Research

For Rudolf Steiner´s written works the editors orientate on the so called “last hand edition”, earlier or in different connections published editions are used as comparison or as presentation of the  edition´s history. The source´s situation is in comparison to the lectures comparatively simple. The editor of Rudolf Steiner´s lectures has to relay on very complex resources, which are matchless in it´s way. 4500 of  Rudolf Steiner´s 6000 lectures in front of different audiences were taken down shorthand.
Of other lectures, more or less comprehensive notes, short summaries in different qualities have been preserved. The editor´s task is a large scale reconstruction of the spoken word in different steps:

Deciphering and commenting of the shorthand,
commenting and editing of the transcription,
commenting and correcting of earlier editions,

inclusion of new sources ( parallel notes)  and new scientific findings of the lecturer´s context. In case, where only listener´s  notes exist, one has to provide a text´s shape as accurate as possibleto the context. Under these circumstances one has to present philology and hermeneutic latitudes of interpretation as transparent as possible. See editorial basis.