Oldertext
Oldertext is a term used in digital humanities and philology to denote texts produced in earlier periods, typically prior to 1800, though the exact boundary varies by discipline. It includes manuscripts, scribal copies, incunabula, early printed books, inscriptions, and other historical textual artifacts. The term helps scholars distinguish these materials from modern texts in research, edition projects, and computational analysis.
Materials labeled oldertext often exhibit palaeographic features, variant spellings, obsolete vocabulary, and nonstandard punctuation. They may
Digital methods have enabled broader access to oldertext. Projects create digitized images and encode texts using
Access to oldertext varies by source and license. Large libraries and digital archives provide public or restricted
Oldertext remains a foundational category in the history of the book, philology, and digital humanities, supporting