Qualitative and quantitative approaches in digital epigraphy

An epigraph is a complex historical document, whose significance is fully acknowledged only if its textual features (script, language, content, etc.) are studied in combination with the contextual information (on the textual support and its provenance). This is the reason why digital epigraphy lies at the crossroads of different disciplines applying ITs to textual and material sources, such as digital philology, computational linguistics, and computational archaeology. The specific interests and methods of those disciplines have exerted an influence on digital epigraphy, which is apparent in the documentary vs statistical approaches applied over time to the electronic treatment of the (re)source 'inscription'. The aim of the paper is to trace those trends in the application of qualitative vs quantitative methods in the history of studies of digital epigraphy, highlighting the main moments of change, until the most recent developments.