MANUSCRIPT VARIATION AND TEXTUAL INTEGRITY: A PHILOLOGICAL STUDY OF MEDIEVAL LITERARY TRANSMISSIONS

Abstract

This thesis investigates the relationship between manuscript variation and textual integrity within medieval literary transmissions, emphasizing the philological challenges posed by handwritten textual traditions. Medieval authorship and copying practices often resulted in multiple versions of the same work, each shaped by scribal decisions, regional linguistic differences, and the limitations of manuscript culture. Through a comparative examination of selected medieval texts, the study explores how variations—including lexical substitutions, omissions, additions, and orthographic inconsistencies—affect the interpretation and reconstruction of original works. The analysis reveals that rather than representing corruption, many variations reflect the dynamic, collaborative nature of medieval textual production, where scribes acted as cultural transmitters who adapted texts to local contexts and audiences. This research argues that textual integrity in medieval literature cannot be defined solely by fidelity to an authorial “original,” but must account for the fluid, multi-layered transmission history that shaped each manuscript. By applying philological methods such as stemmatic analysis, textual comparison, and linguistic profiling, the thesis underscores the importance of understanding manuscript variation as a fundamental component of medieval literary culture.