Vorlage

English translation: exemplar; original; source text; model; template

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

German term or phrase:	Vorlage
English translation:	exemplar; original; source text; model; template

12:30 Jun 19, 2018

The asker opted for community grading. The question was closed on 2018-06-23 10:54:43 based on peer agreement (or, if there were too few peer comments, asker preference.)

German to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Printing & Publishing / Manuscripts

German term or phrase: Vorlage

In the Middle Ages, scribes used a "Vorlage" to produce a handwritten copy of it. This was sometimes an original manuscript, but it could just as well have been a copy of one itself. Does anyone happen to know if art historians use a specific term for this kind of "Vorlage" in English and what it is?

I realise you could say "model" or "master copy", but are there any other possibilities?

The texts I am translating are academic articles and books written by and for specialists.

Here's a random example of the usage, taken from a website, just to give you an idea of the context:

"Der Schreiber verrichtete seine Arbeit sitzend an einem auf dem Boden stehenden Schreibpult mit leicht geneigter Platte (cathedra) oder auf einem Schoßpult (pluteus, asser), die Füße meist auf einen Schemel gestellt. Er hatte die Aufgabe, eine bestimmte Vorlage getreu wiederzugeben. Dennoch bemerkte er immer wieder Beeinträchtigungen und Fehler des Vorlagetextes und Praktiken der Orthographie, der Akzentuierung und Interpunktion, die nicht mehr die seinen waren; bewusst oder unbewusst 'verjüngt' dergestalt jeder Schreiber seine Vorlage. Beim Kopieren einer Handschrift entstanden zwangsläufig Fehler; auch Korrekturen des Schreibers konnten unter Umständen falsch sein."

(I am not translating this; it's just an example.)

A penny for your thoughts...

Thanks.

Carl

Carl Carter KudoZ activity Questions: 4 (none open) Answers: 0 Germany
Local time: 02:13

exemplar

Explanation:
Seems to be used quite a bit in similar contexts

"In theory, each subsequent scribe reproduces the text of the manuscript to be copied (the ‘exemplar’),complete with all the variants and corruptions that it contains, and in the process introduces new irregularities." https://docgo.net/philosophy-of-money.html?utm_source=knibbs...

"The corrector's job was to compare the exemplar with the copy and make sure there were no errors" https://books.google.com/books?id=E2CTAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT182&dq="...

https://www.google.com/search?q="copied the exemplar"&ei=-gA...

Selected response from:

Michael Martin, MA
United States
Local time: 20:13

Grading comment

Thanks for your answer, Michael. Thanks to everyone, in fact, as all the answers are appropriate translations/equivalents.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

4 +3

exemplar

Michael Martin, MA

3 +2

1. template/model; 2. source/original text; 3. prototype/reference

Ramey Rieger (X)

3 +1

an original

Herbmione Granger

Summary of reference entries provided

Exemplar

Kim Metzger

Vorlage / Exemplar

Alison MacG

Discussion entries: 6

Answers

12 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

1. template/model; 2. source/original text; 3. prototype/reference

Explanation:
Hi Carl! Since there is no source text to go on, I've given you my suggestions for the varying translations of Vorlage in the text you've provided.

In religious texts the word Vorlage is also used: http://www.dict.cc/?s=Vorlage

Ramey Rieger (X)
Germany
Local time: 02:13
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 10

Notes to answerer

Asker: Thanks for your helpful suggestions, Ramey. They'll come in handy as synonyms and related terms.

51 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +3

exemplar

Michael Martin, MA
United States
Local time: 20:13
Native speaker of:

German,

English
PRO pts in category: 11

Grading comment

Thanks for your answer, Michael. Thanks to everyone, in fact, as all the answers are appropriate translations/equivalents.

3 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

an original

Explanation:
Another idea. To distinguish from "the" original. I also like "master," although it may be more suitable for film.

Professional translation of an article in Italian:
It has not been noted, however, that even before Celtes’ discovery, there was already an exemplar of the Tabula that was known from a direct witness and from a partial copy...
That the Tabula had its own life in the Middle Ages may be deduced, obviously, from an examination of the copy that has come down to us by way of Konrad Celtes. Just as with any product of the medieval scriptoria, it deserves to be considered on its own terms, as evidence of intellectual activity and not as the simple reproduction of *an original* intended to inform historians of antiquity.

http://wordquests.info/cgi/ice2-for.cgi?file=/hsphere/local/...
transcribe, transcribing:
1. To make an exact copy of (something) in writing; to copy out from an original; to write (a copy).

