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32-560: The nature of the Nettipakarana was a matter of some disagreement among scholars. Initially, Western scholars classified it as a commentary, rather than as a canonical text. Further study and comparison with a closely related text, the Petakopadesa eventually revealed that it was a guide to interpretation and the composition of definitive commentaries. Its translator, supported by Professor George Bond of Northwestern University, described it

64-432: A directive colophon: Example of a declarative colophon: The term is also applied to clay tablet inscriptions appended by a scribe to the end of an Ancient Near East ( e.g. , Early/Middle/Late Babylonian , Assyrian , Canaanite ) text such as a chapter, book, manuscript, or record. The colophon usually contained facts relative to the text such as associated person(s) ( e.g. , the scribe, owner, or commissioner of

96-401: A colophon was after the explicit (the end of the text, often after any index or register). Colophons sometimes contained book curses , as this was the one place in a medieval manuscript where a scribe was free to write what he wished. Such curses tend to be unique to each book. After around 1500 these data were often transferred to the title page , which sometimes existed in parallel with

128-564: A colophon, so that colophons grew generally less common in the 16th century. The statements of printing which appeared, under the terms of the Unlawful Societies Act 1799 ( 39 Geo. 3 . c. 79), on the verso of the title leaf and final page of each book printed in Great Britain in the 19th century are not, strictly speaking, colophons, and are better referred to as "printers' imprints" or "printer statements". In some parts of

160-653: A commentary on the Nettipakarana, the Nettipakarana-atthakatha, but not the Petakopadesa, a fact that K.R. Norman attributes to the Nettipakarana superseding the older text. Both the use of āryā meter and summary verses suggest a North Indian origin for the text, possibly Ujjain , where Buddhist tradition connects the name Mahākaccāna to Avanti , the region suggested as the origin of the Pāli texts brought to Sri Lanka . The text contains quotations from sources outside

192-399: A later (and incorrect) chapter division makes this verse a heading for the following chapter instead of interpreting it properly as a colophon or summary for the preceding two chapters, and Genesis 37:2a, a colophon that concludes the histories ( toledot ) of Jacob . An extensive study of the eleven colophons found in the book of Genesis was done by Percy John Wiseman. Wiseman's study of

224-458: A summary verse- became popular in the first centuries CE, while the āryā meter used for its verses was already being used for such verses around 150 BCE. The Nettipakarana is ascribed to the Buddha's disciple Kaccana by the text's colophon, introductory verses, and the commentary attributed to Dhammapala . The text's colophon says he composed the book, that it was approved by the Buddha and that it

256-510: Is a brief statement containing information about the publication of a book such as an "imprint" (the place of publication, the publisher, and the date of publication). A colophon may include the device ( logo ) of a printer or publisher. Colophons are traditionally printed at the ends of books (see History below for the origin of the word), but sometimes the same information appears elsewhere (when it may still be referred to as colophon) and many modern (post-1800) books bear this information on

288-462: Is a guide to help those who already understand the teaching present it to others. However, A. K. Warder disagreed, maintaining that it covers all aspects of interpretation, not just this. Consensus among contemporary scholars is that it was primarily intended as a guide to interpreting and providing explanation of canonical texts, similar to the Petakopadesa , whose content it resembles. Verses in

320-595: Is a guide to those who understand the teaching in presenting it to others. However, A. K. Warder , Professor Emeritus of Sanskrit in the University of Toronto, maintains that it covers all aspects of interpretation, not just that. The text is often connected to another para-canonical text, the Nettipakaraṇa . Oskar von Hinüber suggests that both of these texts originated from outside the Theravada tradition as handbooks on

352-499: Is divided into two divisions (vāra): The Uddesavāra enumerates three separate categories (Pali terms with Nanamoli's translations): The Niddesavāra repeats the hāras and nayas of the previous section along with 12 padas ('terms'), of which six refer to linguistic forms and six to meaning and describes their relations. The Patiniddesavāra forms the main body of the text and is itself divided into three parts. Each section illustrates technical terms from previous sections by quoting

