Monday, April 2, 2012

Opinion/Provocation: Why are there no digital scholarly editions of "classical" texts?

Paolo Monella sets forth his position on his blog Post-doc bourse

Why are there no digital scholarly editions of "classical" texts?

Abstract

Starting point: we have a problem. Yes, we do
Where I argue that there are no digital scholarly edition of a classical text with a multi-testimonial tradition (and I explain what I mean by that).
Point 1: We don't have classical digital scholarly editions because classicists just don't feel they need them
The title says it all.
Point 2: They don't feel so because of the "canonisation" of the classical corpus
Where I argue that classical texts are quite well preserved after all (due to "canonisation", in a double-entendre sense that I explain), and that classicists don't feel they need digital scholarly editions because they consider textual variance not too meaningful and they are more focussed on the "Text" than on "documents".
Point 3. The missing link: is there also a modelling flaw?
Where I notice that we have digital editions of "Texts" and digital editions of "documents", but no editions that link them (digital scholarly editions), and suspect that may be a flaw in our modelling of textual primary sources.

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