Lacuna (manuscripts)

A lacuna (pl. lacunae) is a gap in a piece of writing or other form of art. A text suffering from gaps is said to be "lacunose". Weathering or decay are often responsible for lacunae; causing words, sentences, or whole passages to be missing or unreadable.[1] To reconstructor remake the original text, the context must be considered. In the studying of ancient writings and the study of the copying of ancient books, this may lead to competing reconstructions and interpretations. Published texts that contain lacunae often mark the section where text is missing with a bracketed ellipsis, written as [...].

Example

In the British Assyriologist Stephanie Dalley's translation of the Akkadian epic Atraḫasīs, the following passage on the mytheme of the flood can be found, showing both interpretations and more complicated lacunae intentionally left blank:

“The Flood roared like a bull. Like a wild ass screaming, the winds [howled]. The darkness was total, there was no sun. […] like white sheep. […] of the Flood. […] the noise of the Flood. [Anu] went berserk.”[2]

References

  1. ↑ "Search 'lacuna' on etymonline". etymonline. Retrieved 2025-06-09.
  2. ↑ Myths from Mesopotamia : creation, the flood, Gilgamesh, and others. Internet Archive. Oxford [England] ; New York : Oxford University Press. 1989. ISBN 978-0-19-814397-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
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