The Leiden Conventions or Leiden system is an established set of rules, symbols, and brackets used to indicate the condition of an
epigraphic
Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...
or
papyrological text in a modern edition. In previous centuries of classical scholarship, scholars who published texts from inscriptions, papyri, or manuscripts used divergent conventions to indicate the condition of the text and editorial corrections or restorations. The Leiden meeting was designed to help to redress this confusion.
The earliest form of the conventions was agreed at a meeting of classical scholars at the
University of Leiden
Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of Le ...
in 1931 and published the following year. There are minor variations in the use of the conventions between epigraphy and papyrology (and even between Greek and Latin epigraphy). More recently, scholars have published improvements and adjustments to the system.
[See e.g. Dow (1969) and Krummrey–Panciera (1980). ''Cf.'' Robert (1954), 9–11, who seemingly rejects Leiden.]
Most important ''sigla''
See also
*
+++ (modem)
The Hayes command set (also known as the AT command set) is a specific command language originally developed by Dennis Hayes for the Hayes Smartmodem 300 baud modem in 1981.
The command set consists of a series of short text strings which can be ...
(for use of sequence in telecommunication possibly inspired by Leiden Conventions)
*
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum
The ''Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum'' (''CIL'') is a comprehensive collection of ancient Latin inscriptions. It forms an authoritative source for documenting the surviving epigraphy of classical antiquity. Public and personal inscriptions throw ...
*
Ellipsis
The ellipsis (, also known informally as dot dot dot) is a series of dots that indicates an intentional omission of a word, sentence, or whole section from a text without altering its original meaning. The plural is ellipses. The term origin ...
*
EpiDoc
EpiDoc is an international community that produces guidelines and tools for encoding in TEI XML scholarly and educational editions of ancient documents, especially inscriptions and papyri.
The EpiDoc Guidelines were originally proposed as a rec ...
*
Lacuna (manuscripts)
A lacuna ( lacunae or lacunas) is a gap in a manuscript, inscription, text, painting, or musical work. A manuscript, text, or section suffering from gaps is said to be "lacunose" or "lacunulose".
Weathering, decay, and other damage to o ...
*
Primary source
In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called an original source) is an artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was created at the time under ...
*
Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum
''Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum'' (''SEG'') (Latin for ''Greek Epigraphical Supplement'') is an annual survey (published by J. C. Gieben, Amsterdam, Netherlands until his death in 2006, now published by Brill) collecting the content of and stu ...
Citations
{{reflist
General and cited references
* Marcus Dohnicht
"Zusammenstellung der diakritischen Zeichen zur Wiedergabe der lateinischen Inschrifttexte der Antike für den Unicode"(Entwurft Juli 2000).
* Sterling Dow
"Conventions in editing: a suggested reformulation of the Leiden System" Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies Scholarly Aids 2, Durham, 1969.
* Tom Elliott et al. (2000–2008)
in ''EpiDoc Guidelines''.
* Traianos Gagos (1996),
Conventions, i
''A Select Bibliography of Papyrology''
* J. J. E. Hondius, "Praefatio", ''Suplementum Epigraphicum Graecum'' 7 (1934), p. i.
* A. S. Hunt, "A note on the transliteration of papyri", ''Chronique d'Égypte'' 7 (1932), pp. 272–274.
* Hans Krummrey, Silvio Panciera, "Criteri di edizione e segni diacritici", ''Tituli'' 2 (1980), pp. 205–215.
* Silvio Panciera, "Struttura dei supplementi e segni diacritici dieci anni dopo" in ''SupIt'' 8 (1991), pp. 9–21.
* Louis Robert, Jeanne Robert, "La Carie : histoire et géographie historique", II, Paris, 1954, pp. 9–11 on "Signes critiques du corpus et édition".
* Onno van Nijf
* Joshua D. Sosin et al. (2011)
* B. A. van Groningen, "De signis criticis in edendo adhibendis", ''Mnemosyne'' 59 (1932), pp. 362–365.
* B. A. van Groningen, "Projet d'unification des systèmes de signes critiques", ''Chronique d'Égypte'' 7 (1932), pp. 262–269.
* Ulrich Wilcken, "Das Leydener Klammersystem", ''Archiv für Papyrusforschung'' 10 (1932), pp. 211–212.
; Leiden usage in corpora
* ''L'Année épigraphique'', Presses Universitaires de France (''Revue archéologique. Supplément'' 1888–1964; autonomous 1965–). (See front matter.)
* ''Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum'', Berlin: de Gruyter, 1853–. (Conventions at front.)
* ''Oxyrhynchus Papyri'',
Egypt Exploration Society
The Egypt Exploration Society (EES) is a British non-profit organization. The society was founded in 1882 by Amelia Edwards and Reginald Stuart Poole in order to examine and excavate in the areas of Egypt and Sudan. The intent was to study and ana ...
, 1898–. (See preface.)
* ''Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum'', Lugduni Batavorum: Sijthoff, 1923–. (See front matter.)
External links
Leiden+
Ancient Greece
Ancient Roman studies
Inscriptions
Classical philology