Digital Scholarly Editing and Text Reconstruction: Theoretical Perspectives and Practical Approaches

Digital scholarly editing is a relatively new field within philology and textual criticism, where several issues are still under discussion. A major concern is which perspective on the text is more favoured by the digital and why. While some scholars claim that the creation of a critical text is an activity still worth pursuing, now as in the past, others believe that digital editing has shifted the philological focus from text reconstruction to a documentary approach. The analysis will focus on two edition projects of German literary texts dating back to the Middle Ages, with specific regard to constitutio textus. How do editors actually handle multiple traditions in the digital environment? To what extent is the reconstruction of the critical text a procedure pursued within digital scholarly editing? Based on the evidence, what kind of critical endeavour is fostered within the digital medium?