For the purposes of this discussion, I define a documentary edition as an edition of a text based on a single document, which attempts to reproduce a certain degree of the peculiarities of the document itself, even if this may cause disruption to the normal flow of the text presented by the document. It can assume different formats, by presenting the textual content of the document as semi-diplomatic, diplomatic, ultra-diplomatic, or even facsimile editions, which differentiate themselves by the level of editorial intervention, ranging from the largest to the smallest concession to the reading habits of the public of choice. The documentary edition differs from transcription in the sense that a documentary edition is meant to be publicly distributed, while a transcription represents the private first stage of the editorial work; a transcription can become a documentary edition in the moment its creator (the editor) decides it is accurate enough and follows accepted scholarly conventions well enough to be distributed publicly.