The ‘Digital Locke Project’ is a pilot project that makes a start with a scholarly text edition of the manuscripts of the British philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) in the form of an XML-encoded database that is used simultaneously for an online version and the printed version of the manuscripts. Locke’s most influential work is An Essay concerning Human Understanding. He produced several drafts of this work in the nearly two decades prior to its publication and he continued producing additions, corrections and other related material after the first edition had appeared in 1689. In its first phase the ‘Digital Locke Project’ has focussed on the philosophical manuscripts produced after the first publication of the Essay, until Locke’s death in 1704. The transcriptions of these manuscripts are currently available in a database on the present website. The database includes a transcription of the manuscripts with text-critical apparatus, historical and philosophical notes, a precise description of all relevant manuscripts, and a reconstruction of the genesis of the texts. The database reflects the often complicated structure of a single text that is based on more than one manuscript, and one single manuscript containing several texts. The database is accessible in the present online version and provides tools for accessing text-critical information and sophisticated text searching. At the same time, the database will be a major source for the printed version, Volume III of the Drafts for the Essay concerning Human Understanding, and other Philosophical Writings, eds Paul Schuurman and Jonathan Walmsley. Clarendon Edition of the Works of John Locke (Oxford, Oxford University Press).
Paul Schuurman, Project Director
The philosophical texts produced by Locke after the publication of the Essay in 1689 have been transcribed and annotated with text-critical and philosophical-historical notes. An introductory essay, a chronology, a description of the manuscripts, textual remarks including a reconstruction of the genesis of the texts, have all been added or expanded. This presentation of 36 texts concludes the first phase of the Digital Locke Project.
(Last modified December 2011)