Editing Book of Mormon (section)

==Manuscripts==
[[File:Book of Mormon printer's manuscript, 1870s.jpg|thumb|upright|Book of Mormon printer's manuscript, shown with a 19th-century owner, George Schweich (grandson of early [[Latter Day Saint movement]] figure [[David Whitmer]])]]
[[File:Peter whitmer log home.JPG|thumb|Replica of the cabin in Fayette (Waterloo), New York (owned by [[Peter Whitmer]]) where much of the manuscript of the Book of Mormon was written]]
Joseph Smith dictated the Book of Mormon to several [[scribe]]s over a period of 13 months,<ref>{{Cite Q|Q123364479}}</ref> resulting in three [[manuscript]]s. Upon examination of pertinent historical records, the book appears to have been dictated over the course of 57 to 63 days within the 13-month period.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/timing-the-translation-of-the-book-of-mormon-days-and-hours-never-to-be-forgotten/ | title = Timing the Translation of the Book of Mormon | access-date = 2022-07-19 | archive-date = 2022-07-19 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220719231558/https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/timing-the-translation-of-the-book-of-mormon-days-and-hours-never-to-be-forgotten/ | url-status = dead }}</ref>

The 116 lost pages contained the first portion of the [[Book of Lehi]]; it was lost after Smith loaned the original, uncopied manuscript to [[Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)|Martin Harris]].<ref name="Lucy Harris"/>

The first completed manuscript, called the original manuscript, was completed using a variety of scribes. Portions of the original manuscript were also used for typesetting.<ref name="Skousen"/>{{Better source needed|reason=Citation is to a paper given at a conference (therefore not subjected to editorial/peer review in the same way a journal paper or published book is). Skousen's editorial introduction to the Yale University Press-published "The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text" may be a more appropriate source for reporting about textual criticism of Book of Mormon manuscripts.|date=May 2024}} In October 1841, the entire original manuscript was placed into the [[cornerstone]] of the [[Nauvoo House]], and sealed up until nearly forty years later when the cornerstone was reopened. It was then discovered that much of the original manuscript had been destroyed by water seepage and mold. Surviving manuscript pages were handed out to various families and individuals in the 1880s.<ref name="EoM-BoM-Manuscripts">{{citation|last=Skousen|first=Royal|title=[[Encyclopedia of Mormonism]] |url=|pages=185–186|year=1992|editor-last=Ludlow|editor-first=Daniel H.|chapter=Book of Mormon Manuscripts|chapter-url=http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/EoM/id/5544|publisher=[[Macmillan Publishing]] |isbn=978-0-02-879602-4|oclc=24502140|author-link=Royal Skousen|editor-link=Daniel H. Ludlow}}</ref>

Only 28 percent of the original manuscript now survives, including a remarkable find of fragments from 58 pages in 1991. The majority of what remains of the original manuscript is now kept in the LDS Church's archives.<ref name="Skousen"/>{{Better source needed|reason=Citation is to a paper given at a conference (therefore not subjected to editorial/peer review in the same way a journal paper or published book is). Skousen's editorial introduction to the Yale University Press-published "The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text" may be a more appropriate source for reporting about textual criticism of Book of Mormon manuscripts.|date=May 2024}}

The second completed manuscript, called the printer's manuscript, was a copy of the original manuscript produced by Oliver Cowdery and two other scribes.<ref name="Skousen">{{cite web |first=Royal |last=Skousen |title= Changes in the Book of Mormon |url=http://www.fairlds.org/FAIR_Conferences/2002_Changes_in_the_Book_of_Mormon.html |publisher=FAIR |work=2002 FAIR Conference |access-date=2009-09-25}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=Citation is to a paper given at a conference (therefore not subjected to editorial/peer review in the same way a journal paper or published book is). Skousen's editorial introduction to the Yale University Press-published "The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text" may be a more appropriate source for reporting about textual criticism of Book of Mormon manuscripts.|date=May 2024}} It is at this point that initial [[copyediting]] of the Book of Mormon was completed. Observations of the original manuscript show little evidence of corrections to the text.<ref name=EoM-BoM-Manuscripts/> Shortly before his death in 1850, Cowdery gave the printer's manuscript to [[David Whitmer]], another of the [[Three Witnesses]]. In 1903, the manuscript was bought from Whitmer's grandson by the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, now known as the Community of Christ.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865633926/Recounting-the-preservation-of-the-printers-manuscript-of-the-Book-of-Mormon.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150806172334/http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865633926/Recounting-the-preservation-of-the-printers-manuscript-of-the-Book-of-Mormon.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=August 6, 2015|title=Recounting the preservation of the printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon|last=Toone|first=Trent|date=2015-08-06|work=DeseretNews.com|access-date=2017-09-23|language=en}}</ref> On September 20, 2017, the LDS Church purchased the manuscript from the Community of Christ at a reported price of $35{{nbsp}}million.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Walch|first1=Tad|title=LDS Church buys printer's manuscript of Book of Mormon for record $35 million|url=https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865689273/LDS-Church-buys-printers-manuscript-of-Book-of-Mormon-for-record-35-million-from-Community-of.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170921071032/https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865689273/LDS-Church-buys-printers-manuscript-of-Book-of-Mormon-for-record-35-million-from-Community-of.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 21, 2017|access-date=22 September 2017|work=Deseret (Salt Lake City) News|date=20 September 2017}}</ref> The printer's manuscript is now the earliest surviving complete copy of the Book of Mormon.<ref>There are three lines missing from the printer's manuscript in its current condition, covering 1 Nephi 1:7–8, 20. http://mi.byu.edu/publications/jbms/?vol=15&num=1&id=401 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091106185831/http://mi.byu.edu/publications/jbms/?vol=15&num=1&id=401 |date=November 6, 2009 }}</ref> The manuscript was imaged in 1923 and has been made available for viewing online.<ref>{{cite web|title = Printer's Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, 1923 Photostatic Copies|url = http://josephsmithpapers.org/paperSummary/printers-manuscript-of-the-book-of-mormon-1923-photostatic-copies#!/paperSummary/printers-manuscript-of-the-book-of-mormon-1923-photostatic-copies&p=6|website = josephsmithpapers.org|access-date = 2016-01-13|pages = 0–464}}</ref>

