Fri Jan 24 12:33:36 1997
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Date: Fri, 24 Jan 97 19:38:03 +0100
From: schmiul@uni-muenster.de (Ulrich Schmid)
Subject: Re: The function of TC
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On Fri, 24 Jan 1997, Andrew Smith wrote:
[Schmid]
>> Andrew, I suspect you referred to the numbers off the top of your head. Could
>> you, please, substantiate your claims.
>********************
>Zugegeben! Yes, I was making a generalization, not attempting to give
>specific statistics. One could cite the circulation numbers of various
>periodicals and journals devoted to the respective topics - or the numbers
>of such journals themselves. Further, one could examine the number and
>size of university and seminary departments devoted to the respective
>disciplines. I'll stand by the generalization that more scholars are
>involved with TC regarding sacred texts than are involved with TC
>regarding non-sacred texts.
I would be really interested in some hard evidence, i.e. statistics. I will add
some evidence from Germany.
As far as I know, in Germany we have three departments dealing with "sacred
texts'" TC, the Muenster Institute, the Vetus Latina Institute (Beuron), and the
Goettinger Septuaginte Institute. The only periodicals I know are the
"Arbeitsberichte" or "Rechenschaftsberichte" of these institutions, mostly
devoted to (promote) their own publications.
Now turning to "non-sacred texts'" TC to which I am no real expert:
There is at least one majour journal (also partly covering, but not especially
devoted to sacred texts), _Zeitschrift fuer Papyrologie und Epigraphik_. Here in
Muenster Prof. Baltes and his collaborators edit the fragments of Platonists. In
Munich they recently established a interdisciplinarily working "Forschungskolleg
Textkritik" with no sacred texts involved. In Hamburg they established a
"Forschungskolleg: Griechische und Byzantinische Textueberlieferung -
Wissenschaftsgeschichte - Humanismus und Neulatein". The mentioned
"Forschungskollegien" are designed to produce an output of 16 dissertations each
and are related to existing projects. The Germanists constantly produce editions
of previously unpublished texts and new editions of already published texts,
among them the very ambitious and eagerly expected new Hoelderlin edition. A lot
of people are engaged in editing music of the past. E.g., a Japanese working in
Germany for around 20 years on Bach's sometimes competing autographs (yes, in
music we sometimes face a not clear cut single archetype situation) finally able
to figure out what Bach himself wrote and what was the hand of his second wife.
I personally happen to know a guy who worked on some 300 previously unpublished
symphonies of the 18th century (to be honest, most of them had been originally
composed in France, Italy, and Austria). It should be emphasized that I just
randomly collected these examples off the top of my head. I am sure that I
missed a lot of exciting and important work done in the field of "non-sacred
texts'" TC.
Maybe it's totally different in the US. But what does this mean? That US
scholars are more religious? That quantity counts?
(Sorry, I couldn't resist)
Ulrich Schmid, Muenster
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