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384-921: The Khuddaka Nikaya . It is included in the Burmese Phayre manuscript of the Canon, dated 1841/2, the inscriptions of the Canon approved by the Burmese Fifth Council , the 1956 printed edition of the Sixth Council , the new transcript of the Council text being produced under the patronage of the Supreme Patriarch of Thailand and the Sinhalese Buddha Jayanti edition of the Canon. A recent Burmese teacher has not regarded it as canonical. The Nettipakarana

416-530: The imprint page in a modern book. Examples of colophons in ancient literature may be found in the compilation The Ancient Near East: Supplementary Texts and Pictures Relating to the Old Testament (2nd ed., 1969). Colophons are also found in the Pentateuch , where an understanding of this ancient literary convention illuminates passages that are otherwise unclear or incoherent. Examples are Numbers 3:1, where

448-636: The title page or on the verso of the title leaf, which is sometimes called a biblio page or (when bearing copyright data) the copyright page . The term colophon derives from the Late Latin colophōn , from the Greek κολοφών (meaning "summit" or "finishing touch"). The term colophon was used in 1729 as the bibliographic explication at the end of the book by the English printer Samuel Palmer in his The General History of Printing, from Its first Invention in

480-508: The City of Mentz to Its first Progress and Propagation thro' the most celebrated Cities in Europe. Thereafter, colophon has been the common designation for the final page that gives details of the physical creation of the book. The existence of colophons can be traced back to antiquity. Zetzel, for example, describes an inscription from the 2nd century A.D., preserved in humanistic manuscripts. He cites

512-512: The Genesis colophons, sometimes described as the Wiseman hypothesis , has a detailed examination of the catch phrases mentioned above that were used in literature of the second millennium B.C. and earlier in tying together the various accounts in a series of tablets. In early printed books the colophon, when present, was a brief description of the printing and publication of the book, giving some or all of

544-518: The Nettipakarana composed in a poetic meter unknown in Sri Lanka suggest a northern Indian origin for the text that predates the Christian era. It is one of the few post-canonical texts composed in Pāli that predates the work of Buddhaghosa , who quotes from it and uses its methods and technical terms in his own commentaries. The structure of the text- where the later verses are constructed as commentaries on

576-670: The Pali Peṭakopadesa . Then there is another Chinese text, the Da zhidu lun , which mentions the Peṭaka as a text circulating in South India (presumably Kāñcipura and Sri Lanka) and that it is an abridged version of an originally larger text. It describes a few of the methods of the Peṭaka and gives examples which roughly correspond to passages in the Peṭaka . Thus it appears that the Peṭakopadesa

608-614: The Theravada canon, some of which have been traced to texts from the Mulasarvastivada canon. Other quotations are as yet unidentified, but suggest that the Nettipakarana is unusual for being a text drawn from beyond the Theravada tradition that influenced the composition of the definitive commentaries composed by Buddhaghosa . The Nettipakarana was regarded as canonical by the head of the Burmese sangha around two centuries ago, and included in

640-507: The colophon from Poggio's manuscript, a humanist from the 15th century: Statili(us) / maximus rursum em(en)daui ad tyrone(m) et laecanianu(m) et dom̅ & alios ueteres. III. ( ‘I, Statilius Maximus, have for the second time revised the text according to Tiro, Laecanianus, Domitius and three others.’ ) A common colophon at the end of hand copied manuscripts was simply "Finished, thank God." Colophons can be categorized into four groups. Examples of expressive colophons: Example of

672-454: The following data: the date of publication, the place of publication or printing (sometimes including the address as well as the city name), the name(s) of the printer(s), and the name(s) of the publisher(s), if different. Sometimes additional information, such as the name of a proofreader or editor, or other more-or-less relevant details, might be added. A colophon might also be emblematic or pictorial rather than in words. The normal position for

