We here present datasets for various textual traditions. These datasets have been produced with exceptional care, to give the most accurate and complete portrayal of the variation in each tradition. For each dataset, we also present an expert scholarly analysis. Researchers should use the analysis as a guide, and a challenge.
You are free to use, manipulate and redistribute this data in any way, under the terms of the Creative Commons share-alike, attribution licence. This requires that you acknowledge the source of the data, both by reference to this website and to the original place of publication, as given below. We would be grateful for notice of any publication arising from the data.
The Wife of Bath's Prologue, from the Canterbury Tales
This data was prepared for Peter Robinson's edition of the Wife of Bath's Prologue, Cambridge University Press, 1996. This is the earliest of the datasets on this site. This and the General Prologue collation did not use the 'parallel segmentation' mode employed in the other collations on this site, and hence there is much more 'missing data' (see the discussion in MI-collation.pdf, Section 2) than one would like. We here present:
- WBP.nex: a NEXUS file containing all the variant information generated from the Wife of Bath's Prologue collation.
- WBPanal.pdf: Peter Robinson's article 'A Stemmatic Analysis of the Fifteenth-Century Witnesses to
The Wife of Bath’s Prologue', first published in The Canterbury Tales Project Occasional Papers, II, 1997, 69-132. Note particularly the movement of key witnesses around half-way through the text.
The General Prologue of the Canterbury Tales
This data was prepared for Elizabeth Solopova's edition of the General Prologue, Cambridge University Press, 2000:
- GP.vm: a NEXUS file containing all the variant information generated from the General Prologue collation. As with the Wife of Bath's Prologue, this collation did not use the 'parallel segmentation' mode employed in the other collations on this site. This file was actually prepared for SplitsTree which uses a 'transposed' matrix. For PAUP processing you will need to use the keyword TRANSPOSE
- GPanal.pdf: the 'Analysis workshop'; holds a lengthy scholarly analysis of the relations in the textual tradition, with many SplitsTree analyses. Also contains, inter alia, discussions of numeric analysis methods, and stemmatics.
The Miller's Tale, from the Canterbury Tales
This data was prepared for Peter Robinson's edition of the Miller's Tale, Scholarly Digital Editions, 2004:
- MI.nex: a NEXUS file containing all the variant information generated from the Miller's Tale collation. This collation was the first to use the 'parallel segmentation' mode employed in the other collations on this site (see the discussion in MI-collation.pdf, Section 2).
- MIanal.pdf: the 'Witness relations'; holds a lengthy scholarly analysis of the relations in the textual tradition. This should be supplemented by reference to the stemmatic commentary for many individual variants, and the collation itself as presented on the edition.
The Nun's Priest's Tale, from the Canterbury Tales
This data was prepared for Paul Thomas's edition of the Nun's Priest's Tale, Scholarly Digital Editions, 2006:
- NP.nex: a NEXUS file containing all the variant information generated from the collation. The collation uses the 'parallel segmentation' mode.
- NPanal.pdf: the 'Witness relations'; holds a lengthy scholarly analysis of the relations in the textual tradition. This should be supplemented by reference to the stemmatic commentary for many individual variants, and the collation itself as presented on the edition.
The Old Norse Sólarljóð
This data was prepared for Carolyne Larrington and Peter Robinson's edition of Sólarljóð, published in Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages, vol VII, Part 1, gen. ed. M. Clunies Ross (Turnhout: Brepols, 2007), pp. 287-357:
- Sol.nex: a NEXUS file containing all the variant information generated from the collation. The collation uses the 'parallel segmentation' mode.
- Solanal.pdf: the discussion of the relations in the textual tradition. This should be supplemented by reference to the edition itself.