;
N: Nominations;
R: Reports;
RG: Account of Graces;
RR: Rule of retreat.
– After the abbreviation, a subdivision number:
Letters are chronologically numbered from
L 1 to L 547.
Compared with the first French edition of July 2009, there are four new letters
(L 7 bis, L 22 bis, L 123 bis and L 470 bis),
while letters L 72, L 73, L 297 and L 350 have a new number:
L 93 bis, L 142 bis, L 314 bis and N 3.
The other texts are subdivided by
search units of readable length to fit the screen.
Thus: EC 1, 12 shows chapter 12 of the first part
of Running of Christian Schools.
1. Information of Editor
Every document is introduced by a description note:
– its identification number or chronological number;
– its title or addressee;
– (in the French version only) the shelf mark of reference document of the edition
(St. Emilie’s handwritten text if it is still preserved);
– a button to display this archive document
(for long documents divided in several parts or chapters,
return to the heading of the document,
where is this button );
– a link to display St. Emilie’s French text;
– if necessary, a word is stated regarding dates, or other precise information regarding text transcription.
2. Text of St. Emilie
Documents others than letters have been split in search units identified
by the subdivision number of the document.
Example: EC 1, 12 shows chapter 12 of the first part of Running of Christian Schools.
3. Notes
The few existing notes are made by the editors. There are no notes of St. Emilie.
4. Table of Contents
Besides St. Emilie’s text and search engine, the complete table of contents of the writings can always
be displayed.