Texts and Transmission: A Survey of the Latin Classics

This book is really packed with all sorts of information for those who wish to study paleography and are curious about how we get all of our writings from the ancient and medieval world. All of the manuscripts mentioned in this book were used to reconstruct the "original" writing's of these Latin authors and are what the critical editions from "Loeb Classical Library" use as the standard texts in their original languages. From these "standard" reconstructed texts we get our translations that we use in our English editions from "Oxford World Classics" and "Penguin Classics" and all the rest.This book is a handbook on the history of the manuscripts that are available or were available to use to reconstruct the original writings of the Latin authors. Each section is based on following the manuscript trail as best as possible for the all of the works of the respective Latin author.Each section usually includes the following data:* General history of the manuscript tradition for a Latin writing* Names of the writings of the Latin authors* Names and locations of manuscripts that are available for the Latin writings* # of manuscripts available and from what century* General history of important manuscripts* Some information on previous owners (whenever available)* Some talk on some of the textual variants, insertions, or omissions in manuscripts available (usually very little on this, but the footnotes sometimes contain more details on some example variants in the Latin or respective language)* General Genealogical tree of manuscripts and how they diversified through time* Uncertainties are sometimes mentioned* Some discourse on previous editions that others have come up with using different families of manuscriptsand more...This book is very interesting since it gives us perspective on how well preserved, or not, some of these writings really are. The introduction gives an excellent history of the Latin writings. Most of the Latin authors do not have complete and early manuscripts. Usually they are very late (800 AD through the Middle Ages) and are fragmentary or decently compiled. And of course, there are many textual variants that resulted because of translations to other languages and scribal errors (additions, insertions, deletions, repetition of words or phrases, etc) which were generally not intentional. This is expected when people copied EVERYTHING by hand and issues such as fatigue or not paying attention to what was being copied came to play, causing much of the variants in the Latin writings. Some scribes copied for a living so some did sloppy work just to get paid. Imagine someone who doesn't care about history having to copy a text on Roman history - probably a torturous and boring experience. Pretty much, copying manuscripts by hand from many different languages and cultures was an incredibly time-consuming and tedious task that obviously affected the availability of texts for generations. Few copies could be made at any given time in specialized locations, plus books were expensive too. Nonetheless, this is how publishing and transmission worked before the printing press took over with impressive efficiency.Many of the Latin writings are not preserved well or preserved completely for numerous reasons which are implied throughout the book. Only 35 out of 142 of Livy's books on history lasted through time and some of Cicero's speeches were lost, for example. Each manuscript has a story to tell. The earliest manuscript for any Latin author is Virgil in the late 400s AD. It is amazing how some of these works disappeared and reappeared throughout the Medieval period and how economic conditions may have forced some to "recycle" writings of ancient authors. Sometimes people wrote what they needed on top of an obsolete author's writing. People through time did not necessarily always care about preserving the poems or writings of authors that did not offer much for their cultures or studies. In fact, most of the time, people did not destroy the manuscripts, the manuscripts were simply not recopied due to various circumstances. Loss of awareness + less availability increases the likelihood of losing a text forever. Just like today, we have millions of books in libraries that are not going to get republished ever again and are just rotting away. As such, it is reasonable to say that time is certainly what did most of the damage to these classics, not people.Practical texts had a better chance to survive through time. For example, Pliny the Elder's "Natural History" was recopied through time because his works offered valuable information in the sciences and Cicero's speeches were useful in developing oratory skills. For information on the issues of publishing and copying by hand in the world before the printing press please look at :  Scribes and Scholars: A Guide to the Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature , Scribes, Script, and Books  (on multiple cultures and their transmission customs),  Latin Palaeography: Antiquity and the Middle Ages , An Introduction to Greek and Latin Palaeography (Oxford Reprints) , and even  Encountering the Manuscripts: An Introduction to New Testament Paleography & Textual Criticism , which has detailed information on the earliest New Testament manuscripts too (just to get a deep look at how paleographers deal with "diversity" in manuscripts in order to reconstruct texts). The New Testament offers a great place to compare with the transmission of the writings of Latin authors, by the way, since you can get a glimpse of how things were copied by different cultures and how scribes dealt with other manuscripts and texts and variants in style, content, and language. Early Christianity had a cool interaction with Greek and Latin writings because it came from Greek texts but, developed in Latin culture.It seems clear that much of the authorship form the ancient