Editorial Conventions

Our purpose is to create texts than are accessible to the interested reader, not to painstakingly mirror all the features of the manuscripts in our transcriptions. To this end we adopt the following conventions:

• The ampersand (&) is retained.
• Thorn is silently altered to 'th'.
• The use of i/j and u/v is modernised.
• The long s is silently altered to 's'.
• Contractions are silently expanded.
• Alchemical symbols are interpreted as their planetary or chemical equivalent, which ever makes most sense in the context.

Apart from the above conventions, original spelling is retained.

Original punctuation is retained. If the absence of punctuation makes a text particularly difficult to understand, it may be added to aid comprehension.

Insertions and corrections are silently incorporated into the text. Deletions are ignored. Clarifications and editorial insertions are kept to a minimum and, where they occur, are enclosed in [].

These transcriptions are intended to be studied alongside the images of the letters, enabling readers to understand the original not to replace it.

© AHRB Centre for Editing Lives and Letters, 2005  Reference: CELL/Early Letters of the Royal Society/Editorial Conventions/01