It is not improbable that Vergil himself wrote EQVOS and DIVOM, which were then modernized to ECVS, just as SEQVONTVR became SECVNTVR and QVOI, still normal in Quintilian's boyhood, became CVI; equus and sequuntur are later forms. But the convention has developed of spelling Latin authors on the basis of the fourth-century Vergilian MSS, which are too modern for the classics (Vergil is said to have written CAVSSA and EIIVS, yet we put causa and eius) and too old-fashioned for post-imperial authors (Ennodius' epitaph is edited with a more classical spelling than the stone itself exhibits). In modern languages, only popular editions take as little care over spelling as classical texts do; but we have the excuse that we lack the knowledge to restore any author's spelling in full.I�ve been doing some work on the issue of Virgil�s orthography and--other than the work of Ribbeck, B�mer, and Gaebel (the latter two on the -is/-es endings of accusative plurals of i-stem words)--I have found very little literature. �Does any one have any information on works �dealing with Augustan or, more particularly, Virgilian orthography? �And, even more specifically, should we read ECUS (as Ribbeck, Sabbadini, and Geymonat do, following the majority consensus of the capital mss) or EQUUS (as Mynors does, following, for the most part, the cursive mss). �Should we read DIVOM or DIVUM?
Leofranc Holford-Strevens -- *_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*
Leofranc Holford-Strevens 67 St Bernard's Road usque adeone Oxford scire MEVM nihil est, nisi ME scire hoc sciat alter? OX2 6EJ
tel. +44 (0)1865 552808(home)/353865(work) fax +44 (0)1865 512237 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (home)/[EMAIL PROTECTED] (work)
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