Trends in Genetics
ReviewManuscript evolution
Section snippets
Transcription
This is the first and most time-consuming stage. It requires access to the manuscript, ideally in its original form. Although texts are starting to become available in digitized form and thus over the web, this applies only to a tiny fraction at present. The process of digitization is slow and expensive, requiring sophisticated equipment if good resolution is to be preserved. Furthermore, making images of manuscripts available over the web also poses copyright problems, which are not yet fully
Genetic parallels
The analysis described above highlights the similarity between point mutations in sequences and textual evolution. However, other genetic processes also have parallels in manuscripts.
Refinements and limitations
There is much to be done in refining the application of phylogenetic analysis to manuscript traditions. An area of particular interest is the use of weightings for different kinds of change. Are some kinds of change – such as those that significantly alter the meaning of the text – more important than others? Should more weight be given to those changes? In a simple model, all kinds of change would be consistent with the same tree topology, and the topology should therefore be independent of
Acknowledgements
We thank the Leverhulme Trust, Churchill College, Cambridge and the Broodbank Fund for their support of this work.
References (21)
Medieval Craftsmen – Scribes and Illustrators
(1992)The analysis of open traditions
Studies in Bibliography
(1985)The Statistical Determination of Affiliation in the Landmark Manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales
(1993)A complete theoretical framework for stemmatic analysis
Manuscripta
(1994)Clustering stemmatological trees
- et al.
Shock waves in text traditions
- et al.
Weighted formal support of a pedigree
The upside-down cladogram: problems in manuscript affiliation
- et al.
Molecular Evolution: A Phylogenetic Approach
(1998)
Cited by (36)
Cultural Evolution: Overview
2015, International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences: Second EditionEvolution and Language: Phylogenetic Analyses
2015, International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences: Second EditionArchaeology and Epigraphy in the Digital Era
2022, Journal of Archaeological ResearchLost Manuscripts and Extinct Texts: A Dynamic Model of Cultural Transmission
2022, CEUR Workshop Proceedings