Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T17:23:07.154Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core

3 - Comparing the Witnesses, or Collation

Get access

Summary

Once one has one's corrected transcription in hand, one can begin to assemble the evidence on which the edition will be based. This is composed of the readings of all the manuscripts, the comparative material by which one's copy-text might be verified – or revealed as requiring correction. The procedure for amassing this material, known as ‘collation’ (literally, bringing the copies together or side by side) – although not analysing it – is extremely straightforward.

One simply reads the copy-text, word by word, against every other relevant version. Wherever one finds a substantive deviation between them, one notes it. This word-by-word comparison will generate a relatively vast amount of data, what is known as a ‘corpus of variants’. From this wad of material, the editor will pass on to assess the value of these diverse readings, word by word – and from that assessment, construct the edited text.

As a procedure, this seems simple enough. But again, just as in transcribing, accuracy is key. Just as with your transcription, you will need to check every manuscript at least twice, a second time to verify that you have noticed everything that might be relevant, and that you have copied all these details correctly.

But recording and keeping track of all the data you unearth may prove difficult. The obvious way to have everything would involve transcribing each of the manuscripts and using highlighters or coloured pens to identify variations. But this strikes me as a monumental amount of work and still leaves one, in the case of Rolle's ‘Super Canticum’, trying to cope with fourteen separate files of materials.

Here Manly and Rickert, in their extensive edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales offered a very convenient halfway house and described in extensive detail a procedure useful for a beginner. These editors were dealing, in the main, with Chaucer's relatively short verse-lines. They assigned to each verse an index card and wrote their full copy-text out across the top. Below this, they left the card blank, with space to enter the readings varying from their copy-text – those transmitted otherwise in each individual copy. They compared each card in turn with the individual manuscripts from which they derived readings.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Print publication year: 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×