Jerusalem Documents: How Do You Enter the Text through Its Door?
Initial guidance for students treating documents as sources with an author, date, and archival context.
A document is not an image for decoration. It is a text with an author, a date, a place of keeping, and perhaps gaps or later copies. Before citing, ask: Who wrote it? When? For whom? Where was the text found?
The door of entry
- Read the introduction or catalog data.
- Distinguish the original from the modern edition.
- Do not cut a sentence from its context.
- Cite the source enough to find it again.
Closing
These are guidelines for students before scholarly editing. The archive is a responsibility before it is content.