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/copy
An imitation or reproduction of an original; a duplicate

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Note added at 3 hrs (2018-06-19 16:20:45 GMT)
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The Tabula: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peutinger_Table
The map is a 13th-century parchment copy of a possible Roman original...
However, Emily Albu has suggested that the existing map could instead be based on an original from the Carolingian period.

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Note added at 9 hrs (2018-06-19 21:51:21 GMT)
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Looking at your example, I think "the given text" is also a very attractive option.
Like Ramey, "I knows it when I sees it."
Worth a travel back in time :)
https://www.proz.com/kudoz/german_to_english/chemistry_chem_...

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Note added at 20 hrs (2018-06-20 08:58:00 GMT)
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Also interesting:
http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/browse/brill-s-new-pau...
[German version] (med. lat. pecia, petia; ‘piece; sheet of parchment’). A form of textual transmission where several copies of an original – the so-called exemplar – were produced simultaneously, most often in the 13th and 14th cents., and then primarily in the context of academic teaching at the universities of Paris, Bologna, and Oxford. The pecia-system was meant to minimize the expenses for the production of a copy and at the same time guarantee its completeness, satisfy new market requirements and supply n…

Herbmione Granger
Germany
Local time: 02:13
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 6

Reference comments

1 hr peer agreement (net): +1

Reference: Exemplar

Reference information:
The task of writing, while a part of Hellenistic education, was primarily the occupation of professional writers generally known as "scribes." In order to preserve an aging and deteriorating document or to make an additional copy, a scribe was employed to copy the contents of the original onto a new surface. The scribe was paid according to the quality of the work and by the number of lines. A single scribe most likely read aloud to himself as he copied from the exemplar (the original) to the new document. In a scriptorium, the ancient "copy center," there could be a group of scribes who make multiple copies as a lector (reader) reads the exemplar for them to duplicate.

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Note added at 1 hr (2018-06-19 13:37:58 GMT)
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https://legacy.earlham.edu/~seidti/iam/mss_trans.html

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Note added at 1 hr (2018-06-19 14:06:10 GMT)
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Because of the commonality of these errors, the exemplar the monk would copy his own manuscript from could possibly contain major flaws, unavoidable in his own script even if he himself made no mistakes. Of course, monasteries did their best to avoid all corruptions, implementing a rule that monks were only supposed to copy what they saw on the page (and not try to correct the errors they may or may not have seen in their exemplar), but this did not protect from all corruption, especially when monks didn’t understand the text in front of them. https://sites.dartmouth.edu/ancientbooks/2016/05/24/medieval...

Kim Metzger
Mexico
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 155

Note to reference poster

Asker: Thanks for posting this reference, Björn. A very clear summary of scribes' work. The author uses the word 'exemplar' to refer to the original document that was copied, which I've also seen in other academic texts, so that's definitely one term I can use myself.

Asker: Thanks for your help, too, Kim. "Exemplar" was really what I was looking for, plus some synonyms. (Thanks, everyone.)

1 day 15 mins peer agreement (net): +1

Reference: Vorlage / Exemplar

Reference information:
This glossary makes a distinction between Vorlage and exemplar

Glossary - BIBL 1300: Introduction to the Bible - Dr. James R. Adair
Exemplar
The manuscript from which another manuscript was copied. The term[s] refers to the manuscript that was the immediate source of the current manuscript and thus differs from the term Vorlage, which can refer to a manuscript several generations behind the manuscript in question.
Vorlage
German word meaning the text that was copied by a scribe or translated by a translator. The word literally means the text that "lies before" the reader. The term can refer to a text that lay several generations before the manuscript in question, and thus differs from exemplar, which refers to the manuscript from which another manuscript was immediately copied.
http://rosetta.reltech.org/Logsdon/THEO6101/Glossary.html

Alison MacG
United Kingdom
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 24

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Vorlage

English translation: exemplar; original; source text; model; template

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