When making references to a manuscript from the apparatus but when it is necessary to mention different hands or circumstances of the text, we also need to have these versions in the conspectus siglorum creating a sublist that indicates what <witness> is referred to.

For these sublists the tag <listWit>is also used, but including an @copyOf attribute that points to the @xml:id of the <witness> of which they are a copy:

<witness xml:id="N">
    <abbr type="siglum">N</abbr>
    codex Genauensis Bodmerianus (olim Cheltoniensis) saec. X/XI
</witness>
    <listWit copyOf="#N">
        <witness xml:id="Nac">
            <abbr type="siglum">N<hi rendition="simple:superscript">ac</hi></abbr>
            codex Genauensis Bodmerianus (olim Cheltoniensis) saec. X/XI
                <desc>lectio codicis ante correctionem</desc>
        </witness>
        <witness xml:id="Npc">
            <abbr type="siglum">N<hi rendition="simple:superscript">pc</hi></abbr>
            codex Genauensis Bodmerianus (olim Cheltoniensis) saec. X/XI
                <desc>lectio codicis post correctionem</desc>
        </witness>
    </listWit>

The <listWit> that collects the different versions of each manuscripts is placed immediately after that of the original <witness> , and inherits from it the first part of the @xml:id, the siglum in <abbr>, and the text that identifies the name, location and date of the manuscript.

But it is also necessary to add the superscripts or symbols that identify each version of the manuscript, which are added both to the @xml:id of each secondary <witness> and to the <abbr> that identifies it.

In addition, the tag has a @copyOf included that clearly points to the original manuscript to which it refers. As in all other cases where an attribute points to the @xml:id of another element declared in our document, the @copyOf value must always be prefixed with the #symbol. In the example above, to point to the manuscript N, copyOf="#N"must be written, and so on in all cases.

Thus, following the example above, a manuscript N can be cited from the apparatus in three ways: as #N, and as its two variants listed below: #Nac (lectio codicis ante correctionem) and #Npc (lectio codicis post correctionem). Other manuscripts may have other variants, described in different ways by the <desc>, tag, following the model seen in the example.

The form in which these variants appear in each <witness> variant will depend on each edition. It will be usual to put in superscript or subscript form the abbreviation ‘ac’ or ‘pc’ (or whatever they are), or a number, a Greek letter, or any letter or symbol that each reference editor has chosen to use:

<witness xml:id="Nac">
            <abbr type="siglum">N<hi rendition="simple:superscript">ac</hi></abbr>
            codex Genauensis Bodmerianus (olim Cheltoniensis) saec. X/XI
                <desc>lectio codicis ante correctionem</desc>
</witness>

• In the @xml:id of each secondary <witness> variant you cannot introduce formatting (superscript or subscript, italics, symbols, etc.), and thus it has to be constructed specifically by adding to the basic abbreviation any desired letters or numbers: Nac, Npc, N2, etc. See the chapter describing the @xml:id to learn more about which values it can contain.
  We will refer frequently to this @xml:id in the critical apparatus, every time this manuscript or a variant of it is mentioned, and hence each abbreviation has to be clearly recognisable and easy to insert.
• In the internal tag <abbr type="siglum"> of each secondary <witness> variant, these letters or symbols are placed with the format that corresponds conveniently to each siglum, as one wants them to appear in the published edition. In the example, we want the letters ‘ac’ to appear in superscript following the ‘N’, and so they are tagged with <hi rendition="simple:superscript">. All the possible formatting options that can be inserted in these <abbr> are set out in the chapter Character formatting: .
• After the name of the manuscript, which will be a copy of the name stated in the original <witness> , a <desc> (descriptionwill be added to indicate what the variant consists of, explaining the complex siglum. In the example, this is a lectio codicis ante correctionem, but each editor or reference edition we are using will have its own types of variant and names. They should all be in Latin.