Critical apparatus

A critical apparatus (Latin: apparatus criticus) in textual criticism of primary source material, is an organized system of notations to represent, in a single text, the complex history of that text in a concise form useful to diligent readers and scholars.

[1]Many editions employ a standard format for a critical apparatus, as illustrated by a line from Hamlet, which the Oxford Complete Works (1988) prints as follows:[2] LAERTES.

Q2;So, she is drownde: Q1.The format of the apparatus has several parts: To save space, frequently cited sources are usually assigned an abbreviation called a siglum.

Sometimes a three-part format is employed, with the main text at the top of the page, textual variants in the middle, and the editor's commentary at the bottom.

This remains the most common format for Shakespeare editions, although the Oxford Complete Works breaks with tradition by putting its critical apparatus in a separately published volume.

The first printed edition of the New Testament with critical apparatus, noting variant readings among the manuscripts, was produced by the printer Robert Estienne of Paris in 1550.

Names, on the other hand, normally refer to specific handwritten volumes (often including other text), either as originally bound or in their current form.

The de facto standard for the representation of critical apparatus in digital scholarly editions is to follow the recommendations of the Text Encoding Initiative.

Page 1 of the works of Gaius Musonius Rufus , with critical apparatus
Stemma codium constructed by Cesare Questa , representing relationships of textual witnesses (with their sigla ; the lost source text is indicated by Ω ) to the works of Roman playwright Plautus , with estimated dates from the IVth through Xth centuries.