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704-593: The interpretation of the sutras. According to the chapter colophons, the book was composed by the Buddha's disciple Kaccana (or Kaccayana). Scholars do not take this literally, though the translator mentions that the methods may go back to him. Warder, in his examination of the Paṭisambhidāmagga Gaṇṭhipada in the Introduction to the Path of Discrimination , notes: “The Gaṇṭhipada (p. 106), however, provides

736-584: The positive information that this Peṭaka is a book of the Mahiṃsāsakas, an aṭṭhakathā ("commentary") made for the purpose of the Suttantapiṭaka . This implies that it was a work similar to the Peṭakopadesa … Thus both schools had a recension of this work, but differing in such details as this. …”. The passage in the Gaṇṭhipada is Suttante piṭakatthāya kataṭṭhakathā peṭakaṃ mahiṃsakānaṃ gantho. This book

768-400: The rise and perpetuation of printing for Armenians. With the development of the private press movement from around 1890, colophons became conventional in private press books, and often included a good deal of additional information on the book, including statements of limitation, data on paper, ink, type, and binding, and other technical details. Some such books include a separate "Note about

800-413: The tablet), literary contents ( e.g. , a title , "catch phrases" (repeated phrases), or number of lines), and occasion or purpose of writing. Colophons and catch phrases helped the reader organize and identify various tablets, and keep related tablets together. Positionally, colophons on ancient tablets are comparable to a signature line in modern times. Bibliographically, however, they more closely resemble

832-433: The type", which will identify the names of the primary typefaces used, provide a brief description of the type's history, and a brief statement about its most identifiable physical characteristics. Some commercial publishers took up the use of colophons and began to include similar details in their books, either at the end of the text (the traditional position) or on the verso of the title leaf. Such colophons might identify

864-502: The verses that contain them and illustrating them with quotations from the Sutta Pitaka . In some cases, terms are dealt with in a different order or using different terminology from that presented in previous chapters. A colophon at the end of the text again attributes it to Mahākaccāna. The Sri Lankan scholar Dhammapala wrote a commentary on this text in the fifth century. An English translation titled The Guide by Bhikkhu Nanamoli

896-423: The world, colophons helped fledgling printers and printing companies gain social recognition. For example, in early modern Armenia printers used colophons as a way to gain "prestige power" by getting their name out into the social sphere. The use of colophons in early modern Armenian print culture is significant as well because it signaled the rate of decline in manuscript production and scriptoria use, and conversely

928-414: Was circulating in different schools and in different versions. There are 8 sections as follows: However, the translator says this last title is a mistake for "moulding of the guidelines", the title given at the end. Pitaka-Disclosure , tr. Nanamoli Bhikkhu , 1964, Pali Text Society [1] , Bristol Colophon (publishing) In publishing, a colophon ( / ˈ k ɒ l ə f ən , - f ɒ n / )

960-691: Was published in 1962 by the Pali Text Society . A Pali Text Society edition of the Pali text, together with extracts from Dhammapala's commentary, was published in 1902 by Edmund Hardy. Petakopadesa The Petakopadesa ( peṭakopadesa ) is a Buddhist scripture, sometimes included in the Khuddaka Nikaya of the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism. The nature of this book is a matter of some disagreement among scholars. The translator, supported by Professor George Bond of Northwestern University, holds it

992-575: Was recited at the First Council . Scholars do not take this literally, but the translator admits the methods may go back to him. The translator holds that the book is a revised edition of the Petakopadesa , though this has been questioned by Professor von Hinüber. K.R. Norman concludes that the Nettipakarana is not a continuation of the Petakopadesa, but a rewritten version that eliminates unimportant content and provides improved and clarified versions of material shared by both sources. Dhammapala composed

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1024-465: Was regarded as canonical by the head of the Burmese sangha about two centuries ago. It is included in the inscriptions of the Canon approved by the Burmese Fifth Council and in the printed edition of the Sixth Council text. Stefano Zacchetti revealed that in the Chinese Canon there is a text called Yin chi rujing , translated in the 3d century, which corresponds to most of the sixth chapter of

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