Editorial conventions

In 1907, Herman Brulin (AOSB, I, vol., 4, p. V) summarized his methodology as follows:

texts are to be edited with orthographic precision. Nevertheless, editors are free to modernize or clarify in certain situations, namely in questions of punctuation, paragraph division, word division, abbreviation expansion, capitalization and the relative use of v, w, and u; i and j; and ii, ij and y.

As primarily a clarification and complementing of the principles of Brulin, we have decided, henceforth, to apply the following editorial principles:

• in salutations and valedictions, to conserve the original's line divisions and word placement in relation to the main text,
• to carefully modernize punctuation, which in turn may effect capitalization, paragraph division to be decided by the editor,
• to let modern usage determine the dividing and joining of compound and simple words repectively,
• to carefully modernize capitalization, except in the address and any notes on envelopes,
• not to mark expanded abbreviation; to let stand certain frequent, standard abbreviations such as Kungl. Maj:t, S. R. M., Ill. A. T., D. O. M., or only to expand the first instance of an abbreviation in each letter. In abbreviations via contraction, a colon marks the dropped letters.
• In Swedish texts, the letter ÿ is transcribed into modern form as either the pair ij or the single y; the compound letter ß is given as the pair ss; the letter i in Latin texts remains as the letter i, except in names of individuals and places. Thus, texts will read: Illustris, not Jllustris; abii, not abij; but Joencopia for Jönköping.
• in Swedish texts to give the letters v, w and the consonantal u always as v; thus, the editions have haffva for haffwa or haffua. In Latin texts the letters u and v will remain as in the original.
• to normalise dates and, when necessary, to write them out in full, e.g. 13 8bris Ao 14 is rendered as 13 octobris Anno 1614. Where the original gives the Roman numeral M as CI and a reverse C, the editor will use M.

N.B. All letters are registered on dates in accordance with the Old Style (the Julian Calender) both in the data base and the text editions. It is noted when the original had used any other calender.

Editors will mark deletions, additions, underlining and any notations from the recipient such as marginalia.

• Unreadable passages will be marked with [...].
• The text of the letters will be based on the dispatched original. Where a dispatched original is missing, the editor will use a copy or draft.
• Textual variants from other versions will only be noted, if the editor deems them of importance to the language or interpretation of the text.