Towards Textual Drift Modelling in Computational Philology

Abstract - The article highlights the need to fix the methodological basis of computational philology. Formalization and modelling of the textual drift phenomenon, intended as a set of modifications to which each text is submitted in the course of its production and/or transmission, are the necessary grounds for a formal and shared definition of the research methods of computational philology. A methodological interdisciplinary solution to these problems is proposed, which consists in merging the individual experiences achieved in the field of philology with the results obtained by evolutionary biology. Two important strands have been identified concerning philology (not only computational), independent of whether they are dealing with authorial, or non-authorial variants. Textual drift modelling should be conducted so that it can be applied to the greatest extent to both strands. Keywords - philology, philogenetics, computational textual criticism