Mathematical philology: entropy information in refining classical texts' reconstruction, and early philologists' anticipation of information theory.

ABSTRACT: Philologists reconstructing ancient texts from variously miscopied manuscripts anticipated information theorists by centuries in conceptualizing information in terms of probability. An example is the editorial principle difficilior lectio potior (DLP): in choosing between otherwise acceptable alternative wordings in different manuscripts, "the more difficult reading [is] preferable." As philologists at least as early as Erasmus observed (and as information theory's version of the second law of thermodynamics would predict), scribal errors tend to replace less frequent and hence entropically more information-rich wordings with more frequent ones. Without measurements, it has been unclear how effectively DLP has been used in the reconstruction of texts, and how effectively it could be used.

SUBMITTER: Cisne JL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2800184 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature