The general aims of the Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum are explained in the Preface to Volume I, by Paul Oskar Kristeller, which is reprinted below. As in past volumes, the articles in Volume 10 have not been selected to illustrate any particular theme, but are simply the first contributions completed after Volume 9 went to press in 2011. The number of Greek and Latin articles varies from volume to volume, and in the present volume the section on Greek authors comprises four contributions as opposed to a single one in the Latin section, almost precisely reversing the disposition found in Volume 9. The articles in Volume 10 represent different fields (literature, history, and philosophy) and span a vast period of time, from the sixth century b.c. (Pindar) to the sixth century a.d. (Agathias).
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The articles in the Greek section of Volume 10 are arranged chronologically starting with the lyric poet Pindar (518 b.c.–438 b.c.), to whom seventeen books of poetry were attributed during antiquity. Of them only the four books of Epinicia, or victory odes, have survived in complete form, along with more than 300 fragments of the other books which contained hymns, dithyrambs, encomia, paeans, laments, etc. Pindar’s poetry inspired mixed reactions throughout the ages, from mocking disdain in the comedies of Aristophanes (fifth century b.c.) to serious study in Hellenistic Alexandria to influential but infrequent praise in the works of Roman authors such as Cicero, Horace, Quintilian, Statius, Valerius Maximus, Aulus Gellius, and Macrobius. Among the Christian authors, Prudentius (348–413) was clearly influenced by Pindar, while Jerome (347–420) compared him in one of his letters to the psalmist David. In the Greek-speaking world Pindar was read and studied from an early age, and scholarly interest in his poetry continued during the Byzantine period, when various Pindar editions and commentaries were produced. In contrast, the Latin West became acquainted with Pindar only in the middle of the fifteenth century when Theodorus Gaza lectured on Pindar’s Olympians at Ferrara. After Gaza a number of humanists were interested in Pindar, and partial translations were produced by Pier Candido Decembrio in 1456–59 and Jacopo Sannazaro in 1495–1501. The first printed editions of Pindar’s poetry appeared in Venice in 1513 and Rome in 1515. These preserve very different texts, with the Romana also containing the Greek scholia, and were essentially the source for all future editions, translations, and commentaries. Deeply impressed by Pindar, the Swiss religious reformer Huldrich Zwingli personally took part in the preparation of the third printed edition of the Greek text of the Epinicia, which appeared in Basel in 1526.This edition was most influential because of Zwingli’s preface in which he recommends the reading of the Epinicia for the useful moral teachings they contain, and for their profound erudition. As does Jerome, Zwingli likens Pindar’s Epinicia to the Psalms, giving examples of how obscure passages from the Bible could be clarified by comparing them to Pindar’s Odes. The first complete Latin version of Pindar’s Epinicia was produced by Johannes Lonicerus in 1528, who also published an improved version of his text in 1535. Lonicerus’ second edition, containing a commentary also, enjoyed great success until the translation of Henri Estienne (Henricus Stephanus, ca. 1531–98) was published in Geneva in 1560. Stephanus, unlike his predecessors, was much more interested in textual and metrical discussions of the text. The aim of his edition, reprinted eight times up to 1626, was to teach Greek to schoolboys. In contrast, the Latin translation of Nicolaus Sudorius, printed in Paris in 1575–82, was intended for cultivated members of the royal administration, and thus had higher literary ambitions. Moreover, this was the first complete translation of Pindar published in a non-Protestant country. The seventeenth century saw the first complete translations of Pindar into modern European languages: French (François Marin in 1617 and Sieur de Lagausie in 1626) and Italian (Alessandro Adimari in 1631). The century also produced the first truly modern edition of Pindar’s Greek text, which was prepared in 1616 by the German mathematician and philologist Erasmus Schmid (1570–1637). Schmid’s edition also presented the first organized assemblage of Pindar’s fragments, reprinted subsequently in various editions. A new epoch for Pindar studies was inaugurated by the great edition of August Boeckh (Leipzig, 1811–21), who was the first to interpret the odes as a historical document. This edition greatly influenced all subsequent studies of Pindar.
The second author to be treated in this section of the volume is Aelianus Tacticus (second century a.d.). The single known work by Aelian, who is not to be confused with the philosopher Claudius Aelianus from Praeneste, is the fiftythree-chapter military handbook Tactica theorica, which he wrote in two stages and finally dedicated to Trajan around 106 a.d. Aelian’s Tactica is one of three surviving ancient manuals on the subject, the other two being by Asclepiodotus (first century b.c.) and Arrian (second century a.d.). All three handbooks belong to the Stoic tradition. Diagrams, illustrating Aelian’s military descriptions, were added to his text during the Byzantine period. The Tactica survives in two recensions, one in a Byzantine manuscript from the tenth century (now in Florence) and another interpolated one in codices from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries. All the translations, Latin and vernacular, made between the fifteenth and the seventeenth centuries, as well as the entire Greek printed tradition, are based on the interpolated recension of the text. Aelian’s treatise seems to have been brought to the West by the Sicilian humanist John Aurispa (1376–1459). The first surviving Latin translation of the work was produced by Theodorus Gaza in 1456; the text became the basis for the vernacular translations made in Italy and France in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In 1552, the Italian humanist Francesco Robortello both edited the Greek text of the Tactica theorica and translated it into Latin, but his translation did not enjoy the same success as that by Gaza. Finally, in 1556 Conradus Gesner provided another bilingual (Greek-Latin) edition of the Tactica, including it among the works of the philosopher Claudius Aelianus. The humanist recovery of Aelian’s manual became a source for the development of modern strategic thinking. Its practical usefulness brought about a new Greek and Latin edition, with commentary, by the Frisian doctor Sixtus Arcerius (1613) which was quickly translated into English and German. The Tactica was translated repeatedly in the following centuries; however, a modern critical edition of the text has yet to be produced.
