Yes I agree one would think that. Where does it end? The entire business of Christian origins is highly suspect.
Interpolation in Pliny's letter about Christians
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Leucius Charinus
- Posts: 2835
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- Location: memoriae damnatio
Re: Interpolation in Pliny's letter about Christians
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Leucius Charinus
- Posts: 2835
- Joined: Fri Oct 04, 2013 4:23 pm
- Location: memoriae damnatio
Re: Interpolation in Pliny's letter about Christians
The sequence of the events surrounding it's discovery is not inspiring:
1498 - Father Giovanni Giocondo published (in Italian) Pliny's Epistles in Bologna
1499 - Father Giovanni Giocondo of Verona discovered a minuscule manuscript [P] and made a copy (I) of the ten books of Pliny's Letters.
1508 - Aldus Manutius, the publisher, uses copy (I) for his edition of the Letters.
1508 - No trace of P has ever come to light since the publication of the edition of Aldus.
It was "lost".
1498 - Father Giovanni Giocondo published (in Italian) Pliny's Epistles in Bologna
1499 - Father Giovanni Giocondo of Verona discovered a minuscule manuscript [P] and made a copy (I) of the ten books of Pliny's Letters.
1508 - Aldus Manutius, the publisher, uses copy (I) for his edition of the Letters.
1508 - No trace of P has ever come to light since the publication of the edition of Aldus.
It was "lost".
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enricotuccinardi
- Posts: 20
- Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2016 3:57 am
Re: Interpolation in Pliny's letter about Christians
The matter is much more complicated than that and Iucundus cannot be accused of forgery.
I studied the textual tradition of the ten-book family (Z) of Pliny manuscripts almost ten years ago.
The outcomes of my research are in this publication.
https://www.academia.edu/14382365/La_tr ... mbre_2014_
Honestly I don't know if in the meantime something new was published.
However here below is my proposed stemma for Z:
The Morgan fragment, uncial manuscript of the sixth century (!) is in all probability part of the Parisinus (P).
In fact the manuscript has been foliated by Claude de la Rue, the librarian of the Abbay of Saint-Victor in Paris and this manuscript, present there up to 1505, was listed as missing/stolen in 1514.
I in the Bodleian volume was copied by Iucundus from a minuscule manuscript in scriptura continua thus not from P, which instead was probably used by Budaeus for his corrections in the marginal notes (i) of the text. Iucundus in fact lent to his friend Budaeus P or a copy of it.
Additionally the manuscript found by Leander, A0, and used for the Avantius edition (1502) was another minuscule manuscript different from P and I. This manuscript was known by Guido de Grana in the XIII century.
Thus, we have at least three testimonia of the Plinian correspondance concerning the Christians:
1) Parisinus (P, sixth century) now almost completey lost except for the Morgan fragment. Its readings could have been preserved in i and in the aldine edition (1508) as well.
2) A0 the manuscript found by Leander (lost) and used by Avantius for his 1502 edition. Only part of the Book X was preserved but it included the the Plinian correspondance concerning the Christians.
3) The minuscule manuscript (I0) found by Iucundus (lost) - who worked for the venetian editor Aldus - and was copied in the Bodleian Volume.
Before the sixth century an ancient unknown scholar gave to the world the ancestor of Z, an elaborately prepared edition of the Letters under a title never used before: C. Plini Secundi Epistolarum Libri Numero Decem (Stout, 1954) and probably the immediate incentive to this new edition was the discovery of a copy of the correspondence between Pliny and Trajan.
More details in the published paper.
I studied the textual tradition of the ten-book family (Z) of Pliny manuscripts almost ten years ago.
The outcomes of my research are in this publication.
https://www.academia.edu/14382365/La_tr ... mbre_2014_
Honestly I don't know if in the meantime something new was published.
However here below is my proposed stemma for Z:
The Morgan fragment, uncial manuscript of the sixth century (!) is in all probability part of the Parisinus (P).
In fact the manuscript has been foliated by Claude de la Rue, the librarian of the Abbay of Saint-Victor in Paris and this manuscript, present there up to 1505, was listed as missing/stolen in 1514.
I in the Bodleian volume was copied by Iucundus from a minuscule manuscript in scriptura continua thus not from P, which instead was probably used by Budaeus for his corrections in the marginal notes (i) of the text. Iucundus in fact lent to his friend Budaeus P or a copy of it.
Additionally the manuscript found by Leander, A0, and used for the Avantius edition (1502) was another minuscule manuscript different from P and I. This manuscript was known by Guido de Grana in the XIII century.
Thus, we have at least three testimonia of the Plinian correspondance concerning the Christians:
1) Parisinus (P, sixth century) now almost completey lost except for the Morgan fragment. Its readings could have been preserved in i and in the aldine edition (1508) as well.
2) A0 the manuscript found by Leander (lost) and used by Avantius for his 1502 edition. Only part of the Book X was preserved but it included the the Plinian correspondance concerning the Christians.
3) The minuscule manuscript (I0) found by Iucundus (lost) - who worked for the venetian editor Aldus - and was copied in the Bodleian Volume.
Before the sixth century an ancient unknown scholar gave to the world the ancestor of Z, an elaborately prepared edition of the Letters under a title never used before: C. Plini Secundi Epistolarum Libri Numero Decem (Stout, 1954) and probably the immediate incentive to this new edition was the discovery of a copy of the correspondence between Pliny and Trajan.
More details in the published paper.