Collation (philology)
Collation or collation (from the Latin collatio "to collect, compile , compare", thus: "collection, compilation") is a term used in textual criticism and edition philology for the exact comparison of texts with regard to completeness and correctness. Collation is derived from the term , which is used to describe completeness checks in other areas.
It is in the examined texts to often handwritten waste or clean copies of an original or according to reprints of a printing unit . For this purpose, the wording of all sources of tradition are compared with one another and the different readings , i.e. the variants of the wording, are collected. The collation is the prerequisite for the textual criticism, which then decides which text should be printed in the edition, which should be completely discarded and which should be printed in the text-critical apparatus.
The collation also forms the basis for assessing the traditional relationships and the relationships and dependencies of the individual text witnesses (filiation).
Criteria for forming related tradition groups are:
- Separation errors: Deviations that make it probable that two text witnesses are separated by the source of the error rule out immediate relationships.
- Combination errors: identical errors that cannot occur in two text witnesses independently of one another indicate an immediate relationship.
In edition philology, the collation is followed by the emendation , which focuses more on error corrections, up-to-date spelling rules and uniform spelling than on deviations in content, such as in the textual criticism.