Abstract :
All extant Pahlavi-Vīdēvdād (PV) manuscripts derive from a single copy.
The binding of this copy was damaged early on, and some folios were lost
and others displaced. A detailed analysis of the extant manuscripts allows
us to reconstruct the original order and to discover where some folios are
lost, but in previous editions (especially of the Pahlavi translation), this
fact was not always noted appropriately and numerous errors occurred.
Moreover, other typical transmission errors in this common source have
slipped into all extant PV manuscripts and caused omissions of several
fragments of the Avestan text and its Pahlavi translation, hence the importance
of the Sādes for the edition of the Avestan text of the Vīdēvdād.
Geldner was, unfortunately, too confident in the quality of the PV manuscripts
and omitted from his edition Avestan texts that should have been
included. But not every difference between the Avestan text of the Sāde
and Pahlavi manuscripts can be attributed to the transmission. One of
the most important differences is the omission of fragard 12 in the
Pahlavi-Vīdēvdād manuscripts. Since its omission cannot be attributed
to transmission, an alternative explanation for this important difference
is proposed.
