Authorial marginal definitions

Meaning

The bracketed explanations of Iliaste and Archee in Book I are identified by the supplied apparatus as substantive historical marginal notes from printed page 4. Iliaste supplies the materials for generation; Archee is the natural fire or heat that digests and acts upon those materials. Their agency is part of the historical account, not a pair of definitions newly invented by the translator.

Brackets alone therefore do not identify a textual layer. Here they mark the placement of marginal material within the continuous reading text. Elsewhere, brackets mark conjecturally supplied letters. The English label “Marginal definitions” helps distinguish the presentation device from the historical content it introduces.