What collation is
By “collating” a MS. we mean comparing it with the
received text of an author and taking note of the points in
which it differs from that received text. The first thing we
must do then when we take a MS. to collate is to get a copy
of that critical edition of the author which is provided with
the best and fullest critical apparatus. Suppose, for example,
we have a MS. of Martial to collate: we must use Schneidewin's
critical edition of Martial to compare it with; for
a MS. of Terence we must use Umpfenbach; and so on,
always taking care to state at the outset of our collation with
what edition (giving the name, place, and date of the book)
we are collating our MS. We set ourselves then to compare
line by line, word by word, letter by letter the MS. before
us with the printed edition of the author. Wherever we
come upon something in the MS. different from what is in
the printed edition, we write down side by side in parallel
columns the reading of the printed edition and the reading
of the MS. We shall find it most convenient to put the
readings of the printed edition in the first or left-hand
column on our page, and the readings of the MS. in the
second column, the column to the right of it; for by so
doing we shall be able to collate other MSS. of the same
author on the same paper by merely putting additional
columns to the right; and so we shall come to have on the
same pages a conspectus of the readings of a number of MSS.
of the same author side by side. For the same reason it is
best to use the broad side of the page for writing on, so as to
have room for as many additional columns, and so for the
collation of as many additional MSS., as possible.
We shall have then in the first or left-hand column the
readings of the received text from which any of the collated
MSS. diverge, and in the columns to the right the divergent
readings of the various MSS. And of course we shall have
to give the reference to these words or lines that we take
note of as being different in the received text and in the
MSS. we have collated, so as to be able to find them when
we wish to consult them in the printed edition or in any of
the MSS. The reference to the reading of the printed book
will be given in the ordinary way, e.g. Martial bk. xiv,
epigr. i, v. 1 (
Mart. xiv. 1. 1); but we cannot give a reference of
this kind to the reading in the MSS., because the epigrams and
lines there are not numbered as they are in our modern printed
editions. We give the whereabouts of a word or sentence
in a MS. in a different way, viz. by giving the number of
the page on which it is found. Or rather to be strictly
accurate I should substitute the word leaf, or its Latin
equivalent
folium, for page; for in a MS. we do not
number the pages but the leaves, and what would be in a
printed book pages 1 and 2 will be in a MS. leaf one, or
folium primum. Page 1 is the obverse side of leaf one,
and is technically known as
folium primum rectum.
Page 2, the reverse side, is technically known as
folium
primum versum; page 3 in the same way will be
folium
secundum rectum, page 4,
folium secundum versum;
and for shortness' sake we shall write them “fol. 1 r,” “fol.
1 v,” “fol. 2 r,” “fol. 2 v,” and so on. A word then which
occurs on the third page of a MS. will be referred to
“fol. 2 r.”
But further, the page or side of a leaf in a MS is very
often written in two columns; so we shall want to state in
our reference in which column the word occurs, and we
shall have to add to our “fol. 2 r” something to show
whether it is in the first or the second column of “fol. 2 r.”
The neatest notation for the columns is by the Greek letters
α and
β. If our reading then be in the first column on
the page we shall give the reference to it in the form
“fol. 2 r
α,” and we shall put this reference on the right
of the column in which the readings of the MS. are given,
and the reference to the reading in the printed edition on
the left of the left-hand column, so as to allow the two
contrasted readings to come as close as possible, that the eye
may note their divergence at a glance.
This that I have described is the full style of collating
a MS. Of course in most cases a much less troublesome
plan will serve, viz. to jot down on the margin of our
printed edition the readings of the MS. we are collating.
But if we do this, unless the margin is a very wide one,
it will be difficult to use the same book for the collation
of more than one MS.; and it will be difficult to keep the
readings of one MS. distinct from those of another, unless
we write the readings of one MS. in black ink, of
another in red ink, of another in purple ink, and so on;
so that it may really involve as much trouble in the long
run as the more detailed method of collation. Besides one
has not room on the margin of a printed book to write
remarks about the readings in the MS., such as whether
they are written by the writer of the MS., or by some one
who revised it afterwards, or by some one into whose hands
it came at a much later time; and this is a thing of the
utmost importance, and indeed is what makes the chief
difficulty in collating a MS. accurately.
