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''; ) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange as a Protestant institution, it holds the distinction of being the oldest university in the Neth ...
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
*
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum
*
Ellipsis
The ellipsis (, plural ellipses; from , , ), rendered , alternatively described as suspension points/dots, points/periods of ellipsis, or ellipsis points, or colloquially, dot-dot-dot,. According to Toner it is difficult to establish when t ...
*
EpiDoc
*
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 ol ...
*
Primary source
In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called an original source) is an Artifact (archaeology), artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was cre ...
*
Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum
Citations
{{reflist
General and cited references
* Marcus Dohnicht
"Zusammenstellung der diakritischen Zeichen zur Wiedergabe der lateinischen Inschrifttexte der Antike für den Unicode"(Entwurf 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, 1898–. (See preface.)
* ''Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum'', Lugduni Batavorum: Sijthoff, 1923–. (See front matter.)
External links
Leiden+
Ancient Greece
Ancient Roman studies
Inscriptions
Classical philology
Leiden University
1931 establishments in the Netherlands
1931 in science
Punctuation