Interpretative Certainty or Precision Assessment

Notations used to define the degree of epistemicity of the editorial interpretation in relation to the material or semantic characteristics of the artefact.

Informational Saturation and the Default Medium Value

The absence of an explicit indicator of certainty or precision results in the automatic assignment of the neutral value Medium. Every node in the notation that supports these attributes therefore always has a defined value (be it Low, Medium or High).

This architecture responds to a specific critique of EpiDoc/TEI practice. In these standards, the omission of the certainty attribute (@cert) generates a semantic aporia: does the absence of marking imply a "certain" fact or an "undeclared" fact?

IbiScript resolves this ambiguity on the basis of two postulates:

• Interpretation as an epistemological act: Every notational choice (for example, the distinction between Erasure and Gap) is the outcome of a deliberate hermeneutic process. There is no such thing as a "neutral" transcription: every mark made by the editor serves as a scientific thesis on the reality of the artefact.
• Informational saturation: Since the act of transcribing implies an assumption of scientific responsibility, the formulated reading inherently possesses a degree of epistemicity. The Medium value formalises the "heuristic contract" between editor and reader, defining the standard of epistemicity of the editorial proposal in the absence of further specifications.

It follows that every node in the system is semantically saturated, ensuring absolute consistency both in data processing and in the rigour of textual criticism.