Collating Vicentino’s «L’antica musica» (Rome 1555): New Digital Investigation Tools

In a study of textual criticism, the collation of sources is an operation of primary importance. It is a sophisticated process of comparing copies of the same text, looking for places where it differs. In early modern period, where corrections are common in printed books because the press could be stopped to make changes, each copy of an edition may contain variants which are potentially significant for the history of the definition process of a text and its support. Studies of analytical bibliography are marked by continuous efforts to make this investigation both easier and more accurate. Searching for new ways to make the visual comparison so that the differences on a page leap out to the eye, scholars tried to achieve the superimposition of images of the same text from supposedly identical sources like copies of the same edition. Two different approaches have been taken to obtain this issue:…