world, for many of the manuscripts, are simply ascribed by traditions found in later writings. Its is not like manuscripts from the medieval period, or even from the ancient world, had titles and authors written on them most of the time. It sure was not the way we experience writings today. Often times ancient writings and authorship are identified by quotes cited from others at later periods, or if you are lucky - contemporaries. Their understanding and recording of traditions are useful in establishing authorship of documents which were usually, paleographically, without the author's name or even the title of the work. This is how history worked across time, cultures, and languages - before the printing press. A simple example of such phenomenon is in the Greek writings of Archimedes. His works have been identified as his via traditions from other later authors attributing writings to his name. The paper trail can be converged with other sources to at least affirm authorship of a document when two or more later authors converge on key identifications and facts, for example. One thing to keep in mind is that ancient authors HAD more sources available to them than we have today so latter attribution to authorship would not necessarily be an argument for unreliable or questionable authorship. Because people in the past had access to more manuscripts and more texts than we do of their texts today, their attributions would generally be quite reliable. We certainly cannot assume that we have more sources available of those time periods, than the people who lived in those time periods. Ultimately, many works simply did not survive over time, but from the ones that do survive, some do preserve information about who wrote what and when. This is an astonishing reality. Furthermore, empirical confirmations from archaeology do exist and this would increase the reliability of a source when attributing authorship.For some discourse on authorship and transmission from popular texts, as an example of early transmission, please see: Homer's Text and Language (Traditions) Complete Works of Aristotle, Vol. 1 The Oxford Handbook of Plato (Oxford Handbooks)  and  Plato: Complete Works The Manuscript Tradition of Polybius (Cambridge Classical Studies) Anyways, onto the contents of the bookIntroduction"The contributors to this volume have tried to present as concisely as possible the essential facts of the transmission of each of the texts discussed. The major events in the history of western Europe, whether political or economic, religious or cultural, have inevitably created the framework in which the handing down of the Latin classics has taken place; but within the boundaries imposed by history the paths by which individual authors and texts have travelled from ancient to modern times are many and various. The character and appeal of each text as it interacts with shifting and uneven patterns of European culture, the powerful intervention of individuals, and above all the hand of fortune which determined whether or not a book would be in the right place at the right time have produced considerable diversity of result. This is immediately apparent to anyone who consults a sample of the textual histories in this book. It seems appropriate in this Introduction to see how the information provided by these detailed investigations can be related to any general pattern of transmission. It is probably true to say that the classical tradition as it expands and contracts in its course from Antiquity to the end of the Renaissance does conform to a basic pattern. In its crude and essential form it appears to the imagination to follow the traditional lines of the hourglass, which funnels down to a narrow middle and then bellies out again, or the simplified shape in which the female form is often represented - broad shoulders, tiny waist, full skirt. The vital statistics of the figure will vary considerably from text to text; but these diverse patterns, when superimposed one upon the other, should still produce a dominant shape. The slender waist is the most permanent feature, for the Dark Ages so constricted the flow of classical learning that for a time it was universally reduced to trickle. In one respect, at least, our hourglass figure belongs more to the world of the Platonic forms than to the realm of demonstrable phenomena. Our knowledge of the transmission of texts in Antiquity is very patchy. It is difficult to trace the circulation of individual works through the quotations and echoes from them in other authors, because of the likely use in ancient times of lost intermediaries; and such ancient traditions as we do have are often fragmentary and disappointingly unrelated to those which emerged in the Middle Ages. Thus the top half of our figure is sketched in hazily or not at all; it disappears thinly into the mists of time, a ghost from the waist up. We are left with the bottom half, often expressed in the traditional form of stemma. This gradually fans out, as texts emerge from the constriction of the Dark Ages, build up layer upon layer as the tradition unfolds, and finally billow out into the Renaissance. The way in which the classical tradition expands from about the year 800, growing in richness and volume with each succeeding century, is illustrated again and again by the articles in this book. What they illustrate less graphically, since they are naturally more concerned with matter than void, is the decline in classical literature which preceded the revival of the late eight century. Before asking what they tell us about the rising fortunes of the classics, we might pause for a moment and make some attempt to ink in the shadowy outline of their decline. An enormous amount of Latin literature was lost in ancient times, much of it through natural selection and changes in taste, some through the limited efficiency of the ancient book trade or the hazards of fire and war. The