Stemma of the Aristotelian Mechanics

A stemma shows which manuscript descends from which exemplar. Traditionally it is drawn by hand — elegant, but static and cut off from the data beneath it. When the transmission exists as structured statements in FactGrid, the diagram can instead grow out of the data itself.

The task

Represent the transmission of the pseudo-Aristotelian Mechanics so that two dimensions stay legible at once: where each witness sits in time, and where it sits in the line of descent.

The approach

The two axes are handled differently. The vertical belongs to time: every witness sits at the height of its year of origin, while undated reconstructed versions (ω, α, β …) hang above the dated range. Only horizontally do the nodes arrange themselves through force simulation, minimising edge crossings. Two kinds of edge are distinguished: descent and collation.

The diagram responds to mouse and keyboard alike. A click highlights a witness together with everything descending from it, dragging pins a node in place, and Tab and the arrow keys move through the graph without a pointing device.

The outcome

A single HTML file containing data, fonts and script in full — no network access, no CDN, no dependencies. It can be archived, emailed, or attached to an article, and it will still work when today’s services have long been switched off. A build script regenerates it from a fresh FactGrid query whenever needed.