Hints on Searching
The word search enables you to locate all instances of any word that interests you. When you press 'submit', you are presented with a note of the number of matches found, followed by six-line extracts within which the word in question occurs in the order in which they appear in the workdiaries. The word itself is highlighted. At the end of each extract is a link to the page of the Workdiary on which it appears; if you click on this, you are taken to the edited version of the relevant entry.
You may also enter more than one word, which will enable you to narrow your search if you are looking for phrases. For instance, if you are interested in 'Spirit of Sulphur', a search for 'Spirit' and 'Sulphur' will save you scrolling through many irrelevant instances of 'Spirit'. However, you should note that such searches will bring up neighbouring occurrences of the words in question, not only those directly juxtaposed with one another. For instance, the above search would bring up 'Sulphur' in conjunction with the adjacent appearance of 'Spirit of Wine'.
Another useful tool is the wildcard, which enables you to search for alternative spellings of a word by entering ? for single letters and * for multiple letters in the middle of a word. To locate variant endings, all you need do is to enter the stem of the word, which will automatically bring up all instances of that regardless of the ending that follows. This is particularly effective in bringing together examples of a Latin word in all its terminations (see further below).
For comprehensive searching, you should be alert to common spelling variants in texts of this period. Obviously, these differ by language, and in each case the most important are as follows:
English
- The same word spelt with or without a final 'e' (as in 'boyl' and 'boyle'). Note: this may occur in the middle of a word rather than at the end, as in 'boyleing'.
- Double consonants where we would expect a single one, or vice versa, for instance 'mechanicall' or 'litle'. Note: this, too, may occur in the middle of a word rather than at the end, for instance 'allmost' or 'mettall'.
- Interchangeability of letters, particularly 'i' and 'y' (as in the classic case 'boil' and 'boyl'); 'e' and 'i'; 'ai', 'ae' and 'e'; 's' and 'z'; and 'u' and 'w'. In addition, 'c' and 'k' may be interchanged (e.g., 'akorn'), as may 'f' and 'ph'.
- Variant word endings, particularly to verbs in the past tense. Thus the same word may appear as 'passed', 'pass'd', 'passd' or 'passt'. Also, words normally ending 'er' sometimes end 're'.
- An extra terminal 'k' often appears, sometimes with a final 'e' as well, as in 'specifick' or 'garlicke'.
French
- Use of the dipthong '-oi' where modern French would use '-ai'. For example 'connoissoit' for 'connaissait'.
- Use of 'y' where 'i' would be used in modern French, as in the termination '-oy' for '-oi', and vice versa, as in 'voiez' for 'voyez'.
- Maintenance of the old silent 's' where modern French would now use an accent on the preceding vowel, particularly in relation to 'é', 'è', 'ê' and 'ô' (e.g., 'esgall' for 'égal', 'fenestre' for 'fenêtre'). Note that accents are infrequently used, so initial searches are best carried out without using them: the most important exception is in past participle endings, e.g. 'passé', although this is frequently rendered as 'passez' or less frequently as 'passes'.
- The silent letter 's' is also often included prior to 't' (e.g., 'fust' for 'fut', 'plutost' or even 'plustost' for 'plutô't'). In addition, the termination '-ct' may appear for '-t' (e.g. 'faict' for 'fait').
- Use of 'sc-' or 'sç' where modern French would simply use 's-', as in 'scavoir' or 'sçavoir' for 'savoir'.
- Insertion of an extra 'b', as in 'soubmis' for 'soumis', 'd', as in 'adjoust' for 'ajout', or 'e', as in 'veu' for 'vu'.
- Use of 'z' for 's' at the end of a word, even occasionally for plurals.
Latin
Latin is more standardised than the vernacular languages in this period, and therefore presents fewer problems, other than the variants caused by standard conjugations and declensions that can be circumvented by searching for the stem of the word (see above). However, the following points should be noted:
- The dipthong 'ae' or 'oe' may either be spelt thus or shown by the ligatures 'æ' or '&156;'. In all cases of words containing these dipthongs, separate searches will have to be made for both. In addition, these dipthongs may be interchangeable with the letter 'e'.
- In word endings, '-cia' and '-tia' are often interchangeable, as are '-dp-' and '-pp-' in the middle of words ('quidpiam/quippiam') and, rarely, 'o' and 'a' ('anologiam/analogiam').
- Accents are often used on the final vowels of Latin words, especially circumflex to denote the ablative case and the grave to denote adverbs, which we have transcribed. This means that these letters will show as separate characters in the encoded text, and will need to be searched for accordingly.
- As in English, single consonants are sometimes used where we would expect double ones, and vice versa, especially with 'm' and 'l'.
Other hints to users:
- Watch out for words that are normally spelt as a single word split into two, such as 'salt petre', 'gun powder', or 'mal heureuses'.
- Think phonetically in the case of unusual words. For instance, you might not have expected Boyle to use the word 'belconi' (21-526: this probably says something about Boyle's intonation and how the amanuensis heard it).
- Note also that, though we have generally expanded contractions in our transcriptions, we have retained abbreviations in certain contexts such as recipes. Thus 'sp' often occurs for 'spirit'.
Note that we have omitted all words deleted from the text, many of them incomplete or repetitious of the adjacent text.
