Editions of the Speculum Maius: Which edition would be the best to use?
Hans Voorbij2024, Vincent of Beauvais Newsletter 48
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Abstract
Discusses the existing editions of the Speculum Maius, which can serve as a ‘manual’ for scholars of the opus magnum of Vincent of Beauvais.
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The Flores philosophorum et poetarum: in the pathway of Vincent of Beauvais’ Speculum doctrinale
Vincent of Beauvais Newsletter, 2017
The section Digital News includes an announcement by Uwe Springmann on the digitization of the Koberger incunabulum edition of the Speculum Maius, as part of a project to digitize several encyclopedias printed in the 15th and 16th century. The Newsletter concludes with a list of recent publications and papers dealing with Vincent of Beauvais.
The Renaissance Editions of Festus. Notes on the Title
Acta Classica 60 (2017)
No full title for the historical-linguistic compendium of Sextus Pompeius Festus can be found in his manuscript tradition, because the first half of the Codex Farnesianus, the only organic witness of this work, has been missing since it was discovered in 1457. Festus’ text was an abridged version of De verborum significatu, the extensive treatise of Verrius Flaccus, and was subsequently abridged during the early Middle Ages by Paul the Deacon in an epitome known as De verborum significatione. These two titles and the lack of a reliable formulation for Festus’ work brought about variations in the head titles used throughout its entire editorial history. This phenomenon began to emerge during the Renaissance, when some scholars appear not only to have perceived semantic differences between Paul’s epitome and the Codex Farnesianus, but also attempted to represent these in the title. The purpose of this study is to investigate the reasons behind the different Renaissance titles for Festus, which could offer an interesting overview on how this author was perceived in the history of Classical tradition.
Another New Fragment of Speculum Vitae
Journal of the Early Book Society, 2014
A note announcing my discovery of a new fragment of a Middle English poem in the binding material of a sixteenth-century printed book.
New light on Jacobus, Author of Speculum musicae
Plainsong and Medieval Music, 2000
Since the realization, at the beginning of this century, that the treatise Speculum musicae had been incorrectly attributed to Jehan des Murs by its first editor, Edmond de Coussemaker, the actual author of this voluminous work of music theory from the early fourteenth century has remained a shadowy figure. The most certain detail of the author's identity is his name, contained within an acrostic spelled out over the initials that begin each of the seven books of the treatise, rendering the given name IACOBUS. The provenances of the three surviving manuscript sources, all dating from approximately a century after the proposed date of Speculum musicae, suggest an Italian bias to the transmission of the work, but, as physical documents, the manuscripts have yet to yield any clues to the author's origins. The treatise itself is a bit more helpful. Besides offering the author's name, clues within the text have allowed for the formulation of the following hypothesis concerning the career of Jacobus: that he was probably born in the diocese of Liège, that he was a student in Paris in the late thirteenth century, and that he returned to Liège to complete the final books of his treatise, Books 6 and 7 of Speculum musicae. In what follows, I will first briefly evaluate the evidence previously marshalled to support this hypothesis, and I will then discuss new information pertinent to the biography of the author.
Laus Neronis : The Seventh Eclogue of Calpurnius Siculus
1994
A discussion of three recent studies by E. W. Leach (“Ramus” 2, 1973, 53- 97), C. Newlands (“ClAnt” 6, 1987, 218-231), and P. J. Davis (“Ramus” 16, 1987, 32-54) about the interpretation of Calpurnius’ Ecl. 7.
Peter Habermehl, Petronius, Satyrica 79-141. Ein philologisch-literarischer Kommentar. Bd. 2: Sat. 111-118, Texte und Kommentare 27.2 (Berlin-Boston: De Gruyter, 2020), Exemplaria Classica 25 (2021), pp. 391-398
Exemplaria Classica, 2021
There has been a long interval between the publication of the first and the second volume of the commentary by Peter Habermehl (hereafter PH) on the latter half of Petronius’ novel (i.e. the chapters subsequent to the Cena Trimalchionis). The first volume appeared in 2006 and the author’s original intention was to finalise his project in two instalments only, and to skip chapters 119-24.1 (the Bellum Civile). By now, however, the commentary has grown considerably: the current volume covers no more than eight chapters (instead of twenty-six, if we do not count Eumolpus’ poem), PH has changed his mind about the omission of the Bellum Civile, and it is likely that the commentary as a whole will consist of four volumes totalling at least some 1700 pages. Thus we are dealing here with a huge enterprise which, nowadays, is usually tackled by a team of scholars; PH himself (p. IX) refers to the Groningen Apuleius project (1977-2015, nine volumes). If, on the other hand, we are looking for an individual scholar’s work of comparable size and character, we may recall the commentary on Tacitus’ Annals by Erich Koestermann (1963-1968, four volumes), that on Thucydides by Simon Hornblower (1991-2008, three volumes) or that on Livy’s Books 6-10 by S.P. Oakley (1997-2005, four volumes).
