Reading an entry
An apparatus entry identifies a place in the edited text, gives a base or preferred reading when the edition uses one, and lists alternatives with witness sigla. In TEI terminology, an apparatus entry can contain a lemma and one or more readings; here lemma means a text-critical base reading, not a dictionary headword. Some editions instead privilege no single base text. Consult the introduction for sigla, abbreviations, selection criteria and the scope of variants recorded.
A siglum can refer to a whole manuscript, a later corrector, an edition, or a family, depending on the key. “A omits” and “A is broken here” are not equivalent: omission describes recoverable text, while a physical lacuna may leave the reading unknown. Likewise, silence in a selective apparatus does not necessarily mean that every witness agrees.
The TEI entry
In the linked TEI chapter, the Wife of Bath example uses a separate reading element for each cited manuscript. A later example marks “Experience” as the base for Ellesmere and Hengwrt and gives Lansdowne’s “Experiment” as an alternative. The witness references identify support; they do not by themselves prove copying relationships. The chapter also distinguishes a positive apparatus, which records attestation, from a negative one, which may report only departures from a base. That choice changes what silence means.
Practice: transcribe the TEI example into a three-column note: reading, supporting witness, editorial comment. Then state one question that cannot be answered from the entry alone.
Modern-language examples on this page clarify a linguistic pattern. They do not establish unattested sounds or forms for an ancient language. Follow the cited sources below and keep editorial readings separate from the surviving trace.