These are the edition's working notes, published as they were written. They record, work by work, where Migne's plate is defective or the reading uncertain: the printed form, what the English does with it, and why. They are not a groomed apparatus. Where a note argues with itself, withdraws an earlier decision, or leaves a question open, that is the record of how the reading was actually reached, and it is left standing — a conjecture that is visible can be checked, and one that has been tidied away cannot.
The English never silently repairs the page. A construable but wrong reading is rendered literally and the conjecture is recorded here, never applied to the text. How the English is produced and checked →
Verdun annals (Saint-Vanne). Corrupt or lacunose printed readings logged here. Governed by translation-style.md Pattern 7: the English renders what the plate PRINTS, never the conjectured reading; type that is not a word at all is carried into the English untranslated, in italics. Six entries below previously applied their conjecture to the running text (the withdrawn 10103 precedent) and have been restored to the printed readings; the rest already rendered the corruption literally and are unchanged.
0988C (s.a. 915)
Printed: Combusta est ecclesia Sancti Vitoni Virdunensis liba: memorie sanctorum. liba is not construable here. Probably a broken libri / cum libris (books burned with the church) or a truncated libra; Migne prints it with a colon before memorie sanctorum. Left as liba in italics, untranslated, with the rest rendered literally. Human check wanted against another witness.
0990A (s.a. 1099)
Printed: succedit Laurentius Jherusalem a duce Godefrido Bulloniensi et a christianis capitur. — no punctuation between the two annal items. Rendered as two sentences ("Laurence succeeds. Jerusalem is taken…"); the sentence boundary is supplied by sense, not by the plate.
0991B–C (s.a. 1179)
Printed: Richerus spontanea voluntate finitur. finitur is ambiguous between "dies" and "his term is ended" (i.e. resigns); the following clause ("Allestannus the younger succeeds, and in that same year he died") suggests resignation. Rendered literally, "is brought to an end by his own free will."
0991C (s.a. 1181)
Printed: Obiit Arnoldus episcopus Virdunensis is sagitta in capite percussus. The bare is is corrupt — most likely ictu (sagittae ictu) or a dittography of the preceding syllable. is is a Latin word (the pronoun), so it is rendered as printed — "Arnold, bishop of Verdun, died, he struck by an arrow in the head" — leaving the intrusive pronoun standing. Intended reading most likely ictu (sagittae ictu). (Earlier the stray word was dropped: "died, struck by an arrow in the head.")
0991D–0992A (s.a. 1197) — italic fragments
Migne sets fragmentary/restored readings in italic, and the italic runs break mid-word: succedit Inno centius tertius., cui succedit Philippus. English cannot reproduce a mid-word break at the same point; the italics are carried to the nearest corresponding sense unit (Innocent the Third, succeeds). Same policy applied at 1208 and 1216 below.
0992A (s.a. 1208) — lacunose entry
Printed: Philippus rex nondum imperator est int erfectus a palatino . . . . . . . ; succedit Otto co mes. . . . . i; quid postquam conse cratus est man datis Innocencii pape im perans excommunicatus . . . . . . dis depositus est reg ia dignitate, et sublimatus est imperio Frede ricus dux Ap ulie. The plate is damaged: dot-lacunae kept verbatim with the same dot counts, and the orphan letter-strings (i, dis) kept as printed rather than restored. quid is corrupt for qui, but it is a Latin word and is rendered as printed, "what after he was consecrated …" — the dangling interrogative is Migne's. (Earlier: "and … he.") The mid-word italic breaks (est int|erfectus, co|mes, conse|cratus, man|datis, pape im|perans, est reg|ia, Frede|ricus dux Ap|ulie) are moved to sense-unit boundaries per the 1197 note.
0992B (s.a. 1216)
Same lacunose typography: Convocatu m est … concilium, … cruce si gnatus est. Italics carried to the English sense units (council was convoked, was signed).
0992C–D (s.a. 1226)
Obiit Honorius IX, papa — the numeral is wrong in the source: the pope who died in 1227 and was succeeded by Gregory IX is Honorius III. Left verbatim (the annalist's error, not a typographic one). The following unnumbered 1227 line is itself lacunose (. . . . . pugna, ci ves . . . . . ii) and is kept as printed inside the 1226 section — it is not a ## head in the source.
0993D–0994A (s.a. 1290)
Jacobus de Revigneyo clericorum generalissimus — generalissimus is odd for a bishop-elect (Jacques de Revigny was a celebrated jurist; one expects legum doctor or generalis). Rendered literally, "most general of clerics."
0994A (s.a. 1292)
Gobertus elimosinarius eligitur; sed Philippus Dorne prior de Corbigney. The sed clause has no verb — cf. 1349, where the parallel construction supplies obtinuit. Rendered literally, verb unsupplied.
