Juvenal and Persius/MSS of Juvenal
The MSS. of Juvenal
The text on which this translation is mainly based is that of Bücheler's edition of 1893. That text had the merit of giving the first complete account of the readings of P (the Codex Pithoeanus), the most important and best of all the MSS. of Juvenal.
Since then, however, has appeared the notable critical edition of Professor Housman (1905), who, without contesting the general superiority of P over the multitude of interpolated MSS., has shown that it cannot be accepted as a sole and infallible guide. He protests vigorously against the indolent style of criticism which, having discovered one MS. to be the best available, sticks to it through thick and thin without exercising an independent judgment upon it, and accepts, almost blindfold, any reading presented by that MS. which is not absolutely impossible. In the case of Juvenal, Professor Housman proposes to arrest the current by which the text of each succeeding edition of Juvenal stands closer to that of P, and produces much solid evidence to show that, in many cases, the readings of P, even when possible both in Latinity and in sense, will not stand criticism, and that the readings of other MSS. are to be preferred to them.
The Pithoeanus is by no means a very ancient MS. It dates from the end of the ninth century, having been first used by P. Pithoeus in the year 1585. It was lost for a long time, but was rediscovered in the middle of the nineteenth century and first published by Otto Jahn in his edition of 1851. It contains many corrections by later hands, designated by the letter p; these corrections are mostly of little value, being derived from one or other of the host of interpolated MSS. known generally under the title of ω. Professor Housman goes so far as to assert that p should be quoted for one purpose and for one purpose only, to enable us to judge what the reading of P was not.
Shortly put, the description of the MSS. of Juvenal given by Professor Housman is as follows;—
The great merit of P is that it has escaped, almost entirely, the deluge of interpolation which has flooded the great majority of Juvenalian MSS., but it is not itself entirely free from corruption. One source of corruption is that its original readings have been often corrected by later hands from the tenth century onwards. These corrections, indicated by the letter p, are for the most part taken from one or other of the mass of inferior interpolated MSS., but their faults can sometimes be repaired from other sources which are more closely allied to P itself.
Apart from P and the host of interpolated MSS. stand three important fragmentary sources, viz.; (1) Scidae Arovienses, consisting of five leaves found at Aarau in 1880; (2) the Florilegium Sangallense; (3) third, and most important, are the lemmata of the ancient scholia, which often contain the correct reading of P which has been corrupted in the text by p.
Over against P and its small cluster of kinsfolk stand the several hundreds of Juvenal's vulgar MSS. dating from the ninth century to the sixteenth, infected one and all with a plague of interpolation from which P and its fellows are exempt. Halfway between the two camps (older than P, and not much interpolated) lies a considerable fragment, the Codex Vindobonensis of the ninth century, containing i. 1 to ii. 59 and ii. 107 to v. 96. After these Professor Housman selects seven MSS. of the interpolated class, which he calls A, F, G, L, O, T, U, and from which a true reading or its traces are occasionally to be found. To these MSS. collectively he gives the name of ψ, and as a result of his examination of them he has pointed out a number of passages in which the true reading is to be found in one or more of these MSS., and as many more in which their readings are to be preferred to those of P. For conspicuous instances of mistakes made by P in verbal forms see ix. 41, x. 312, xi. 184, xiv. 113.
Apart from all other MSS. stands the fragment, the palimpsestus Bobiensis now in the Vatican. It is assigned to the end of the fourth century, and contains xiv. 324-xv. 43. It sometimes agrees with P, sometimes with other MSS.
Lastly come the ancient Scholia called Σ, and preserved in P. They are very old and often indicate a true reading not in the MSS.[1]
In the year 1910, Dr. Frederick Leo brought out a fifth edition of Bücheler's text not differing much from the edition of 1893 except by recognising for the first time the genuineness of the passage in Sat. vi. (O 1-34, coming immediately after line 365) discovered in the Bodleian MS. by Mr. E. O. Winstedt in the year 1899. The more important of the changes introduced by Dr. Leo are mentioned in the critical notes.
Footnotes[edit]
- ↑ The above description of the MSS. of Juvenal is abbreviated from Professor Housman's Introduction, pp. vii to xi; see also pp. xvii sqq. and xxii sqq.