Editorial notes

Indexing of mentioned persons:
People are indexed as ‘mentioned persons’ when they are mentioned in the letter with an event (other than a greeting), not as senders or recipients.

Indication of recipient and sender:
Recipients of letters are indicated after the title of the letter. This means not on the envelope, but at the beginning of the letter, e.g. Dear Ernest, Sonja and Wonga. If the letter is only addressed to Sonja Ferlov Mancoba, only she is listed as the recipient.
The sender is the person who wrote the letter, even if it is signed with e.g. partner and children. Handwritten greetings from friends and spouses are noted as ‘endorsement’ under comments.

Two ‘hands’ in the database:
For ease of use, the the two publications Sonja Ferlov Mancoba - selected sources and Ernest Mancoba - selected sources share the same database. Sonja Ferlov Mancoba - selected sources is compiled by Karen Westphal Eriksen in 2021, while Ernest Mancoba – selected sources is compiled by Karen Westphal Eriksen and Winnie Sze in 2024-2025. There are therefore two different ‘hands’ and two different editorial and scholarly approaches at work. Each of us has strived for rigour and transparency within our respective scholarly and stylistic approaches.

Transcriptions by Karen Westphal Eriksen:
The letters' punctuation and any spelling errors have been retained in the transcription, although o with a line above it has been rendered as ø.
Crossed-out text is reproduced with the text written in brackets: [strikethrough:] or with strikethrough in the text itself: strikethrough
Phrases and words added above or below the line or in the margin are marked with two vertical lines: | |.
Non-readable words or letters are rendered with: xxx.
Page numbers are not included in transcriptions.

Transcriptions by Winnie Sze:
Misspellings are retained followed by correction as [sic: correct spelling].
Necessary insertion of missing punctuation marks added as [,].
Necessary paragraph breakage as [/P].
Illegible words indicated with [illegible].
Scratched out letters and words are not transcribed.
Full name of person mentioned [First name + Last name]

Editorial omissions:
In the audio recordings, we have in a few cases chosen to blur parts of the recordings. This is when the information has been of a sensitive personal nature. Changes are clearly indicated.

Works:
Works by Sonja Ferlov Mancoba and Ernest Mancoba that are mentioned in the sources are registered in the database, when the work has been clearly identifiable. Works by other artists are not included in the registration, but mentioned artists are indexed as ‘mentioned persons’. Titles of books and journals are included in the letter summaries as far as possible, so you can search for Linien, for example.