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Vol. 32 (2025)

Artykuły

Psalm 50 in (Early) Modern English Catholic Devotional Books: Applying Text Similarity Measures to the Analysis of Textual Tradition

  • Jerzy Wójcik
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52097/rs.2025.471-490  [Google Scholar]
Published: 2026-08-17

Abstract

The paper investigates textual affinities among English versions of Psalm 50 found in (Early) Modern Catholic materials. It compares eighteen renditions of Psalm 50 appearing in primers and manuals of devotion with those in the official Catholic Douay-Rheims Bible (1609-10 and 1635) and its revision prepared by Richard Challoner in 1750. Psalm 50 from the King James Bible (1611) is also added to the comparison on account of the claims concerning Challoner’s reliance on this version in preparing his revision. Using cosine similarity measures to assess textual similarity, the study uncovers patterns of textual dependence in Catholic publications from the (Early) Modern English period.

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