The Collaborative International Dictionary
Recension \Re*cen"sion\ (r[-e]*s[e^]n"sh[u^]n), n. [L. recensio: cf. F. recension.]
The act of reviewing or revising; review; examination; enumeration.
--Barrow.Specifically, the review of a text (as of an ancient author) by an editor; critical revisal and establishment.
The result of such a work; a text established by critical revision; an edited version.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. 1 A critical revision of a text. 2 A text established by critical revision. 3 A family of manuscripts which share similar traits; the variety of a language which is used in such manuscripts.
Wikipedia
Recension is the practice of editing or revising a text based on critical analysis. When referring to manuscripts, this may be a revision by another author. The term is derived from Latin recensio "review, analysis".
In textual criticism, particularly Biblical scholarship, the count noun "recension" may be used to refer to a family of manuscripts sharing similar traits; for example, the Alexandrian text-type may be referred to as the "Alexandrian recension". The term "recension" may also refer to the process of collecting and analyzing source texts in order to establish a tree structure leading backward to a hypothetical original text.
Usage examples of "recension".
Egyptian Religion which may be deduced from them generally, and especially from the Theban Recension, and to indicate the contents of the principal Chapters.
No one papyrus can be cited as a final authority, for no payprus contains all the Chapters, 190 in number, of the Theban Recension, and in no two papyri are the selection and sequence of the Chapters identical, or is the treatment of the vignettes the same.
The Book of Common Prayer was revised by introducing into the recension of 1552 a few passages from the first edition of 1549, previously rejected as too Catholic.
However, even if one ignores the standard theory concerning the recension, there is still no case for four exchanges.
I am preparing, in odd moments, a recension, to submit to the Board of Trade.
I am, found the opening chapter, which treats of the proper methods to be used in the recension of ancient manuscripts, of even more interest.
In the space here available it is impossible to describe in detail the various Recensions of this work, viz.
From the middle of the second century great numbers of writings named after the Apostles had already been in circulation, and there were often different recensions of one and the same writing.
No one papyrus can be cited as a final authority, for no payprus contains all the Chapters, 190 in number, of the Theban Recension, and in no two papyri are the selection and sequence of the Chapters identical, or is the treatment of the vignettes the same.
In the Japanese or Corean recension subjoined to this translation, the title is twofold.