renewed interest in Republican authors which was a feature of the age of Fronto and Gellius, like the pagan revival of the late fourth century, must have helped to save some authors from oblivion, but changes in literary languages, the narrowing of the educational curriculum, and increased reliance on epitomes and secondary sources took their toll. However complex and ambivalent the attitude of the Christian Church to pagan learning may have been, the triumph of Christianity and the degree to which it gradually and surely absorbed more and more intellectual drive and emotional commitment to of the West could only have been at the expense of pagan literature and values. Much will have perished before the parchment codex emerged as the vital instrument of survival, and the very transference of literature from roll to codex involved an element of selection which could in some cases have been fatal. Finally, pagan literature, if it was to survive, had not only to withstand the battering which the private and public libraries of the Empire must have suffered during the centuries of collapse but also succeed in finding a refuge within the walls of the monasteries and cathedrals which were to carry forward the traditional learning. The evidence we have suggests that the decline was gradual and that the real crash did not come until the end. Indeed, the classics shared in the resurgence of intellectual activity which began in the late fourth century and extended to the early sixth century. The classical manuscripts which survive from this period, some of them very splendid, are evidence of this, as are the subscriptions transmitted in the manuscripts of some texts, which record, sometimes with information about date, place, and circumstances, that a work had been duly corrected. This period of cultural vigor saw the culmination of the advances in book-production and handwriting which regularly accompany such revivals. By the fifth century the roll had given way to the codex, a form of book which has never been superseded. Although the change of format had not necessarily entailed a change of material, papyrus had by now yielded to parchment, which was much more durable and not subject to the monopoly of the Middle East; it could be manufactured wherever there were cows and sheep and goats. The beautiful uncial script was firmly established, as was the first miniscule book-hand, half-unical. All the arts essential to the making of books as the Middle Ages knew them were fully developed." (xii-xv)"Now that 'Codices Latini Antiquiores' is complete, with its massive and magisterial survey of all surviving Latin books written before the year 800, we can form some idea of what happened to books during this crucial period of transition from classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages. In particular we can see how the Latin classics fared in comparison with Christian texts. The comparative figures are so decisive, and so convincing from one volume of CLA to another, that they tell a story which we have to believe. The manuscripts which have survived from the period covered in CLA are dominated by those of the Latin Fathers; at their head, in order of popularity, stand Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory. These patristic texts are by far the largest class, and they are followed by a formidable array of biblical and liturgical books. When we come to secular works, we find that they form a small proportion of the whole, and only a fraction of these is made up of literary texts of the classical age. A quick analysis of samples of the manuscripts which survive from this period will make the point. If we are right to assume that the years from c.550 to c.750 may with justification be called the Dark Ages, then it seems reasonable to regard the seventh century as the trough of this cultural recession. This will be the darkest time for polite studies, the point of greatest constriction in the flow of pagan culture. How far this is true may be seen from a rough and ready calculation based on CLA, which will give us an idea of the types of text being copied in the seventh century and how the classics fared in comparison with Christian writings. From this period 264 books (or fragments of books) survive. Of these, 264-only a tenth (26) are secular works, and most of these are of technical nature. Eight of them are legal texts, 8 are medical, 6 are works of grammar, 1 is a gromatic text. It is clear from the historical evidence that the basic arts of life went on; education, law, medicine, and the surveying necessary to administration and the levying of taxes still required manuals and works of reference, and these needs are duly reflected in the pattern of manuscript survival. Two of the remaining 3 manuscripts of our 26 are likewise of a practical character...Lucian was probably lucky to have been copied at this time, to judge from the fate of authors like Vergil and Cicero. These will provide us with samples of a different sort. Of the 16 manuscripts of Rome's national poet to have survived from late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, 6 are attributed to the fourth century, 5 to the fifth, 3 to c.500; then we have nothing until the late eight century. The pattern is so consistent that it must reflect the truth, even allowing for the later destruction of such seventh-century manuscripts as were written. The copying of classical texts tapered off to such an extent during the Dark Ages that the continuity of pagan culture came close to being severed; our model has the waist of a wasp. The constriction of classical culture in the Dark Ages throws into greater relief the prolific expansion of the Carolingian Revival. The movement which saved for us so much of the heritage of Rome proceeded with such impetus and vigour that by the end of the ninth century the classical tradition had been securely re-established. This phenomenon