Proceeding in chronological order, we come next to the article on Musaeus (second half of the fifth century a.d.). Little is known about Musaeus, whose only preserved work is the 343-line hexameter epyllion telling the tragic love story of Hero and Leander. In the Greek East Musaeus was read and often imitated, whereas in the West he was not known until the middle of the fifteenth century when it is believed that copies of his text, now lost, were circulating throughout Italy. The first Greek edition of Musaeus’ epyllion appreared in Florence in 1494, edited by Janus Lascaris (d. 1534) who was also responsible for publishing other important editions such as the Anthologia Planudea (see below), followed quickly by an edition printed by Aldus Manutius in 1495. Aldus himself seems to have translated Musaeus’ poem into Latin, a translation which he added to his printed edition of 1498. This bilingual edition became the standard text during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, even though other Latin translations were produced by Guillaume de la Mare (1451–1525), Ioannes Baptista Montanus (1489–1551), Benedictus Jovius (1472–1545), Kaspar Schütz (ca. 1540–94), and others. The first attempt to establish a critical text of Musaeus was made by Henri Estienne (ca. 1531–98), who collated two early editions and printed a revised text in Geneva (1566). The Latin translation published in Antwerp in 1575 by the Fleming Andreas Papius (1542–81) was based on Estienne’s edition. Various other translations were also produced throughout the sixteenth century. After 1600 the interest in Musaeus’ epyllion continued to flourish. New translations and editions were printed, many of which contain notes and commentaries, such as the editions by Caspar Barth (1587–1658) from 1608 (revised in 1624), Johann Weitz (1576–1642) from 1613, Bernhard Melethraeus (1595–1645) from 1624, and Daniel Pareus (1605–1635?) from 1627. The first critical edition of Musaeus was published by Carl Dilthey in 1874, based on four of the earliest manuscripts; the latest critical edition was printed by Enrico Livrea and Paolo Eleuteri in 1982. Musaeus’ poem was repeatedly translated into various vernacular languages. In Italy the tradition starts with a paraphrase by Bernardo Tasso (1493–1569), fatherof Torquato, published in Venice in 1537. In France and Germany the first vernacular translations appear in 1541, the French one produced by Clément Marot (1496–1544) and the German one by Hans Sachs (1494–1576). In England, apart from a translation by Abraham Fleming (ca. 1552–1607), now lost, the earliest adaptation of the tale is Christopher Marlowe’s incomplete poem (1564–93) Hero and Leander, written in the last years of the poet’s life and based on both Musaeus and Ovid’s Heroides.
Agathias (ca. 532 a.d.–ca. 580 a.d.) is the subject of the final article in the Greek section. His extant works comprise an unfinished continuation of Procopius’ Wars and a collection of Greek epigrams. The first Latin translation of Agathias’ History was made by Christophorus Persona (1481) who prepared six luxury copies of his text and sent them to different patrons, five of which copies survive. Persona’s copy to Pope Sixtus VI (now in the Vatican library) was used for the first printed Latin edition of Agathias’ History (Rome, 1516). The same text was reprinted a number of times during the sixteenth century. In contrast, the Greek text of the History was first printed in 1594 in Leiden. A new Latin translation by Bonaventura Vulcanius accompanied the Greek edition. Most of the known epigrams of Agathias were also included in this volume, together with some translations by Josephus Scaliger, Janus Dousa the Elder, and Bonaventura himself. Finally, the Leiden edition also contained a selective commentary by Bonaventura. The sixteenth-century scholars, realizing that Persona’s translation was faulty and lacunose, attempted to amend it. Thus, Johannes Leunclavius (ca. 1533–93) produced a translation of the missing parts called Agathias interpolatus, and corrected some of Persona’s errors. Some further criticism of Persona’s work was presented by Hadrianus Junius (1511–75). Agathias’ other compositions, that is, his epigrams, were known during the Renaissance because of their inclusion in the so-called Anthologia Planudea, compiled in 1299 by Maximus Planudes. In 1494 this poetic collection was published by Janus Lascaris who believed that Agathias was its sole author. Countless editions of the Planudean anthology, both in Greek and Latin, followed. Until 1600 eighty-five Agathian epigrams were translated into Latin, many existing in several versions, prose and verse alike. Two full commentaries on the Anthologia Planudea are known: one by Vincentius Opsopoeus (1540) and another one by Johannes Brodaeus (1549). These were combined in the Wechel edition of 1600.
