Tekstkritisk

Tekstkritisk, or text-critical, is a scholarly approach in philology and literary studies that seeks to establish the most probable original wording of a text by examining variants found in manuscripts, early printed editions, and other witnesses. The aim is not merely to record differences but to evaluate them and reconstruct an authoritative text, often called the edition of the work.

In practice, tekstkritisk involves comparing all surviving copies, identifying errors of transmission, omissions, additions, and misreadings, and assessing the reliability of each witness. Editors construct a critical apparatus that lists variant readings and the evidence supporting them. Methods include stemmatics to map lineage among manuscripts and collations that tally readings across witnesses. Decisions about the copy-text—the edition from which readings are drawn—are followed by explicit notes explaining editorial choices and uncertainties.

The approach is central to classical and medieval literature, biblical texts, and any tradition with a long manuscript history. It complements higher-level questions about authorship, dating, and provenance, though those questions belong to higher criticism. While modern editions increasingly rely on digital tools and manuscript databases, the core goal remains establishing a text that best represents the author’s original wording as transmitted in surviving sources.

In Norwegian and other Scandinavian scholarly usage, tekstkritisk is the standard term for this discipline, and it informs editorial practice, bibliographic cataloging, and textual databases. See also textual criticism, critical edition, and editorial practice.