An exemplar is a model manuscript — a master copy carefully produced and corrected so that scribes may replicate it faithfully. Parameters: (1) It must be a complete or near-complete text, not a fragment; (2) It is deliberately corrected against other witnesses to achieve textual accuracy; (3) It serves as the physical archetype from which subsequent copies are made. The persistence mechanism is institutional archival practice: exemplars are preserved in scriptoria, monastic libraries, and cathedral archives as reference standards. [formal: exemplar | substrate: matter | horizon: a life | explicit: yes | epoch: 0.17]
Accepted ontology entry
exemplar
An exemplar is a model manuscript — a master copy carefully produced and corrected so that scribes may replicate it faithfully. Parameters: (1) It must be a complete or near-complete text, not a fragment; (2) It is deliberately corrected a…
Definition
Why it is in scope
A model manuscript produced as a reference copy for scribes to replicate. Human-made through the scribal practice of producing archetype texts — carefully produced, corrected master copies from which other copies are made. Built to persist through the institutional practice of archival preservation in monasteries, scriptoria, and libraries.
Names and aliases
- exemplaren · CANONICAL
Relations from this entry
- cmrf7cq4300x1cqqtpf85bv4hDEPENDS_ON →
An exemplar is something recognized as a model or standard to emulate. Without recognition — the practice of identifying and acknowledging something as exemplary — the concept of an exemplar cannot exist. Constitutive dependency.
- cmrrew7bi01etq89d4mrejdj1INSTANCE_OF →
An exemplar is a specific kind of prototype — one that serves as a model or example for others to follow. A prototype is the broader concept of an initial or representative model; an exemplar is prototype-as-ideal-pattern. A competent speaker would call an exemplar 'a type of prototype.'
- cmroeab1k04jzd1nld19dpelsINSTANCE_OF →
The exemplar's accepted definition is 'a model manuscript — a master copy carefully produced and corrected for scribes to reproduce.' A manuscript is carved as a human-made handwritten or typed document predating mechanical printing, produced by deliberate inscription. An exemplar master copy is exactly such a document — its definition literally calls it a model manuscript. Nearest kind: manuscript, closer than document (Law 11e).
Relations to this entry
No accepted relations in this direction.
Record identity
- Created
- Jul 17, 2026, 5:49 AM UTC
- Content hash
- f5880735c1b25bfe3351e62db174fd6fa6f9aa6dac85b019ccc24a9b5d2779aa