The letters are transcribed from the original manuscript, if available. If we have only a copy or a communication of Széchenyi’s letter, it is considered the basic text. In the case of a letter for which we have both the manuscript and/or the copy-book example and the letter sent, we always consider the letter sent as the basic text. If several drafts of a letter have survived, the later one is taken as the basis for the transcription.
When transcribing the letters, we strive to be faithful to the text: we do not correct or mark spelling or grammatical errors in any of the languages used by Széchenyi, but only make critical comments in cases of misunderstanding. For all other punctuation (commas, semicolons, underscores), we endeavour to reproduce them as they appear in the manuscript and as far as the word-processing software allows.
The letters are accompanied by two types of annotation: a critical footnote, which traces the genesis of the text and its changes, and a content endnote, which explains the information that appears in the letter. The majority of the terms used in the text-critical annotation are taken from those used in the work of László Szabó Bártfai and Gyula Viszota in their letters and the letters are treated as historical sources rather than literary texts.
The most frequently encountered textual criticism notes:
Széchenyi’s underlining: if Széchenyi used underlining to highlight a passage; he tended to underline in several ways: one straight line, two straight lines, a thick, dashed, wavy, dotted line, the underlined passage is in italics; the type of underlining is indicated in the note.
Széchenyi’s scoring: if Széchenyi scored the original text.
Interlining afterwards: if he added words or sentences to the side, top or bottom of the finished text, and he clearly marked the place where he wanted the text to be inserted, we will insert it in the market place and italicise the inserted text.
Similarly, when a word or phrase appears between lines in the text, above the lines, and marked its place in the sentence already written, it is marked by a phrase inserted afterwards to distinguish it from the insertion, and is also marked in italics in the text.
Deleted: in several cases Széchenyi made corrections to the text for reasons of grammatical correctness or he rephrased a sentence or used a word order change, usually marked with strikethrough. For Széchenyi’s corrections, we use the term ‘deleted’ and indicate the number of letters / words / lines that were corrected, i.e., we do not indicate which letter / word / line was crossed out, only the fact that it was. In the case of rough copies of letters in the diaries, we indicate separately whether the deletion was made by Széchenyi during the preparation of the draft or by Antal Tasner after Széchenyi’s death.
Corrected word: if a whole word was not deleted, only part of it was rewritten.
Instead: grammatical errors are only noted if they caused the text to be misunderstood or the word not to be clearly recognised. For example, the conjunction ‘denn’ is often written as ‘den’, the relevant note is: ‘instead of denn’.
Abbreviations in the text are resolved in footnotes.
In a letter, for repeated items to be annotated, a critical note is always made only at the first occurrence, and for subsequent occurrences only the relevant footnote number is placed at the end of the word or passage in the upper right index.
In the case of undated letters, in many cases the date of origin could only be roughly determined: if written at the beginning of the month, it was recorded on the 1st, if in the middle of the month, on the 15th, if at the end of the month, on the 30th-31st.
The German and Hungarian letters are edited by Szilvia Czinege, the French letters by Péter Balázs, the English letters by Zsófia Fónagy and the Latin letters by István Soós. The other contributors are indicated in the respective letters.
The English version (pages and letters up to the end of 1815) was proofread by Dr. Zoltán Tőzsér, an English language mentor and translator.