Critical comparisons between surviving portions of the manuscripts show an average of two to three changes per page from the original manuscript to the printer's manuscript.<ref name="Skousen"/>{{Better source needed|reason=Citation is to a paper given at a conference (therefore not subjected to editorial/peer review in the same way a journal paper or published book is). Skousen's editorial introduction to the Yale University Press-published "The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text" may be a more appropriate source for reporting about textual criticism of Book of Mormon manuscripts.|date=May 2024}} The printer's manuscript was further edited, adding paragraphing and punctuation to the first third of the text.<ref name="Skousen"/>{{Better source needed|reason=Citation is to a paper given at a conference (therefore not subjected to editorial/peer review in the same way a journal paper or published book is). Skousen's editorial introduction to the Yale University Press-published "The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text" may be a more appropriate source for reporting about textual criticism of Book of Mormon manuscripts.|date=May 2024}}

The printer's manuscript was not used fully in the [[typesetting]] of the 1830 version of Book of Mormon; portions of the original manuscript were also used for typesetting. The original manuscript was used by Smith to further correct errors printed in the 1830 and 1837 versions of the Book of Mormon for the 1840 printing of the book.<ref name="Skousen"/>{{Better source needed|reason=Citation is to a paper given at a conference (therefore not subjected to editorial/peer review in the same way a journal paper or published book is). Skousen's editorial introduction to the Yale University Press-published "The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text" may be a more appropriate source for reporting about textual criticism of Book of Mormon manuscripts.|date=May 2024}}

===Printer's manuscript ownership history===
In the late-19th century the extant portion of the printer's manuscript remained with the family of [[David Whitmer]], who had been a principal founder of the [[Latter Day Saints]] and who, by the 1870s, led the [[Church of Christ (Whitmerite)]]. During the 1870s, according to the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'', the LDS Church unsuccessfully attempted to buy it from Whitmer for a record price. Church president [[Joseph F. Smith]] refuted this assertion in a 1901 letter, believing such a manuscript "possesses no value whatever."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/preserving-history-latter-day-saints/3-history-all-important-things-dc-693-john-whitmers |title=3. "A History of All the Important Things" (D&C 69:3): John Whitmer's Record of Church History &#124; Religious Studies Center |publisher=Rsc.byu.edu |access-date=2017-09-25 |archive-date=September 26, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170926042424/https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/preserving-history-latter-day-saints/3-history-all-important-things-dc-693-john-whitmers |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1895, Whitmer's grandson George Schweich inherited the manuscript. By 1903, Schweich had mortgaged the manuscript for $1,800 and, needing to raise at least that sum, sold a collection including 72 percent of the book of the original printer's manuscript ([[John Whitmer]]'s manuscript history, parts of Joseph Smith's translation of the [[Bible]], manuscript copies of several revelations, and [[Anthon transcript|a piece of paper]] containing copied Book of Mormon characters) to the RLDS Church (now the Community of Christ) for $2,450, with $2,300 of this amount for the printer's manuscript.

In 2015, this remaining portion was published by the [[Church Historian's Press]] in its ''[[Joseph Smith Papers]]'' series, in Volume Three of "Revelations and Translations"; and, in 2017, the church bought the printer's manuscript for {{currency|35000000|USD}}.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Mims |first=Bob |date=September 21, 2017 |title=Historian: At $35M, Original Printer's Manuscript of Book of Mormon a Bargain |work=[[Salt Lake Tribune]] |url=http://www.sltrib.com/news/2017/09/22/historian-at-35m-original-printers-manuscript-of-book-of-mormon-a-bargain/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220709221911/http://www.sltrib.com/news/2017/09/22/historian-at-35m-original-printers-manuscript-of-book-of-mormon-a-bargain/ |archive-date=July 9, 2022}}</ref>