The book is going through its biggest revolution since Gutenberg. Thanks to computer tools and electronic publication, the concept and realisation of critical editions are being rethought. David C. Parker describes how editions of texts can be made using digital tools, and how this new methodology changes what an edition is for and how we use it. He argues that a text is a process, not an object, and studies the relationship between manuscripts, the unique form of
a text that a manuscript contains, and the work which all the copies represent, using the dierarchy of Documents - Texts - Works. The book deals with theoretical questions about making an edition,
explores the concept of the manuscript. The example taken is the New Testament, and the book deals with questions of significance to all editors of texts.