Stemmatology is a specialized field of study that is concerned with tracing the stemma, or the genealogy, of a manuscript or text. Some synonyms for this term include textual criticism, paleography, textual philology, and manuscript studies. These fields involve the examination of written works, their origins, and their lineage. Textual criticism involves the analysis and study of texts to establish its authenticity and originality. Paleography is the study of ancient scripts and handwriting in order to decipher and authenticate old texts. Textual philology, on the other hand, is an interdisciplinary field that combines linguistics and literary studies to understand the origin, history and structure of texts. Manuscript studies largely concern itself with examining the origins, age, and characteristics of various manuscripts.