Handbook for translators of Spanish historical ... - University Library

TRANSCRIPTION
11. Expedientes . An expediente . is a dossier or file
containing documents relating to a single administrative or
judicial process wherein each of the req^uisite legal steps
has documentary representation. If all the required acts
to bring the process to a conclusion have "been complied with,
the dossier may he said to be an expediente complete However,
if the process has been arrested, the expediente is
incompleto . Completeness or incompleteness refer to the
process not to the documentary representation. 3 Expedientes
should be translated or transcribed as a unit; that is, all
documents should be retained in the same order in which
they appear in the original. The opening line of each sepa-
however, should start
rate document within the expediente ,
a new page; and the identification symbols, including page
numbers in the expediente , should be placed at the end of
each document.
12. Identification . If is customary to place at the
end of each transcription or translation a symbol or series
of symbols indicating the nature and origin of the document.
These symbols show whether the document was printed or handwritten,
whether it was in the handwriting of the author or
someone else, and other necessary facts to be known about
the document. The following list has been compiled from
symbols employed by various institutions:
Symbols Explanation
A.L.S. Autograph letter signed.
(The letter was written
and signed by the same
hand .
A.L. Autograph letter. (The
letter was not signed.)
L.S. Letter signed. (The letter
was in one hand; the signature
in another.)
A.D.S. Autograph docujnent signed.
(The docxament, any instrument,
usually not a letter,
•^This definition was supplied ty Mr. Ralph G. Lounstury,
The National Archives, Washington, L. C.
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