Creating a digital critical edition of a classical text with XML/TEI

The paper analyses the feasibility of a digital critical edition of a classical text using XML/TEI, highlighting its limits and potential. After outlining the complexity of textual transmission, it discusses the two TEI methods for linking text and apparatus: Parallel Segmentation and Double End-Point Attachment. Within the RETI project, a variant of the DEPA method in stand-off mode integrated in EVT3 enables the representation of manuscript families, corrective hands, and witness hierarchies. Specific metadata classify variants by stemmatic relevance, making the constitutio textus process visible.