Palæography. [ad. late Gr. στιχομετρία, f. στίχο-ς STICHOS + -μετρία -METRY.] a. The measurement of a manuscript text by stichoi or lines of fixed or average length into which the text is divided. Also, a list or appendix stating this measurement. b. Occas. used for: The practice of writing a prose text in lines of nearly equal length corresponding to divisions in the sense. Also, stichoi collectively.
a. 1754. N. Lardner, Credib. Gosp. Hist., II. XI. 248. A Stichometrie is a Catalogue of books of sacred Scripture, to which is added the number of the verses, which each book contains. This Stichometrie [of Nicephorus] contains a Catalogue of the books of the Old and New Testament.
1855. Westcott, Canon N. T., 522, note. Credner has examined the Stichometry of Nicephorus in connexion with the Festal Letter of Athanasius.
1883. J. R. Harris, in Schaff’s Encycl. Relig. Knowl., III. 2245. The data of stichometry consist chiefly of subscriptions at the close of manuscripts, expressing the number of lines which are contained in the book … copied.
1884. D. Hunter, Reuss’s Hist. Canon, ix. 159. The Codex Claromontanus … presents at the end of the text the copy of an old complete list of the books of the Old and New Testaments, with the number of lines in each book, what was then called a stichometry.
1885. G. Salmon, Introd. N. T., xxv. 617, note. It appears from the Claromontane stichometry, as well as from that of Nicephorus, that in length this Apocalypse was less than a quarter of that of St. John.
b. 1875. W. R. Smith, in Encycl. Brit., III. 645/2. Another system was to write the text in short lines (στίχοι) accommodated to the sense. The author of this stichometry was Euthalius of Alexandria in the second half of the 5th century, who applied it to the epistles and Acts.
1875. Scrivener, Lect. Text N. Test., 69. Stichometry, that is, the division of prose sentences into lines of about equal length corresponding as nearly as possible to the sense. Ibid., 71. Another manuscript in which the prose text … is broken up into stichometry.
1881. Scribner’s Monthly, Feb., 614/1. Stichometry was really nothing but a cumbrous substitute for punctuation.
