B. How to use manuscript sigla when editing
This is not currently part of the peer-reviewed material of the project. Do not cite as a research publication.
The four methods described in Section A above indicate how manuscripts of various types should normally be referred to in the course of preparing the skaldic edition. However, there are a few preliminary or additional procedures that editors are asked to observe.
a. As we will shortly be able to access the ONP Registre directly on line, it will not be necessary in most cases for editors to supply full information about the mss they will cite in their editions. However, in some cases, if their mss do not appear on the ONP list, they will need to supply their Coordinating Editor and Tarrin Wills with full details and suggested abbreviated sigla, which must be approved by them.
b. All editors must in any case confirm to their Coordinating Editor(s) a list of the full sigla of the mss they cite as witnesses to their text(s) and the correct abbreviated sigla for those mss.
c. If editors use early printed sources as primary texts (e.g. in the case of the Icelandic Rune Poem), they must devise abbreviated sigla for them, which will also have to be confirmed by their Coordinating Editors. A similar situation applies in the case of runic poems, where an edition must be cited as a primary source (unless the inscription is unpublished).
d. In the published edition of the skaldic corpus, an index of manuscripts (and other primary sources) will appear as part of the Bibliography in Volume 9. There a complete siglum for each manuscript cited will be given, together with its abbreviated siglum as used in the skaldic edition.
For example:
Reykjavík, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á Íslandi, AM 132 fol, Möðruvallabók — (M)
Wolfenbüttel, Die herzogliche Bibliothek, WolfAug 9 10 4° — (Wolf)
e. In order to ensure that users of the skaldic edition are able to match abbreviated manuscript sigla with the index of manuscripts in Volume 9 and to ensure that they are able to make full sense of the edited texts, we ask all editors to cite the full alphanumeric siglum for each manuscript the first time they mention it. This will typically be in the Introduction to each poem or set of verses (>> 4. Guidelines on presentation for submission A-3-c). Thereafter, as, for example, in the information on mss, variant readings and notes to individual verses, the abbreviated sigla should be used.