ledmac: “Suppress linenumber in footnote” OR “add some text to the apparatus”

Question

I’d like to typset a poem an need to get a note for the unnumbered Title. Is it possible to insert something in the footnote-aparatus without printing a linenumber?

In this example the Note goes to the apparatus but with a wrong number. I need something like “Title: some note” instead of “1 Blindpoem ] Some note.”

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{ledmac,ledpar}
\firstlinenum{1}\linenumincrement{1}
\begin{document}
\beginnumbering
    \setstanzaindents{0,0,0,0,0}
    \stanza
        The \edtext{Blindpoem}%
            {\Bfootnote{Some note.}}
    \skipnumbering\&
    \stanza
        This is &
        a stupid &
        and short &
        \edtext{blindpoem.}{\Bfootnote{Yes, it is.}}
    \&
\endnumbering
\end{document}

ps. It is not a solution to set linenumbers to the title!

Answer 1

The documentation of the ledmac package explains how to build a command \killnumber to suppress the line number in a note; in the following code I implemented (and used) this command.

Using the \lemma command in the first argument of \edtext you can change the text used as lemma from "Blindtext" to (the desired) "Title:".

I also show you how to redefine the \rbracket command to suppress the symbol "]" in the first note (according to your request, this symbol shouldn't appear in the first note); of course, \rbracket is then redefined again to get its original meaning.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{ledmac,ledpar}
\firstlinenum{1}\linenumincrement{1}

% a command to suppress line number for a note (see the ledmac documentation)
\newcommand*{\killnumber}{\linenum{|-1|||-1||}}
\makeatletter
\def\printlines#1|#2|#3|#4|#5|#6|#7|{\begingroup
  \ifnum#2=-1
    \ledplinenumfalse%
    \renewcommand\symplinenum{\hspace*{0.4em}}% this will align the unnumbered footnote text
          %  with the text of the first line of numbered footnotes.
          % Change to -0.5em  to get the unnumbered footnote text 
          % aligned with the document left margin
  \fi%
  \setprintlines{#1}{#2}{#3}{#4}{#5}{#6}%
  \ifl@d@pnum #1\fullstop\fi
  \ifledplinenum \linenumrep{#2}\else \symplinenum\fi
  \ifl@d@ssub \fullstop \sublinenumrep{#3}\fi
  \ifl@d@dash \endashchar\fi
  \ifl@d@pnum #4\fullstop\fi
  \ifl@d@elin \linenumrep{#5}\fi
  \ifl@d@esl \ifl@d@elin \fullstop\fi \sublinenumrep{#6}\fi
\endgroup}
\makeatother


\begin{document}
\symplinenum
\beginnumbering
    \setstanzaindents{0,0,0,0,0}
    \renewcommand*{\rbracket}{}% suppress the symbol "]" in the note
    \stanza
        The \edtext{Blindpoem}%
            {\killnumber\lemma{Title:}\Bfootnote{Some note.}}
    \skipnumbering\&
    \renewcommand*{\rbracket}{\textnormal{\thinspace]}}% restore the symbol "]" for the notes
    \stanza
        This is &
        a stupid &
        and short &
        \edtext{blindpoem.}{\Bfootnote{Yes, it is.}}
     \&
\endnumbering

\end{document}

EDIT: as suggested by Alan Munn, I've added a redefinition of \symplinenum to control the alignment of the unnumbered footnote.