Wittgenstein's Nachlass. The Bergen Electronic Edition (BEE)

Wittgenstein's Nachlass. The Bergen Electronic Edition (BEE) is a joint publication by the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen (WAB) and Oxford University Press. Publication of the edition, which was initially intended to consist of four separate volumes, begun in April 1998. After publication of Volume 2 it was decided to publish one final, complete title. The complete edition was released in 2000 on 6 CDs (1 CD with edited Nachlass texts and software, and 5 CDs with facsimile files). BEE is available online in the Past Masters series from InteLex Corporation.

BEE is the result of 10 years of research and editorial work by the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen. It contains all the sources and drafts for such important works as the Notebooks (MSS 101-103), the Prototractatus (MS 104), the Tractatus (TSS 202-204), Philosophical Remarks (TS 209), Philosophical Grammar (TS 213, MSS 114-115, MS 140), Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics (TSS 221-222, MSS 117, 121, 124-127 and others), Philosophical Investigations (TS 227 and MS 144), Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology (TSS 229, 232, 244-245), Last Writings on the Philosophy of Psychology (MSS 137-138, 169-171, 173-174, 176), On Certainty (MSS 172, 174-177), Remarks on Colour (MSS 172-173, 176), The Blue and the Brown Books (TSS 309-310), and Culture and Value (more than 50 different manuscripts). For a detailed concordance of these works and Nachlass sources see Pichler's and Biggs' catalogues (1993).

In addition, BEE includes much material that was previously unpublished or widely unknown, such as the legendary Big Typescript (TS 213), the prewar-version of Philosophical Investigations (MS 142, long believed lost, and TSS 220-221), the recently discovered Diary (MS 183), and the two important series of Wittgenstein's «Bände» (MSS 105-122 and 123-138), which mark important stages in the development of i.a. the Philosophical Investigations and all the notebooks from which the «Bände» and other works were compiled.

BEE renders the Nachlass texts in two separate, but interlinked, versions. The diplomatic version retains a wide range of details from the original, including deletions, overwritings, substitutions, original orthography, spelling mistakes, and so on. The normalized version provides a 'reading' version of the original, in which elements such as deleted and overwritten text are omitted, and spelling is corrected and normalized. In the normalized version, the last variant of alternative readings is rendered by default, while earlier variants are displayed on request.

Unlike paper editions, electronic editions have an inherent flexibility which allows hyper-links for automatic cross-referencing and efficient searching for single words or word combinations in a large number of manuscripts. BEE uses FolioViews for its text presentation and retrieval. FolioViews has been chosen because it offers a combination of excellent tools for text searching and hyperlinking. Search results can be displayed and navigated in a keyword-in-context list as well as in full text. For the Wittgenstein manuscripts specific search fields have been designed. These allow searches in certain volumes or manuscript groups, or within Wittgenstein's variant readings, within date ranges, specific languages, Geheimschrift, graphic material, and mathematical notation.

In addition to the edited texts, BEE includes digital facsimile images of the entire Nachlass. The edited texts, both in the normalized and the diplomatic versions, are linked with the images on page level. High quality colour photographs were used as a basis for the digital images. The photographs were digitized and stored on Photo-CDs, from which JPEG-compressed versions of the images were produced. The preparation of the electronic facsimiles was done by the Norwegian Computing Centre for the Humanities, now a part of The Centre of Culture, Language and Information Technology, Aksis.

For technical questions, prices and ordering information, contact: Oxford University Press or InteLex Corporation.

A list of errata in BEE is available on WAB's Mistakes in BEE site. Work is undertaken to produce a revised edition.

Last change: 2006.01.03 by ap