Version 1.0.2, 8 September 2022
Version history:
1.0, 14 October 2016
1.0.1, 6 November 2018
- 1.0.2, 8 September 2022
Introduction
Authors who deal with Greek and Latin texts conventionally use a set of text critical symbols. Although they are not quite universally used in the same way (it depends partly on the subject area: literary texts transmitted in mostly medieval manuscripts vs. documentary texts transmitted in ancient papyri, inscriptions), they are understood by all classical scholars and by many medieval, Byzantine, and early modern scholars as well.
The so-called ‘Leiden Conventions’
The so-called ‘Leiden Conventions’ are almost universally used in the fields of Greek and Latin epigraphy and in Greek and Latin papyrology. Please check out the Leiden Conventions Wikipedia article. Most of the encodings used there are correct, except for the interlinear addition markers, for which see below under Conversion to typeset text, \ / (backslash, forward slash).
Other frequently-used symbols
In addition to the Leiden symbols, the following are also used:
| ⸢abc⸣ | ⸢ (U+2E22): top left half bracket; ⸣ (U+2E23): top right half bracket. | These enclose text which has not been transmitted in the document being transcribed, but which is preserved in another textual witness of the same text. |
| ⸦abc⸧ [Latin epigraphy only] | ⸦ (U+2E26): left sideways U bracket; ⸧ (U+2E27): right sideways U bracket. | Various uses. Among other things, these brackets indicate the use of Claudian letters. (Claudian letters are now encoded in Unicode as Ⅎ (U+2132), ⅎ (U+214E), Ↄ (U+2183), ↄ (U+2184), Ⱶ (U+2C75), ⱶ (U+2C76), so use of these brackets for Claudian letters will become intermittent.) Also, to indicate resolution of left-pointing, mirrored letter forms; resolution of the symbol for the name Manius; and to enclose the description of a picture found in an inscription. |
| ⸨abc⸩ [Latin epigraphy only] | ⸨ (U+2E28): left double parenthesis; ⸩ (U+2E29): right double parenthesis. | Used by some in lieu of ⸦ ⸧. |
| [abc] | [ (U+005B): left square bracket; ] (U+005D): right square bracket. | Note that in editions of ‘non-documentary’ texts such as those which have come down to us via (copies of) manuscripts dating usually from the Middle Ages or later, square brackets [ ] often enclose text which the editor deems a mistaken addition by a scribe, not text which is not transmitted in an ancient document, as in papyrology and epigraphy. |
| †corrupted text† | † ‘cross of despair’ (U+2020): dagger. | The † or crux desperationis (‘cross of despair’) indicates that the word or textual string so marked is considered to be irredeemably corrupt by the modern editor of the text. One word is marked with the crux at the head: †corrupt; while two cruces are used to enclose corrupt text consisting of more than one word: †corrupted text† (although this is also done by some editors when only one word is considered corrupt). |
α͙β͙γ͙ | ◌͙ (U+0359): combining asterisk below | Used in transcriptions of Herculaneum papyri. “[I]ndicates the editorial change of a letter only transmitted by (Neapolitan or Oxford) apographs.” (Christian Vassallo) |
Conversion to typeset text
Authors’ text needs editing in the following cases:
Note that authors often type some symbols in a non-typographical way, and that these must be converted by the typesetters. Please be on the lookout for them and either write a general instruction (if this is possible), or mark individual symbols to be converted. They are:
< > (‘smaller than’, ‘larger than’) used to enclose conjectural emendations (text which is not there in the textual witnesses but which the editor is convinced must be read at the location indicated).
< must be changed to ⟨ ‘left angle bracket’, U+27E8;
> must be changed to ⟩ ‘right angle bracket’, U+27E9.
These symbols cannot be globally replaced if < is also used by the author to indicate ‘(is derived) from’, and/or > is used to denote ‘becomes, changes to’. This dual use occurs regularly.
[[]] (two opening square brackets, two closing square brackets) used to enclose text deleted in the ancient document but still legible or restorable. [[ must be changed to ⟦ ‘left white square bracket’, U+27E6; ]] must be changed to ⟧ ‘right white square bracket’, U+27E7.
\ / (backslash, forward slash) used to mark text which is interlinear, positioned above the line.
\ must be changed to ⸌, U+2E0C;
/ must be changed to ⸍, U+2E0D.
Obviously, these symbols cannot be globally replaced.
Also found to mark the same kind of text:
` ´ (U+0060, U+00B4)
` (U+0060, spacing grave accent): must be changed to ⸌, U+2E0C;
´ (U+00B4, spacing acute accent): must be changed to ⸍, U+2E0D.
Use caution when replacing these: both these spacing accents may be used in other meanings in one and the same text, too.
⌐ ¬ (U+2310, U+00AC)
⌐ (U+2310, reversed NOT sign) must be changed to ⸢ (U+2E22);
¬ (U+00AC, NOT sign) must be changed to ⸣ (U+2E23).
(( )) (two opening parentheses, two closing parentheses):
(( must be changed to ⸨ ‘left double parenthesis’, U+2E28;
)) must be changed to ⸩ ‘right double parenthesis’, U+2E29.
Support of these characters by Brill typeface
It goes without saying that all of the above-mentioned characters are present in the Brill typeface.
