One remarkable effect of digital modelling is that it makes all our procedures, methodologic assumptions and implied ontologies (as humanists), come to the surface and become explicit. Which, I think, is good *for the Humanities* per se anyway.
There are some things that I feel I have better understood due to interesting replies to my initial question:
1. the kind of textual variance that we classical philologists are actually interested in is exactly that provided by a print apparatus criticus (only sense-changing variants, 'normalised' spelling etc.; by the way: might this have to do with the fact that we all have trained ourselves upon print apparati critici and this is the modelling of textual variance we are accustomed to?);
2. The TEI module "Apparatus criticus" (and projects like Musisque Deoque now) do not aim to give a digital model of the MSS textual variance, but a digital model of the type of modern print book type called "critical edition" (a digital model of how a print critical edition represents textual variance). Will this be the model that Perseus will follow? As compared to the "Homer multitext-model", this comes short of our grand vision of digital editions based on complete transcriptions of primary sources. But it may be better than nothing, if this is what we classicists feel that we need.
> how many dollars or euros would you spend on doing that?
> Complicated question that would take real work to answer.
> [...] That they are, so
> far, few is not a condemnation of digital editing or of scholars who
> refuse to participate: it's a reflection of an intrinsic difficulty
> that cannot be minimized.
Right to the point! My way to avoid lessening the complexity of the issue was initially to use paradox and provocation. The discussion that is arising is being very useful in sharpening the focus on the issues. Agreed: the answers will come from "real work", from experimenting. But there is a step before that: who decides the the research agenda? Our disciplinary community. When Perseus, TLG, CLT will engage in textual variance, what aims and modelling will they follow?
Best,
Paolo
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