0994A (s.a. 1296)
Johannes de Richeri-curte dictus de Aspero-monte Ill u s . — the spaced Ill u s . is broken type (probably Illus. = illustris, or a stray catch- word). Reproduced verbatim.
0994C–D (s.a. 1325, 1336)
- 1325
Propter hoc Patries tota fuit combusta— no final punctuation in the source; Patries is an unidentified place-name, left as printed. - 1336
et Virdunensis episcopatus per tradicionem.— verbless fragment (something like captus est is wanting). Rendered literally, "and the bishopric of Verdun by treachery."
0994D (s.a. 1314, 1316)
imperarator for imperator: not a Latin word, so carried through untranslated in italics — "Henry of Luxembourg, imperarator, died." (Earlier: "emperor.") maximo mortalitas for maxima mortalitas is a concord slip in the ablative/ nominative ending only; English marks no case, so there is nothing in the printed defect for the English to carry, and "a very great mortality of men" stands. Both are compositor's slips, not emended in any apparatus.
0995A (s.a. 1353)
Qui bona monasterii Marie dissipavit — Marie is unexpected (the house is Saint-Vanne; possibly the Sainte-Marie church of the same annal, or a stray). Left as "the monastery of Mary." The closing sentence Qui omnia parcat sibi Deus et indulgeat prints masculine Qui where the sense wants neuter plural Quae omnia. Qui is a Latin word, so it is rendered as printed: "Who all things, may God spare him and forgive." Intended reading Quae omnia. (Earlier: "All which may God spare him and forgive.")
0996A (s.a. 1431)
cum suis verevis volturis et coopertura decenti — verevis is not a Latin word; likely vitreis (glass windows) or a Romance form for window-frames. Left untranslated in italics. volturis is likewise carried through untranslated in italics — "with its verevis, its volturis, and a fitting covering." As printed it can only be the genitive singular of vultur ("of a vulture"), which the context excludes; the intended reading is a form of voltura/volta, "vaults." (Earlier it was rendered "its vaults," i.e. the conjecture applied silently.)
0995C (s.a. 1420)
episcopum Portunensem — for Portuensem (Porto). Portunensem is not a Latin word, so it is carried through untranslated in italics: "cardinal, bishop Portunensem, duke of Bar." Intended reading Portuensem, certain (Louis of Bar was cardinal-bishop of Porto). (Earlier: "bishop of Porto.")
Chronology to check (not typographic)
- s.a. 1064: Harold's death and William's succession (in fact 1066) are entered under 1064, in the same entry as the comet (1066). Left as dated.
- s.a. 1150: the death of Eugenius III (1153) is entered under 1150.
- s.a. 1200: the capture of Constantinople (1204) is entered under 1200.
- s.a. 1272 / 1276: papal successions are compressed and partly wrong (Gregory X d. 1276; Innocent V, Adrian V, John XXI all 1276).
<!-- corpus-polarity-sweep 2026-07-28 --> ## Corpus polarity sweep — 2026-07-28
Blind Opus read of the Latin/English pair for sense-reversing defects (one word or one letter asserting the opposite of what the context requires). 2 site(s). Migne's defects are recorded here and rendered literally in the English; our own errors were fixed in place. Full context: data/sweeps/corpus-polarity/REPORT.md.
0992A — dropped-non (migne, low confidence)
Printed: quid postquam conse cratus est man datis Innocencii pape im perans excommunicatus . . . . . . dis depositus est reg ia dignitate
Conjecture: the plate has lost a negative or a verb of defiance governing 'mandatis' — e.g. 'mandatis Innocentii papae [non parens]' / '[contemnens]'; the English then had to render the surviving 'imperans' as compliance ('ruling by the mandates')
The same sentence goes on 'excommunicatus . . . depositus est reg ia dignitate' — Otto is excommunicated and deposed by Innocent in the very next clause. A man who governs by Innocent's mandates is not excommunicated and deposed by Innocent; the clause must originally have said he defied them.
0992C — dropped-word (migne, low confidence)
Printed: Gregorius papa Fredericum imperatorem monuit, ut cum exercitu suo, qui jam pridem cruce signatus erat, ad exterminandos fidei christiane inimicos Jerosolimis proficisceretur.
Conjecture: 'Gregorius' stands where the annal requires 'Honorius' — the reigning pope in 1224, and the pope who in fact pressed Frederick II on the crusade vow
The annal is entered under 1224, but the annalist's own next entry, at 1226, reads 'Obiit Honorius IX, papa; succedit Gregorius' ('Honorius IX, pope, died; Gregory succeeds'). By the text's own reckoning Gregory is not yet pope in 1224 and cannot be admonishing the emperor as such.