An autograph or holograph is a manuscript or document written in its author´s or composer´s hand. The meaning of autograph as a document penned entirely by the author of its content, as opposed to a typeset document or one written by a copyist or scribe other than the author, overlaps with that of holograph.
Autograph manuscripts are studied by scholars, and can become collectable objects. Holographic documents have, in some jurisdictions, a specific legal standing.[not verified in body]
Related terms include archetype (the hypothesised form of an autograph), and protograph (the common ancestor of two closely related witnesses which ultimately descended from the same autograph). For example, the Novgorodsko-Sofiysky Svod is the hypothetical protograph of the Novgorod Fourth Chronicle (NPL) and Sofia First Chronicle, both of which are extant textual witnesses of the lost archetype, the Primary Chronicle (PVL). A paradosis is a proposed best reading when attempting to reconstruct the autograph.
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