Textology – the foundation of literary history

The ever-increasing differentiation and narrow specialization of the various branches of knowledge is a well-known and widely recognized fact today. Among the literary-philological scientific disciplines - clearly separated from the so-called "textual criticism" and paleography - textology already has its own independent scientific subject. At present - and especially that part of it that studies the monuments of medieval literature - it is not only an "applied discipline", but a foundation on which the precise observations and final results of literary history are built. From this fruitful starting point, all the textological assessments of the famous Soviet literary historian-medievalist D. S. Likhachev were made in his new voluminous book, entitled "Textology" - the first systematic exposition in the USSR of textological problems as a new part of modern philology.