(explanatory notes, from the Foreword to O.L.Dick's edition: )
. . . some sentences with lacunae [ . . . ] which display nothing more than Aubrey's ignorance of a date or a place or the title of a book, have been omitted.
. . . some alternative words in Aubrey's copy, and some varied versions of his favourite stories, have been collated and a single [edited] version produced.
. . . All notes, quotation marks, and other distractions . . . have been excluded from the text; and each life prefaced with an editorial paragraph outlining those facts about the subject which Aubrey has ignored. [Editorial biographies omitted in this transscription.]
. . . Wherever a Latin quotation in the text is not self-explanatory, its translation has been given in square brackets. The word `pounds' has also been substituted throughout for the Latin `libri'.
. . . Aubrey's many mistakes have been left uncorrected, except in the case of two gross misquotations of famous poems. On the few occasions when Aubrey has not only left a gap to be filled in later, but has also given the reference from which the fact can be obltained, the fact has been supplied. . . . On a few occasions the word `some' has been introduced to make good the omission of a figure . . .
. . .Aubrey's original spelling has been retained throughout, except that merely artificial tricks of writing ( [superscripted] yt for that, wch for which, m for mm) have been neglected. Wherever possible, his original punctuation has been given, and italics have been used, when necessary, to clarify the meaning.
. . . Aubrey's use of sign language hs been abandoned, and wherever possible this form of shorthand has been translated into words . . .
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