Comparing text editions with the aid of the computer

The aim of this paper is to reveal the limitations of relying on fingerprint formulas or signature positions to identify printed editions, in the manner of the STCN project. The paper proposes that scanned images of texts be used to identify editions.Ben J. P. Salemans is a philologist with special interest in the use of the computer as a scientific tool in literary, philological and cultural-historical research. His Ph.D. project is a study of automated text-genealogical research. He works as a computer consultant at the UCI computer centre of the University of Nijmegen.Dedicated to the memory of Marcel te Wilt ( 1993).