The lost Codex Veronensis and its descendants: three problems in Catullus’ manuscript tradition
In D. Kiss (ed.), What Catullus Wrote. Problems in textual criticism, editing and the manuscript tradition (Swansea: Classical Press of Wales, 2015), 1-27.
'This paper is devoted to three problems regarding the lost Codex Veronensis (V), from which all manuscripts of Catullus famously descend. First, it studies the problem of the identity of the Codex Veronensis. Our only piece of direct evidence for its existence is an epigram by Benvenuto dei Campesati that celebrates the "resurrection" of Catullus, that is, the triumphant return of a copy of his poems to his hometown Verona. Most recent scholars have taken this enigmatic epigram to refer to the archetype of the tradition, and they have accepted Campesani's claim that it actually returned to Verona; but both the identification of the manuscript with the archetype and the truthfulness of Campesani's statement have been called into question. This paper argues that the majority view is very likely correct. The second part of the paper touches on the notorious problem whether all of Catullus' humanistic manuscripts descend from the Codex Veronensis. It offers evidence that the 'base text' of all of them descends from the lost sub-subarchetype X. However, this evidence does not enable us to eliminate the possibility of contamination from a source not descended from V. The third part of the paper puts to the test the old hypothesis that the exceptionally bad quality of the manuscripts of Catullus can be ascribed to V, or at any rate to a very late stage of the transmission. It offers proof that the text started to be damaged extensively at an early date, very likely already in Antiquity.' An earlier version of the paper was delivered at the international conference 'What Catullus Wrote' in Munich on 21 May 2011. A lightly revised version has appeared in print in the volume 'What Catullus Wrote'.
A. Heller, Kommentar zur Vita Alexandri Severi der Historia Augusta, Bonn 2022
BMCR 2024.06.16, 2024
Review on André Heller, Kommentar zur Vita Alexandri Severi der Historia Augusta. Antiquitas IV, 6. Bonn: Rudolf Habelt, 2022. Pp. lxiv, 568. ISBN 9783774942332.
Vale, Amor! A lecture on Propertius III, 24-25
2012
In this talk, I try to demonstrate a bit how an Ancient book can be consciously organized by its author, pointing out, through the reading of a specific poem, Propertius’ III, 24-25, editorial relationships between poems and books – relationships which are established by common topoi, by common res, by common vocabulary. [In English]
Related topics
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Review of P. Schierl, 2023 Tragicorum Romanorum Fragmenta. Vol. III: Pacuvius and J. Schultheiß, 2023, Tragicorum Romanorum Fragmenta. Vol. IV: Accius. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
Exemplaria Classica 28, 2024
The end of 2023 saw the publication for the first time of Volumes 3 and 4 of the Tragicorum Romanorum fragmenta series (henceforth TrRF), devoted respectively to Accius and to Pacuvius, as well as updated editions of Volumes 1 (Livius Andronicus, Naevius, Tragici minores, Adespota; edited by Markus Schauer) and 2 (Ennius; edited by Gesine Manuwald), first published in 2012 and now both revised by Manuwald (with the assistance, where Volume 1 is concerned, of Jochen Schultheiß and a team of student helpers and research assistants). 2 Volume 3 on Pacuvius is edited by Petra Schierl, who returns to that poet after her 2006 edition of his work which stemmed from a Munich PhD dissertation, while Jochen Schultheiß takes charge of Volume 4 on the tragedies of Accius. For reasons that will be detailed below, readers will still find it profitable to consult Schierl's earlier edition on Pacuvius alongside her new TrRF contribution. But regarding Schultheiß's Accius volume, it will now replace the 1995 Budé edition by Jacqueline Dangel and become the standard critical edition. Before examining these volumes in greater detail, it should be stated from the outset that both editors abide by certain editorial principles which have been decided on in collaboration with the series editors, Wolfgang-Widu Ehlers, Gesine Manuwald, Markus Schauer, and Bernd Seidensticker. Accordingly, Schierl and Schultheiß should not be made to bear full responsibility for the difficulties that stem from some of these editorial principles. Although some will disagree with some aspects of the methodology and quibble about the text of certain fragments, it was a momentous undertaking, and the results are highly impressive. Both editors have performed a truly tremendous service to all scholars who take a serious interest not only in Roman Republican tragedy, but also in Early Latin literature and indeed in ancient drama more broadly. 3 The two volumes under review both have a similar layout. Most of the prefatory material will be familiar to users of the first editions of Volumes 1 and Copyright of Exemplaria Classica is the property of Exemplaria Classica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
Review of Lucretius and the Early Modern
Longer unpublished version of a review of Norbrook (D.), Harrison (S.), Hardie (P.) (eds.) Lucretius and the Early Modern. Oxford University Press, 2016. Shorter version forthcoming in Classics Review
'A new manuscript of Consentius' De barbarismis et metaplasmis', The Classical Quarterly 66 (2016), 370-5.
