The editors prepare an exact computer transcript of the copy-text that includes Santayana’s revisions rooted in the text with brackets.
The transcription is cross-checked against photocopies twice and the original manuscript once.
The revisions are taken from the transcription and placed in a list of authorial changes. However, the alterations that show Santayana’s composition process are added to the textual apparatus.
The transcription with Santayana’s changes listed in the alterations list now becomes the editor’s copy.
Emendations are brought into the text and physical trappings of the copy-text, such as manuscript pagination, are eliminated.
This new text is proofed twice more against the transcription and emendation list.
After the proofed emendations are integrated into the editing copy, line number references are stripped out. This copy is now the printer’s copy.
The printer’s copy is checked against the editor’s copy.
Then the printer’s copy is sent to the compositor with other documents included in this edition.