HFR Team

Introduction | List of the Critical Editions

Introduction

Selected groups of texts are presented in critical editions, each defined as a module; these are presented online according to the proven format developed within HPM. In contrast to printed works, which for reasons of space must be presented more simply, and in which, moreover, the aim is usually to produce an authoritative text, the presentation of the festival ritual texts within this digital infrastructure allows the complex tradition of the texts to be adequately represented. The HPM format includes:

• Introductions to the text group, including an exposition of the edition history and an overview of the manuscripts (HPM: introductio),
• links to photographs of individual manuscripts in the Mainz Photo Archive (HPM: imagines),
• synoptic transcriptions of duplicate manuscripts, including a transcription made according to CHD guidelines that acts as a 'master text' (HPM: partitura),
• translations of the texts (usually in German or English) alongside the synoptic transcription and in single view (HPM: translatio),
• individual views of the duplicate manuscripts with links back to the synoptic transcription and to the master text (HPM: exemplar),
• sentence- or word-related epigraphical and philological notes, as far as they are necessary to justify the synoptic transcription or the translation.

The ordering principle of the text editions is basically the (revised) CTH number. Different versions of an individual text are differentiated by means of sub-numbers and are not united in a synoptic transcription and a master text. However, the presentation of comparable sections of different versions is provided for in a specially developed format. A manuscript in which significant intentional additions or omissions can be identified is considered to represent a separate version of a text. Given the fragmentary nature of textual transmission, versions cannot always be identified as such. Moreover, in the representation of a text, other versions must be consulted for additions with appropriate caveats, so that an adequate reception of the text inside and outside of Hittitology is not obscured by a minimalist textual representation.

The transliterations of individual manuscripts for the text editions are prepared in the same manner as for the basic corpus; the critical editions are developed directly from this. Both the transliterations and the transcribed master text of the text editions are lexically and morphologically annotated and indexed by glossaries.

As a rule, one member of the project team is responsible for the preparation of a text edition, and is designated as the author. Prior to publication, all editions are reviewed by the project management. A logbook of these revisions is kept and published, following the pattern of the revision history for the basic corpus.