A new testimony of the grammarian Consentius' De barbarismis et metaplasmis has been found in the MS. Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana Lat. Z. 497.
Amending Aquinas: textual bricolage of the Speculum dominarum as an authorial strategy in the compilation Speculum morale
Cahiers de Recherches médiévales et Humanistes, 2012
In the early years of the fourteenth century, an anonymous author writing under the guise of Vincent of Beauvais compiled the Speculum morale, a compendium of ethics and moral theology that draws heavily on verbatim extracts from the Summa theologiae of Thomas Aquinas along with four other sources. This article explores the compilation strategies of the Speculum morale by focusing on its utilization of a newly identified source, the treatise Speculum dominarum composed for Queen Jeanne of Navarre by her Franciscan Confessor Durand of Champagne. Along with revealing a number of compilation techniques at work, the intertextual relationship between the two specula provides interesting evidence on the reception and transformation of Dominican ideas in a Franciscan milieu.
Marcus Verrius Flaccus’ De significatu verborum in den Auszügen von Sextus Pompeius Festus und Paulus Diaconus: Einleitung und Teilkommentar (154,19–186,29 Lindsay) . By Paolo Pieroni
Historiographia Linguistica, 2006
Antiquarian scholarship is often regarded as the poor cousin of 'true' literary endeavours like history or poetry. 1 Yet works such as the monumental De significatu verborum of Verrius Flaccus (c. 55 B.C.-A.D. 20) have provided valuable, often unique material for historians of ancient Roman society and culture. Verrius, tutor to Augustus' grandsons, was one of the most distinguished writers of his age, but his reputation declined thereafter, particularly in comparison to that of . Thus it was that the De significatu verborum came to be lost after it was epitomised by Sextus Pompeius Festus (c. second century A.D.). Nearly the same fate struck Festus' work when the Lombard cleric Paul the Deacon (Paulus Diaconus, c. 725/730-797/799) made an abridgement for the library of Charlemagne. But part of one manuscript of Festus, known as the codex Farnesianus, survives (now in Naples: Bibl. Naz. IV.A.3). Using this damaged 11th-century manuscript, humanist apographs of it, Paul's epitome, and a few fragments scattered here and there in ancient works (particularly Aulus Gellius' Noctes Atticae), scholars may attempt to reconstruct and analyse the original work of Verrius. It is to Pieroni's credit to have produced the first proper commentary of the De significatu verborum. He covers only the lemmas beginning with the letter N, the first letter which survives in full in the Farnesianus. (Nothing at all survives before the letter M.) Even so, his task is challenging. Quite apart from the significant textual problems resulting from the damaged manuscript and the many variant readings and supplements which have been suggested, the De significatu verborum is a work which demands from its editors knowledge of a 1. For example, the work of Festus was derided by Nettleship (1880: 254) as "an affair of scissors and paste, in which conceit and incompetence are perhaps equally blended".
Another Unnoticed Preface in Valerius Maximus (V.M. 1.1.1)
Praefationem incognitam in exemplo ab editoribus Valerii omnium primo habito inesse, vel saltem ex maxima parte. Anglice.
A Newly-Discovered Manuscript of a Commentary on the Sentences by Duns Scotus (Figeac, Musée Champollion, numéro inventaire 03-091, non coté)
Bulletin de Philosophie Médiévale, 2006
The Renaissance Editions of Festus: Fulvio Orsini's Version
Acta Classica 59 (2016)
During the Renaissance, with the rediscovery of the Codex Farnesianus, a new philological and editorial interest in Festus' De verborum significatione arose. Many famous scholars of the 15th and 16th century, inter alios Angelo Poliziano, Aldo Manuzio, Piero Vettori, Antonio Agustìn and Joseph Scaliger, studied and published this work, focusing on various aspects of its tradition. A substantial watershed occurred around 1580 when Fulvio Orsini decided to propose a new edition of Festus: from a methodological perspective, this work emerged as a revolutionary text with the potential to modify our perception of its history, since it considered the Farnesianus as the central ecdotic element. The aim of this contribution is to retrace the pathway followed by Orsini in arranging his text, considering its complex transmission and showing the impact of its innovations and its controversial literary fortunes.
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