Chapter I: Front Matter

{Transcriber's Note: Except for footnote references, all brackets are in the original text. Material added by the transcriber is in {braces}. Typographical errors are listed at the end of the text.}

A SIXTH-CENTURY FRAGMENT

of the

LETTERS OF
PLINY THE YOUNGER

A Study of Six Leaves of an Uncial
Manuscript Preserved in
the Pierpont Morgan Library
New York

by

E. A. LOWE

Associate of the Carnegie Institution of Washington
Sandars Reader at Cambridge University (1914)
Lecturer in Palaeography at Oxford University

and

E. K. RAND

Professor of Latin in Harvard University

Published by the
CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON
Washington, 1922

CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON

Publication No. 304

The University Press
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
U. S. A.

PREFATORY NOTE.

The Pierpont Morgan Library, itself a work of art, contains masterpieces of painting and sculpture, rare books, and illuminated manuscripts. Scholars generally are perhaps not aware that it also possesses the oldest Latin manuscripts in America, including several that even the greatest European libraries would be proud to own. The collection is also admirably representative of the development of script throughout the Middle Ages. It comprises specimens of the uncial hand, the half-uncial, the Merovingian minuscule of the Luxeuil type, the script of the famous school of Tours, the St. Gall type, the Irish and Visigothic hands, and the Beneventan and Anglo-Saxon scripts.

Among the oldest manuscripts of the library, in fact the oldest, is a hitherto unnoticed fragment of great significance not only to palaeographers, but to all students of the classics. It consists of six leaves of an early sixth-century manuscript of the _Letters_ of the younger Pliny. This new witness to the text, older by three centuries than the oldest codex heretofore used by any modern editor, has reappeared in this unexpected quarter, after centuries of wandering and hiding. The fragment was bought by the late J. Pierpont Morgan in Rome, in December 1910, from the art dealer Imbert; he had obtained it from De Marinis, of Florence, who had it from the heirs of the Marquis Taccone, of Naples. Nothing is known of the rest of the manuscript.

The present writers had the good fortune to visit the Pierpont Morgan Library in 1915. One of the first manuscripts put into their hands was this early sixth-century fragment of Pliny’s _Letters_, which forms the subject of the following pages. Having received permission to study the manuscript and publish results, they lost no time in acquainting classical scholars with this important find. In December of the same year, at the joint meeting of the American Archaeological and Philological Associations, held at Princeton University, two papers were read, one concerning the palaeographical, the other the textual, importance of the fragment. The two studies which follow, Part I by Doctor Lowe, Part II by Professor Rand, are an elaboration of the views presented at the meeting. Some months after the present volume was in the form of page-proof, Professor E.T. Merrill’s long-expected edition of Pliny’s _Letters_ appeared (Teubner, Leipsic, 1922). We regret that we could not avail ourselves of it in time to introduce certain changes. The reader will still find Pliny cited by the pages of Keil, and in general he should regard the date of our production as 1921 rather than 1922.

The writers wish to express their gratitude for the privilege of visiting the Pierpont Morgan Library and making full use of its facilities. For permission to publish the manuscript they are indebted to the generous interest of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan. They also desire to make cordial acknowledgment of the unfailing courtesy and helpfulness of the Librarian, Miss Belle da Costa Greene, and her assistant, Miss Ada Thurston. Lastly, the writers wish to thank the Carnegie Institution of Washington for accepting their joint study for publication and for their liberality in permitting them to give all the facsimiles necessary to illustrate the discussion.

E. K. RAND.
E. A. LOWE.

CONTENTS.

Part I. THE PALAEOGRAPHY OF THE MORGAN FRAGMENT. By E. A. Lowe.

Description of the Fragment
Contents, size, vellum, binding
Ruling
Relation of the six leaves to the rest of the manuscript
Original size of the manuscript
Disposition
Ornamentation
Corrections
Syllabification
Orthography
Abbreviations
Authenticity of the six leaves
Archetype

The Date and Later History of the Manuscript
On the dating of uncial manuscripts
Dated uncial manuscripts
Oldest group of uncial manuscripts
Characteristics of the oldest uncial manuscripts
Date of the Morgan manuscript
Later history of the Morgan manuscript
Conclusion

Transcription

Part II. THE TEXT OF THE MORGAN FRAGMENT. By E. K. Rand.

The Morgan Fragment and Aldus’s Ancient Codex Parisinus
The Codex Parisinus
The Bodleian volume
The Morgan fragment possibly a part of the lost Parisinus
The script
Provenience and contents
The text closely related to that of Aldus
Editorial methods of Aldus

Relation of the Morgan Fragment to the Other Manuscripts of the Letters
Classes of the manuscripts
The early editions
_Π_ a member of Class I
_Π_ the direct ancestor of _BF_ with probably a copy intervening
The probable stemma
Further consideration of the external history of _P_, _Π_, and _B_
Evidence from the portions of _BF_ outside the text of _Π_

Editorial Methods of Aldus
Aldus’s methods; his basic text
The variants of Budaeus in the Bodleian volume
Aldus and Budaeus compared
The latest criticism of Aldus
Aldus’s methods in the newly discovered parts of Books VIII, IX, and X
The Morgan fragment the best criterion of Aldus
Conclusion

Description of Plates