The Descent of Manuscripts

The general object of this book is to show how internal evidence furnished by MSS. can be utilized to cast light upon the filiation of codices and in some cases upon the archetype from which they are derived; also to apply such knowledge to the criticism and emendation of the text. The argument rests mainly upon two principles viz.: (1) the regularity of writing in ancient MSS. which as a rule contain a similar or even the same number of letters to a line. (2) the frequency of line-omissions in MSS. --from the Preface A. C. Clark (1859-1937) was Corpus Professor of Latin at Oxford University. In addition to editing numerous classical texts he is also the author of The Cursus in Medieval and Vulgar Latin Recent Developments in Textual Criticism and The Primitive Text of the Gospels and Acts.