Practice question · Match the pairs
Match each step of the Lachmannian method to what it does.
- Recensio
- Shared error
- Stemma codicum
- Eliminatio
- Emendatio
- The reconstructed family tree of the witnesses
- The evidence that two witnesses share an ancestor
- Judgement where the tree cannot decide
- Collect the witnesses and collate their variants
- Discarding a copy of a surviving manuscript
Hints
- The steps run from gathering evidence to exercising judgement.
- The step that throws witnesses away is the one that identifies redundant copies.
Show the answer
- Recensio → Collect the witnesses and collate their variants
- Shared error → The evidence that two witnesses share an ancestor
- Stemma codicum → The reconstructed family tree of the witnesses
- Eliminatio → Discarding a copy of a surviving manuscript
- Emendatio → Judgement where the tree cannot decide
Why
The sequence is designed so that judgement comes last and does as little work as possible. Everything that can be settled mechanically, by descent, is settled first, and the editor's taste is confined to the cases where the tree genuinely underdetermines the text.
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