stemmatologyn.
/stɛməˈtɒlədʒi/ The study which attempts to reconstruct the tradition of the transmission of a text or texts (esp. in manuscript form) on the basis of the relationships between the readings of the various surviving witnesses; this sphere of scholarship.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > literary and textual criticism > textual criticism > version of text > [noun] > study of transmission of texts
stemmatology1942
stemmatics1949
1942 Ess. & Stud. 27 43 In what may be called stemmatology, the veterans..have done brilliant work.
1981 Notes & Queries Feb. 1/2 Mr. Hamer..attempts a ‘provisional’ stemma. The darkness of conflicting and ‘contaminated’ evidence might have made a less brave man shrink from stemmatology.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online June 2018).
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n.1942