Critical edition typesetting

Some years ago, John Lavagnino and I wrote the EDMAC
software for typesetting critical editions. EDMAC was an application for use with plain TeX. Later, adaptations were made to allow EDMAC to work with LaTeX etc. (LEDMAC). 

In the early 2000s, the ConTeXt package, also based on TeX, started developing methods for handling critical edition typesetting.  Idris Hamid, Colorado State University, gave this talk at the TUG 2007 conference, San Diego, about doing critical editions using ConTeXt.  [Update, 2026-02: now see this 2007 talk.]

Ayurvedic Man

The famous "Ayurvedic Man" image (Wellcome Library Iconographic Collection 574912i) that has appeared on several book covers and in several publications, is owned by the Wellcome Library, London, and a low-res version can be viewed on their website. I wrote a small article referring to the image recently, in the journal Medical History.


As a result of a recent query about the texts that surround the image, I can now report that the texts are citations from the Bhāvaprakāśa of Bhāvamiśra, the 16th century physician who lived in North India, perhaps Varanasi. For more information on Bhāvamiśra, see G. J. Meulenbeld, Indian Medical Literature, IIa: 239--46.

The Bhāvaprakāśa texts cited in this painting almost all come from BhP 1.1. prakaraṇa 3 (garbhaprakaraṇa).