A critical edition is an edition in which the text has been constituted on the basis of more than one source according to the genealogical principle. As it uses more than one source, in this respect it is an eclectic edition. What sets the critical edition apart is that it is based on a strict recension of the manuscript sources and the attempt to edit the archetypal text (possibly with some changes where the archetype is clearly faulty), and it is thus closely associated with the Lachmannian tradition of textual editing. Editors who do not agree with this reconstructive tradition, usually refer to their editions in other terms than critical.
For a fuller discussion of the term, see editions, types of. See also constitutio textus.
In other languages
DE: kritische Edition
FR: édition critique
IT: edizione critica