Wiki-palvelun osoite wiki.helsinki.fi muuttuu wiki-emerita.it.helsinki.fi -osoitteeksi 4.12.2023 – katso lisätietoja tiedotteestamme: https://flamma.helsinki.fi/s/1uCkV
The Wiki address wiki.helsinki.fi will change to wiki-emerita.it.helsinki.fi on 4 December 2023 – see more information on Flamma: https://flamma.helsinki.fi/s/sreoE
Wiki-tjänstens adress wiki.helsinki.fi ändras till wiki-emerita.it.helsinki.fi 4.12.2023 – läs mer i vårt meddelande: https://flamma.helsinki.fi/s/fe3MT
An ancestor of a preserved witness is a witness from which it was directly or indirectly copied. It may be extant or lost. The youngest ancestor of a witness is its exemplar; on the other hand its earliest ancestor that can be reconstructed from all preserved witnesses is called the archetype. In the ideal situation of a tradition without contamination, all ancestors of a witness are in a series of always one exemplar until the archetype is reached. With contamination the situation becomes more complicated, as one manuscript can be copied on several exemplars, or at least receive some readings from different ancestors.
The antonym to 'ancestor' is 'descendant'. Compare the similar distinction between exemplar and copy, which, in contrast to the former two terms, may not have intermediate witnesses between the two.
In other languages
DE: Vorfahre
FR: ancêtre
IT: antenato
PR