is in some ways still so mysterious that we are often reduced to describing the mechanics of the process in the vaguest of terms: manuscripts 'come to light', authors 'reappear', texts 'emerge', like streams from underground chambers or animals from hibernation, as if part of nature's process. But such a prodigious rebirth must have been massively induced: texts came to light because men were looking for them, finding them, and transcribing them. So few classical authors were actually copied during the Dark Ages that the foundations of such a revival must largely have been ancient codices which had survived the collapse of the Roman Empire. Great as the upheavals and disasters had been, it would have taken a holocaust of nuclear proportions to wipe out a culture which had extended from Spain to the Middle East, from the Danube to North Africa. Deposits of books must have survived, some of them destined to become vital links in the chain of transmission when reactivated by the new and expanding orbit of Latin culture. The beginnings of the Carolingian Revival, the point at which classical culture stopped contracting and began to expand again, is such as crucial stage in the history of Latin texts that it is worth asking where the architects of the revival actually found the manuscripts which played a large part in it." (xv-xvii)"When we come to the Carolingian period and manuscript traditions begin to blossom forth in profusion, the chances are that many of their archetypes were books imported from Italy. This is of course often impossible to prove; but it is not unreasonable to assume that many texts had indeed travelled by the prevailing wind. The richness of the Italian deposits of classical books is demonstrated above all by the fact that Italy continued to be the prime source for new texts in the centuries which followed the Carolingian revival, texts which had never been known, as far as we can tell, north of the Alps. That the prevailing wind was now blowing from Italy is amply illustrated by the movement of extant manuscripts. Those of Virgil provide a clear example. Our text is based on 7 ancient codices, all apparently Italian in origin: at least 4 of these 7 found homes in Carolingian monasteries, the 'Romanus' and 'Augusteus' at Saint-Denis, the 'Palatinus' at Lorsch, the 'Sangallensis' at St. Gall." (xxii)"The fundamental function of the Carolingian revival in the transmission of our texts was to gather in what could be found of the literature and learning of the past and generate from it the new medieval traditions which could carry the classics through the centuries. The extant manuscripts of the eighth century as a whole reveal the same concentration on the basic essentials of learning as was characteristic of the Dark Ages. We have a great deal of grammar, often assembled into large corpuses, such as Paris lat.7530, Paris lat. 7502 + Berne 207, Berlin (West) Diez. B Sant. 66, Cologne 166, Naples IV.A.8. There are computistical miscellanies like Vienna 15269 + ser. Nov. 37, medical and botanical writings, and works which had won a place in the educational system, such as Martianus Capella and the 'Disticha Catonis'. The manuscript which contains the latter work, written in Verona, also provides us with our earliest copy of the 'carmina minora' of Claudian. The first author of the classical period to appear is Vergil, towards the end of the century. The discriminating bibliophile who browsed through the contents of the Palace library about 790 and jotted down the titles of pagan works which caught his eye thus becomes one of the most arresting figures in the whole story and his scrappy little list one of the most important documents in the transmission of classical texts. Within a decade the copying of classical texts had begun in earnest. The upturn, to judge from the extant manuscripts, came about 800, and the evidence which has been, and is still being, accumulated by Professor Bischoff has put beyond the doubt the fact that the Carolingian court and the monasteries closely associated with it were the prime agents of the whole movement. Among the classical manuscripts of c.800 which he has attributed to the court scriptorium or its melieu are copies of Lucretius, Vitruvius, Justinius, a Latin Euclid, texts of the 'Agrimensores', the Elder Pliny, the Elder Seneca, and Calcidius." (xxiv-xxv)"This assortment of Latin texts, all written about 800 or shortly afterwards, given one a fair idea of the crucial stage in the 'renovatio' of Latin literature. The emphasis is still perhaps more on learning than on literature, but the range of books is comprehensive, extending from technology to history to poetry. From now on there is a continuous if irregular growth in the number classical manuscripts in circulation, an increase in the range of authors available, and an extension of the geographical areas in which they could be found." (xxvi)"The present volume, with its list of some 1700 manuscripts, is no substitute for a complete catalogue, but it does offer something else: the manuscripts which we mention are by and large those on which our critical texts are based, they are the bones and sinews of the classical tradition...The peaking in the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, which predictably reflects the increased interest in the classics characteristic of these periods, will be a constant feature of most sets and figures. What we can readily learn from these 1700 manuscripts - or in some cases printed books - is when an author or text first appears in an extant witness. I hasten to point out the obvious, that this chance event should not imply that the texts in question did not circulate earlier: quotations and library catalogues often demonstrate that they did, and any work which has come down to us must have reposed somewhere, on a shelf or a chest. Nor of course do texts necessarily become available, in any real sense after