Szövegkritika

Szövegkritika, meaning textual criticism in Hungarian, is a scholarly discipline concerned with the identification and elimination of errors in ancient texts. It is a method of investigating the history of a text's transmission, aiming to reconstruct the earliest possible version of the original work. This process involves comparing multiple surviving manuscripts of a text, noting variations between them, and then applying principles to determine which readings are most likely to be original.

The primary goal of szövegkritika is to establish a reliable text that accurately reflects the author's intent. This is particularly important for ancient works where original manuscripts are rare or non-existent, and surviving copies have often been subjected to scribal errors, omissions, additions, or intentional alterations over centuries of reproduction. Scholars examine the nature of these variations, considering factors such as the scribal habits of different periods and regions, the proximity of a manuscript to the original, and the internal consistency of the text.

Szövegkritika is applied to a wide range of ancient literature, including religious texts, classical literature, and historical documents. The methodologies employed can be both systematic and intuitive, requiring a deep understanding of the language, historical context, and literary traditions relevant to the text in question. The results of szövegkritika are often published in critical editions of texts, which provide the scholar-chosen reading alongside a record of significant variants found in the manuscripts. This allows subsequent researchers to assess the textual critic's work and engage with the evidence themselves.