The identification, definition and typology of manuscript lacunae

In the article the question of how to identify and define lacunae is discussed, both in general and exemplified in manuscripts containing collections of monastic sayings of the Desert Fathers. These sayings, organized in different ways, were probably written down in Greek during the early fifth century and were soon translated into many languages. In a relational MySQL database, the sayings as they appear in the manuscripts are given a unique identifier. The structure and the contents of each manuscript can be compared through this reference system, which builds on the unique structure of each manuscript. However, when a manuscript contains lacunae, the results when comparing the structures are not trustworthy. The article discusses how to deal with such problems. A definition of the notion lacuna in general is suggested, and also a typology for lacunae that could be used both by cataloguers of manuscripts and by scholars. Moreover, a model for how to calculate the parts of a text that are missing in smaller lacunae is presented.