Archetype (Textual)

An archetype (in textology) is the hypothetical text of a work that preceded the first split in the manuscript tradition, the common source of the entire preserved tradition, to which all known copies go back. The archetype, as a rule, is not preserved and is reconstructed by the textologist on the basis of a comparative analysis of copies, their common errors, and variant readings. The concept of the archetype is key to the genealogical (Lachmannian) method: having built a 'stemma' (a genealogical tree of copies), the scholar attempts to restore the text of the archetype, cleansing it of later distortions. The archetype is distinguished from the protograph (the nearest common source for a particular group of copies) and from the autograph (the original in the author's hand): the archetype is the highest recoverable point of the whole tradition, which may not coincide with the authorial text. The textological archetype must not be confused with the identically named psychological-mythological concept of Carl Jung. The reconstruction of the archetypes of early monuments is a complex and debatable task.