what may have been just one act of copying. But the first appearance of a text in a witness which we can see and touch is a datum of some importance, and often provides the baseline from which investigation starts. Such 'first appearances' will at least provide a convenient, if crude, yardstick for measuring the expansion of the classical tradition as the limited stock of texts initially in use grew until it comprised almost the whole range of Latin literature which has come down to us. We have been able to form some picture of what had been achieved by the early years of the ninth century. The full measure of the achievement of the Carolingian period can easily be appreciated if one moves forward a century, to the year 900, and takes stock of how much Latin literature had by then, on the evidence of our extant manuscripts, been copied. The picture has changed dramatically. By the end of the ninth century the major part of Latin literature had indeed been copied and was enjoying some degree of circulation, however limited, localized, or precarious it may in some cases have been. The list of texts for which we have ninth-century manuscripts, however fragmentary some of them have now become, will speak for itself:..." - has a good list of Latin texts and authors (xxvii-xxviii)"The process of transmission is essentially that of finding, preserving, amd renewing the legacy of past ages." (xlii)The following list of Latin authors surely is not a complete or representative list of authors from the Latin world that actually existed. It simply is impossible that only these people were the only ones who wrote in the span of a few hundred years. Presumably hundreds and hundreds of authors existed during all of the classical period, however, many works have been lost forever. Furthermore, it is certain that these authors had way more contemporary and ancient sources available to them than the remnants we see today. This list is mainly a list of Latin authors and their works which have survived the corrosion of time or have been recovered to some degree.Latin Authors or Extra Texts (in " " marks) found in this book:"Agrimensores"Ammianus MercellinusL. Ampelius"Anthologia Latina"ApiciusApuleius"Aratea"AsconiusAusoniusAvianusCaelius AurelianusCaesar (Julius)Calpurnius and Nemesianus"Carmina Einsidlensia"CatoCatullusCelsusCensorinusCharisiusCiceroClaudianColumella"Consolatio Ad Liviam"Curtius Rufus"De Viris Illustribus"Aelius DonatusTi. Claudius DonatusEutropiusSex. Pompeius FestusFlorusFrontinusFrontoGaiusGallusAulus GelliusGranius LicinianusGrattiusHoraceHyginus"Ilias Latina"Isidore of SevilleJulius ObsequensJustinusJuvenal"Laus Pisonis"LivyLucanLucretiusMacrobiusManiliusMartialMartianus CapellaNemesianusCornelius NeposNonius Marcellus"Notitia Dignitatum"OvidPseudo-OvidPalladius"Panegyrici Latini"Pomponius MelaVibius SequesterPersiusPetroniusPhaedrusPlautusThe Elder PlinyThe Younger Pliny"Priapea"PropertiusPublilius"Querolis"Quintilian"Rhetores Latini Minores"Rutilius NamatianusSallust"Appendix Sallustiana"Scribonius Largus"Scriptores Historiae Augustae"The Elder SenecaThe Younger SenecaQ. SerenusServiusSilius ItalicusSolinusStatiusSuetoniusSulpiciaTacitusTerenceTibullusValerius FlaccusValerius MaximusVarroVelleius PaterculusVirgil"Appendix Vergiliana"VitruviusSorry to those who are thinking that this book has information on Christian Latin authors. The only Christian in this edition is Isidore of Seville. For information on Tertullian or Augustine or other Latin Christians you will have to look elsewhere.Overall, this book deserves a wide audience for its excellent treatment of so much information! Some of the most popular Latin writers have survived only by a thin thread and this is the reality of manuscripts, languages, cultures and time.

I was very glad to receive this compendium that gives, at a glance, the history of the various ancient texts that were "rediscovered", for the most part, during the renaissance. Inquiring minds want to know how so much literature from ancient times was lost, and how the little bit that survived managed to do so, where and why.

A companion volume to the marvellous "Scribes and Scholars", this book lists every piece of Latin literature that exists from antiquity, by author, and details on what exactly our knowledge of that text is based. I.e. what manuscripts exist, when did it become known after the fall of the Western empire, to what extent was the work known in the middle ages, and when was it rediscovered in the renaissance.L.D.Reynolds as editor has assembled a team of scholars second to none, each a recognised authority in the world of manuscripts, such as M.D. Reeve, Michael Winterbottom, R.J. Tarrant, etc.Inevitably the treatment varies. 15th century Italian copies are mentioned in passing, unless they are the main witness. The footnotes are very limited, but usually enough to take the reader further, and will repay careful reading.The great value of the book is that it makes it possible to gain an overview, in detail, of *all* the transmission. Many will be shocked at how thin the thread is by which most of these works have survived. It also allows the reader, who perhaps is familiar with only a few texts, to learn about others. My own interest is the transmission of the text of the Latin Father Tertullian, rediscovered by Rhenanus and Gelenius in the 16th century; but I learned interesting things about other work by these humanists on the Notitia Digitatum, and a study of Gelenius' methods on the De Rebus Bellicis. In the normal course of events, I would never have come across these links.The book is a substantial reference work, and covers only the Latin classics. The Greek classics are not included - a companion volume would seem highly desirable, so how about it OUP? - nor the works of the Christian Fathers in either language.Anyone mad about manuscripts will find this book of interest. The only problem is the price ...