Our task is to edit the letters of Philipp Jakob Spener and to present them with academic commentary. We have made numerous editorial decisions, and have compiled regulations as a recommended strategy. On this basis, some texts were accepted, and others excluded from the Edition. The accepted letters are presented in a fixed form and the means of transmission and its provenance are described.
The provenance of the texts varies considerably. Some texts were preserved by the side of the recipient and some from the side of the sender.
Some texts are reproduced from a manuscript, others from a print. Orthography and Punctuation follow standard recommendations for an edition of Early Modern texts.
A Text-Critical Apparatus describes the variants in the origin of the letters and shows the variants arising in their transmission.
A commentary explains the persons, places and factual contexts.
Every volume is completed with three Indexes, an index of persons, of places and of biblical passages. We also provide a useful key of abbreviations and symbols used.