Authorial authorization indicates the period of time during which the text of a version represents the work for the author. Authorial authorization originates with the writing of the version in question by the author or undertaken under his or her instruction, and likewise with the authorially derived or approved publication or printing of such a version, and ends with its replacement by a new version of the text, or with the death of the author.
Instead of the author’s intention, which can only ambiguously be inferred or suspected based on the written records, we choose as a model of text constitution the intention that the author attested to in those records. They provide the authorized text representing the author’s will for the editor. These the editor does not need to reconstruct. He or she should document them in the edition. […] Authorial intention thus proves unsuitable for the constitution of texts and should be replaced by the concept of authorization. The editor’s duty is to determine and reproduce the authorized versions (or, if authorized witnesses do not survive, versions most nearly reflecting the authorized ones). Pragmatically, to constitute edited texts by definable rules requires the editing to be determined not by authorial intention, but rather by authorization
The following are to be regarded as authorized: (a) all manuscripts of a work in whose production the author was involved or that were produced under his instructions (and demonstrably controlled by him); (b) all printings whose production the author wished or approved and whose text he influenced by delivering the setting copy or by revising or arranging for revisions during the printing process.
Autorisation Im editorischen Sinne gelten alle vom autor oder in seinem Auftrag von anderen angefertigten Textträger (Hanschriften, Typoskripte, Drucke usw.) als autorisiert, d. h. sie enthalten einen zu einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt vom Autor gebilligten Text.