Stitchometry
Stichometry is the modern name (from the Greek stichos = line and metrein = measure, count) for the line counting of literary texts in ancient manuscripts.
to form
While each verse in poetry corresponds stichometrically to one line, in prose texts the "normal line" is adjusted to the length of an epic hexameter (in the early phase 15, later 16 syllables or around 35 letters). Stichometric information has been documented in literature since the 4th century BC. Two types of engraving have been handed down by hand in rolls and codices : 1. Marginal stichometry . With this most common method, every hundredth line on the left edge of the papyrus roll is marked with a Greek letter (A = 1 or 100 to Ω = 24 or 2400) or simply with a line. 2. Total counting ( total stichometry ). In this procedure, the total number of lines is given at the end of the roll. In ancient times, the total number of lines was part of the bibliographical description of a work; it was also added to the individual titles in the Pinakes of Callimachus , the catalog of the library of Alexandria .
purpose
Stitchometry goes back to ancient Greece. The stichometric data serve a multiple purpose in the book industry of antiquity. 1. Guaranteeing the completeness of a copied text for librarians, booksellers and readers; protection against counterfeiting due to the better comparability of the copies. 2. Basis for the calculation of the writer's wages and the book price (the price edict of the Roman emperor Diocletian from the year 306 AD sets maximum prices for writing per 100 lines of text). 3. Knowing the length of the text enables the copyist to choose a suitable papyrus roll. 4. Rare in antiquity and only verifiable in a few cases: exact location when referring to other works (e.g. in Asconius' Cicero commentary ). 5. Apparently there were also texts that were planned stichometrically from the outset, in that the exact scope was specified for the entire text as well as for its parts and then adhered to when writing the text. Specifications are also known about what type of text should have what length.
Stichometry and Colometry
In addition to stitchometry , colometry has developed as a further method of text analysis . In both cases it is a question of breaking down texts into smaller units, but according to different criteria and objectives. Compare the article Colometry .
literature
- Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider (eds.): The new Pauly . Encyclopedia of Antiquity. Vol. 11. Metzler, Stuttgart and Weimar 2002, ISBN 3-476-01470-3 .
- Friedrich Gustav Lang: Customized writing. On engraving in ancient literature . In: Novum Testamentum , Vol. 41, Fasc. 1, 1999, pp. 40-57.
- Friedrich Gustav Lang: Even in the letter to the Ephesians: Stichometric composition analysis . In: Novum Testamentum , Vol. 46, Fasc. 2, 2004, pp. 143-163.
- Kurt Ohly: Stichometric Investigations . Reprint of the Leipzig 1928 edition. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1968 (Central Journal for Libraries / Supplement; 16)
- Adam Pawłowski: Prolegomena to the History of Corpus and Quantitative Linguistics. Greek Antiquity. In: Glottotheory 1, 2008, pp. 48-54.
- Friedrich Ritschl : Disputationis de stichometria deque Heliodoro supplementum, Bonnae 1840.
- Gero von Wilpert : Subject dictionary of literature (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 231). 8th, improved and enlarged edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-520-23108-5 .
- Konrat Ziegler , Walther Sontheimer and Hans Gärtner (eds.): The little Pauly . Lexicon of Antiquity in five volumes. Vol. 5. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1979.
- James Rendel Harris, Stichometry (London 1893).
