Guidelines for Transcription of the Manuscripts of the Wife of Bath’s Prologue

This account of the principles we have established so far in our transcription of the manuscripts of the Wife of Bath’s Prologue is not intended as a final statement of transcription policy even for this part of the Canterbury Tales. Rather, it is a discussion document, partly that we may explain to ourselves and to others what we are doing, and partly that the act of explanation may lead to debate about and refinement of our transcription of the manuscripts.1 In the course of our work we have come to realize that no transcription of these manuscripts into computer-readable form can ever be considered ‘final ’ or ‘definitive’. Transcription for the computer is a fundamentally interpretative activity, composed of a series of acts of translation from one system of signs (that of the manuscript) to another (that of the computer). Accordingly, our transcripts are best judged on how useful they will be for others, rather than as an attempt to achieve a definitive transcription of these manuscripts. Will the distinctions we make in these transcripts and th