Approaches to editing and translating

Working with Frere’s conflated texts of the Old Customary (Consuetudinary) and New Customary (Customary) demonstrated the need for readings of each individual source, and English translations.

Each of the four Latin texts (OCO, OCR, NCC and NCS) stands as an independent source. There is no attempt to include alternative readings from any other source, and there is the minimum of editorial intervention.

The editorial principles are outlined here.

Preparing an English translation of these texts has demanded that close attention is paid to the style, syntax and grammar of the late medieval Latin. The translation stays close to the Latin original: it is not a paraphrase. A textual paraphrase might allow an interpretation of the text to be expressed more lucidly, but it would remove the user from more direct engagement with just what the Latin says.

More can be read about the approach to translation here.