Cats Who Edit

After many years of working as a textual scholar, I have noticed that many textual editors also own cats. In general, it would be interesting to read a quality essay on this topic with a quality sample and funny theses. I soon realized that these cats have a major role in the production of scholarly editions. They work hard, play hard and are extremely competent with variants. Some of them are intentionalists and do a lot of conjectural emendations, while others tend to diplomatic editions. A few of these cats produce readers editions.

However, if you are one of those people that are allergic to cats or you simply disapprove, then follow the link to meet the Disapproving Rabbits. But remember: One day, there shall be as many cats who edit as there are disapproving rabbits.

This is Kitty, who helps Klaus Wachtel in editing the Greek New Testament.

Kitty after a hard day's work.


Bruce specializes in Middle High German. He is co-editing Parzival with Michael Stolz.


Penny's edition of Dante's Monarchia came out in 2006. Currently, she is advising Prue Shaw on the electronic edition of the Divine Comedy. Neither Claerwen nor Lucinda (both pictured) is an editor.



These are Madison and Bronxino. They are textual editors and this site was their idea. If you want to be featured here, you must sent them a message, including a photograph and some information about your work. Write to them to . They are also happy to serve as consultants in all sorts of projects, but they are specially interested in transcription of primary sources.



Although Vashti's principal interest is in biblical manuscripts, she has recently helped Hugh and Jo to catalogue a nineteenth-century French document on parchment. Although she has her own e-mail address, she is not very fond of spam. If you would like to contact her, just e-mail and they will get in touch with her.



Technical Support

This is Pixel, he is in charge of technical support. Relaxing is an important part of his job: he has his best ideas after a good night's sleep.



And for interpretive criticism...

Tiglath Pileser II , the cat with the longest name in this website, is not a textual critic. Tig and Deryn dedicate their efforts to the interpretation of texts. Here, Tig is pictured with his "thinking hat."



In memoriam...

Sadly, Tabby passed away last year, leaving incomplete her work on St John's Gospel, which will now be overseen by David Parker. Her editions of Catalan literature seem to have disappeared.



Finny died, like John Manly died, like Edith Rickert; perhaps it was the editing of Chaucer, perhaps it was his addiction to television... (Although he does not look it, he was still alive when this picture was taken).