The books of classical literature as we know them are mostly reconstructions, pieced together from a variety of medieval manuscripts, none of which is perfect all by itself.
Two of the 62 manuscripts released online in the past week by DigiVatLib illustrate how several versions surviving can be woven together to make a whole book which is then published as the canonical text. Both of these two manuscripts are unique in the sense that they are the sole witnesses of certain words or sections of a larger work.
One of the codices you can newly examine for yourself, Vat.gr.1288, is essential to reconstructing Ῥωμαϊκὴ Ἱστορία, the Greek-language history of Rome by Cassius Dio.
This fifth or sixth century manuscript, which I first mentioned in a post last year when many manuscripts arrived online in murky black and white, has been upgraded to high resolution in colour. Only 13 of its folios in an uncial without word-spacing survive. Roger Pearse points out its importance as the sole source of books 78-79 of the history.
The other, Vat.lat.3872 of the ninth century, plays a major role in reconstructing the two extant works by Seneca the Elder, the Controversiae in 10 books and the Suasoriae in 2 books, both of which advise on how to persuade a Roman court. Roger Pearse explains that it resembles two other ninth-century witnesses containing verbatim text with large gaps, but is an independent recension which appears to have undergone late antique or medieval correction.
Here is the full list:
Two of the 62 manuscripts released online in the past week by DigiVatLib illustrate how several versions surviving can be woven together to make a whole book which is then published as the canonical text. Both of these two manuscripts are unique in the sense that they are the sole witnesses of certain words or sections of a larger work.
One of the codices you can newly examine for yourself, Vat.gr.1288, is essential to reconstructing Ῥωμαϊκὴ Ἱστορία, the Greek-language history of Rome by Cassius Dio.
This fifth or sixth century manuscript, which I first mentioned in a post last year when many manuscripts arrived online in murky black and white, has been upgraded to high resolution in colour. Only 13 of its folios in an uncial without word-spacing survive. Roger Pearse points out its importance as the sole source of books 78-79 of the history.
The other, Vat.lat.3872 of the ninth century, plays a major role in reconstructing the two extant works by Seneca the Elder, the Controversiae in 10 books and the Suasoriae in 2 books, both of which advise on how to persuade a Roman court. Roger Pearse explains that it resembles two other ninth-century witnesses containing verbatim text with large gaps, but is an independent recension which appears to have undergone late antique or medieval correction.
Here is the full list:
- Chig.E.VII.216, album of mainly 14th and 15th century letters and bills
- Ross.26,
- Ross.39,
- Ross.4,
- Ross.6,
- Ross.8,
- Ross.42,
- Vat.gr.507.pt.1 (Upgraded to HQ),
- Vat.gr.507.pt.2,
- Vat.gr.1288 (Upgraded to HQ), Cassius Dio, history of Rome, with text of the otherwise missing books 78-79 (see above).
- Vat.ind.49,
- Vat.lat.2335,
- Vat.lat.2587,
- Vat.lat.2650,
- Vat.lat.2679,
- Vat.lat.2781 (Upgraded to HQ),
- Vat.lat.2793,
- Vat.lat.2976, Need a slip of parchment? Why don't you cut off what is left at the end of Aristotle's Posterior Analytics?— Pieter Beullens (@LatinAristotle) August 27, 2018
Newly digitized Aristoteles Latinus MS @DigitaVaticana, listed by @JBPiggin.https://t.co/ZpqPjSK5vA pic.twitter.com/9CUZJb4ece - Vat.lat.3018, Face in the Q supervising John Buridan's commentary on the 4th book of Aristotle's Ethics. HT @JBPiggin https://t.co/RE6oFU0PJx pic.twitter.com/3pIzh2j4zu— Pieter Beullens (@LatinAristotle) August 27, 2018
- Vat.lat.3029,
- Vat.lat.3071, Rose of the Winds from a MS @DigitaVaticana listed by @JBPiggin. Surprisingly, the North is to the left of the diagram.https://t.co/q1gcpf9H9v pic.twitter.com/SGVEYG8O1m— Pieter Beullens (@LatinAristotle) August 27, 2018
- Vat.lat.3090,
- Vat.lat.3170,
- Vat.lat.3192,
- Vat.lat.3463,
- Vat.lat.3476,
- Vat.lat.3481,
- Vat.lat.3501,
- Vat.lat.3510,
- Vat.lat.3518,
- Vat.lat.3543,
- Vat.lat.3558,
- Vat.lat.3576,
- Vat.lat.3580,
- Vat.lat.3597,
- Vat.lat.3616 (Upgraded to HQ), Epigrammata Romae reperta et alibi, a Renaissance notebook of inscriptions
- Vat.lat.3648,
- Vat.lat.3658,
- Vat.lat.3677,
- Vat.lat.3682,
- Vat.lat.3687,
- Vat.lat.3694,
- Vat.lat.3697,
- Vat.lat.3713,
- Vat.lat.3721,
- Vat.lat.3727,
- Vat.lat.3733,
- Vat.lat.3736,
- Vat.lat.3746,
- Vat.lat.3753,
- Vat.lat.3757,
- Vat.lat.3759,
- Vat.lat.3760,
- Vat.lat.3761 (Upgraded to HQ), the Liber Pontificalis, or brief biographies of all the popes, scribed about 1000, probably at Farfa. Scholars term this the sole representative of type K of the "Lombard" recension.
- Vat.lat.3790,
- Vat.lat.3795,
- Vat.lat.3803 (Upgraded to HQ), a ninth-century manuscript of the works of Ennodius of Pavia, a 6th-century bishop. Square format, two columns:
The taste for judicial oratory was not lost in the Middle Ages as often assumed. This #Carolingian copy of Ennodius's declamations illustrated how a forensic speech had to be constructed: you had a theme and a law, you then structured your speech according to classical partitions pic.twitter.com/B8Y7eHR9Ah
— GiorgiaV (@ParvaVox) September 5, 2018 - Vat.lat.3814,
- Vat.lat.3823,
- Vat.lat.3858,
- Vat.lat.3872 (Upgraded to HQ), Seneca the Elder, copied at Corbie, 850–880 (above)
- Vat.lat.3875 (Upgraded to HQ), Silvae and Achilleis, the last of five de luxe manuscripts made for the super-rich Rome student Fabio Mazzatosta.
No comments :
Post a Comment