The only author to be treated in the Latin section is Aulus Gellius (125/28 a.d.–after 180 a.d.), the author of the learned miscellany in twenty books entitled the Noctes Atticae. Known throughout the Middle Ages under the false name ‘Agellius,’ Gellius was read and cited by Augustine, Priscian, and Gregory of Tours in the fifth and sixth centuries. A renewed interest in him is observed in the ninth century, during which the earliest extant manuscripts of his text were produced. Gellius was an author of some renown in the medievalperiod, preserved in various manuscripts, excerpted in florilegia, and used by numerous authors, such as Adam Balsam Parvipontanus (d. before 1159), John of Salisbury (d. 1180), Radulphus de Diceto (d. 1202), Walter Map (d. ca. 1210), John of Wales (fl. 1260s), and the anonymous author of the Gesta Romanorum (ca. 1300), among others. The period between the fourteenth and the sixteenth centuries saw over one hundred manuscript copies of the Noctes Atticae produced, whose only merit is that they combine the two parts of the text which until then were transmitted separately. This abundance of manuscripts both increased the knowledge of Gellius’ text and spread the recognition of his true name. He was also hailed as a model of elegant style, and his influence on Angelo Politiano’s Miscellanea and Petrus Crinitus’ De honesta disciplina is apparent. The first edition of Gellius, prepared by Giovanni Andrea Bussi (1417–75), appeared in 1469 and contained Latin translations of the Greek passages produced by Theodorus Gaza. However, it was Philippus Beroaldus the Elder (1453–1505) who introduced important improvements to the text in his edition printed at Bologna in 1503. Further improvements were made in Carlo Aldobrandi’s edition of 1514 and in Giovanni Battista Egnatio’s edition of 1515. Even more important was a series of Parisian editions by Ascensius printed between 1517 and 1532, each improving its predecessor and expanding the notes. All previous editions, however, were rendered obsolete by the text prepared by Ludovicus Carrio (ca. 1547–95) and printed in Paris in 1585 with notes by Henri Estienne (ca. 1531–98). Editions continued to appear in the seventeenth century, when knowledge of Gellius was taken for granted and, indeed, expected among European intellectual circles. Eventually, however, Gellius’ star began to wane, and during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries he was substantially considered to be a diligent but unoriginal compiler. Only one noteworthy edition appeared in the eighteenth century, namely the one by Paul Daniel Longolius (1704–79), published in 1741 at Hof in Bavaria, while the nineteenth century’s advances in textual method were applied to the Gellius edition by Martin Julius Hertz (1818–95) who produced a Teubner text in 1853. After Hertz, editions were made by Carl Hosius (1866–1937), whose text combined with an English translation by John C. Rolfe was printed in the Loeb Classical Library (1927, revised 1946); René Marache (1914–93) for the Collection Budé (1967, 1978, 1989); and Peter K. Marshall (1934–2001) for Oxford Classical Texts (1968). Gellius’ text, either excerpted or in its entirety, has been translated into various vernacular languages.
Volume 10 also includes addenda and corrigenda on the Roman poet Lucretius (first century b.c.), first presented in Volume 2 of the CTC; the Greek poet and traveler Dionysius Periegetes (second century a.d.), first studied in Volume 3 of the CTC; and the Roman historian Sallust (first century b.c.), first examined in Volume 8 of the CTC. The original articles on these authors have been brought up to date in all possible respects.
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Many people have made the publication of this volume possible, and we would like to acknowledge their commitment to the CTC project with gratitude. First and foremost, we would like to thank the contributors whose patience, diligence, and expertise make the Catalogus such a useful resource for scholars around the world. For invaluable suggestions for improvement of individual contributions, we thank our appraisers. We also thank Dr. Christina Marshall and Dr. Laura Napran for their editorial assistance in the final stages of the project.
We greatly appreciate the support of the Union Académique Internationale, under whose auspices the Catalogus is published, and we would like to express special thanks to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, without whose continuous and generous financial support the work on the CTC would be impossible to execute in a timely fashion. This support will also enable us to improve the visibility of the CTC by creating an attractive new website for it. Several learned organizations have provided encouragement and moral support: in North America, the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Philological Association, the Medieval Academy of America, the Modern Language Association of America, and the Renaissance Society of America; in Europe, the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, the Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, the British Academy, and the Unione Accademica Nazionale.
We would also like to express our gratitude to Bill Harnum, Director of Publications at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, for his unwavering support of the project and Fred Unwalla, Editor in Chief, for patiently overseeing the preparation of a complex volume, and to Nate Dorward for his inspired typesetting and design.
Finally, we would like to acknowledge our debt to the late Virginia Brown, whose expertise and dedication as editor in chief of a number of earlier CTC volumes has provided both an example and an inspiration. We dedicate this volume to her memory.
for the Executive Committee
Greti Dinkova-Bruun
Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto
August 2014
