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From Ausonius' Schooldays? A Schoolbook and its Relatives*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

A. C. Dionisotti
A. C. Dionisotti
Affiliation:
King's CollegeLondon
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Extract

Some time ago, pursuing humanistic Greek dictionaries, I was leafing through the volume of plates from Vienna MSS published by Josef Bick in 1930, when my eye was caught by a plate from a Latin–Greek dictionary, arranged not alphabetically but by topics. Bick and the catalogue informed me that there was a subscription at the end, written in beginner's Greek and then crossed out (Plate I): ‘And so ends, with God's help, the dictionary of Cicero, written out by me, Conrad Celtes, Poet, in the monastery of Sponheim, in the year of Our Lord 1495 on the seventh day of October, while Johannes Trithemius was Abbot. Praise be to God in heaven most glorious.’ On the first page of the volume, Celtes had written a table of contents: Continetur in hoc libello: I Grammatica greca brevissima, contracta ex diver sis autoribus per C.C. 2 Colloquia et conversaciones grece, quas vulgo apud Latinos Latinum ideoma dicunt (?), cum vocabulario per C.C. inventas. 3 Vocabularium rerum admirandum grecum, nuper a Conrado Celte in Hercinia silva apud druidas inventum. On the same page, Celtes had written instructions to a well-known publisher: Aldus meus is to add a short preface addressed to all the youngsters of Europe who want to learn Greek, and is assured that it will be a fine and very useful little book. Various additions are needed in the Grammar; but Aldus needs no telling, let him emend it all as necessary; and have accents added, for in Celtes' exemplar, and in all Greek books in France and Germany, there were none.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 72 , November 1982 , pp. 83 - 125
Copyright
Copyright © A. C. Dionisotti 1982. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 ‘Fiat et preponetur per Aldum meum brevis epistola ad adolescentes studiosos lingue grece per Europam; et erit libellus speciosus et multis utilissimus. Preponetur etiam elementa alphabeton, abbreviature et potestates litterarum … Sapienti pauca: non habet magistrum Aldi mei Minerva. Ergo emendentur emendanda, radantur radenda … Et accentus addantur, quia in exemplari, et aliis grecis codicibus quoscumque in Germania et Gallia reperi, appositos non vidi, sed nudas dicciones.’ J. Bick, Die Schreiber der Wiener griechischen HSS, no. 44, Plate 42. H. Hunger, Katalog d. gr. HSS d. Österr. Nationalbibliothek, Supplementum Graecum (1957). no. 43. D. Wuttke in Silvae: Festschr. E. Zinn (1970), 298–303, gives history and description of the MS, but follows Bick in supposing that the colloquium is incomplete.

2 Renouard, A. A., Annales de l'imprimerie des Aldes2 (1825), in, 278–9Google Scholar.

3 Leipzig, 1892; referred to hereafter simply by page and line, without prefixing ‘CGL III’. I generally quote only the Latin of bilingual texts, for convenience, not implying that the Latin is more authentic than the Greek.

4 H. Rupprich, Der Briefwechsel des Konrad Celtis (1934), ep. 315, dated 3.9.1504.

5 Druids replace monks, just as in Hercinia Silva replaces Sponheim, not an indifferent matter when the Ciceronian controversy was in full swing. Admittedly Celtes seems to have believed that these monks were direct descendents of the Druids, cf. the vivid account in his De situ et moribus Norimbergae (C. Celtis, Opuscula, ed. K. Adel (1966), 70–1).

6 Note that his proposed title-page squares with his colophon written some ten years earlier, and that he prudently omits the Cicero ascription. Suspicions that he planned to forge six books of Ovid's Fasti are misplaced: cui bono ? When major new texts were still surfacing (e.g. Tacitus' Annals) false reports were easily believed, and probably worth a few pence to the presbyter from Ulm who passed this one to Celtes.

7 CGL II, 561–3; new ed. by J. Kramer in ZPE 38 (1980), 229–43.

8 Lehmann, P., Merkwrdigkeiten des Abtes Joh. Trithemius (SBBay.Akad.d.Wiss.) (1961)Google Scholar.

9 Was it conceivably written on papyrus ? Humanists had great difficulty knowing what to call that when they met it, cf. Perrat, Ch. in Bibl. Ec. Chartes 109 (1951), 173–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar. I hope the app. crit. may enable a palaeographer to determine what script and date the errors imply; cf. also n. 51.

10 Seen. n. 21.

11 Ferrari, M., ‘Le Scoperte a Bobbio nel 1493’, IMU 13 (1970), 140–1Google Scholar. But her identification of it (p. 163) with Neap, IV A 11 cannot be right. von Gebhardt, O. in Centralblatt f. Bibliothekswesen 5 (1888), 419–24,Google Scholar was on the right lines. The description was sent by J. Questenberg to Joh. von Dalberg, d. 1503, patron of Trithemius.

12 In being Latin-Greek, not vice versa, and in revealing that it had lost its first book, see p. 91 below. Admittedly, there is no sign of ascription to Cicero.

13 Berichte über d.Verhandlungen d.Sächs.Gesellschaft d.Wiss. (1888), 231–4, cf. CGL I, 276–7. Of course the indices, CGL VI, VII, are in effect a Corpus Glossarum.

14 To my knowledge only Robert, L. has done so, cf. Hellenica XI–XII (1960), p. 1Google Scholar, n. 4, XIII (1965), index s.v. Glossaires.

15 Though minor grammatical texts and ancient commentaries can be very like glossaries in this respect.

16 e.g. Papias, Hugutio, Osbern of Gloucester, Johannes Balbus, etc.

17 So 31. 24–38. 29 = 387. 10–390. 33 (Hadriani Sententiae); 38. 30–47. 57 = 94. 1–102. 7 (Aesop); 49. 19–56. 27 = 102. 8–108. 4 (Gaius); 69. 41–71. 77 = 376. 48–378. 31 (Colloquium); 119. 1–122. 61 + 210. 44–220 = 223. 1–235. 7 (Colloquium); 393–8 nearly all reappears within 347–76. Some of these were critically edited by E. Böcking, Dosithei Magistri interpretamentorum liber tertius (1832).

18 See the asterisked items in the table p. 87.

19 CGL I 17–23.

20 W. M. Lindsay in CPh 13 (1918), 1, ‘the apographs in Goetz's CGL will be replaced by editions of the glossaries, and Goetz's Thesaurus Glossarum [i.e. CGL VI and VII] will become the mere apparatus criticus of a small Dictionary of Glosses, a dictionary which will be owned and freely used by every teacher of Latin’.

21 Though this has not been done. The extracts are still layered, so that for each letter we find the sequence: preface, b, preface, capitula, each in turn. The original seems to have been ascribed to Cicero, cf. 401.18.

22 This is a provisional count: many capitula are concealed because they have lost their headings, e.g. 374. 67, where a cap. de cognatione is tacked on to de moribus.

23 Some control may be provided by the similar, but presumably unrelated, ancient Middle Eastern glossaries, cf. Goody, J., The Domestication of the Savage Mind (1977), 93–9Google Scholar.

24 In particular, a colloquium can present itself as one of the capitula: so in M (167. 24), in the C table of contents (see n. 41 below), and probably in one of Stephanus' MSS, where it was circa medium.

25 The single texts have provoked more discussion than any other part of the Hermeneumata, though without fresh inquiry into these as a whole. They are: 1. Hadriani Sententiae (L, S): Goetz, G., Index Scholarum hib. (Jena, 1892–1893)Google Scholar, A. Schiller, in Atti del 2° Congr. Internaz. della Soc. ital. di Storia del Diritto (1971), 11, 717–27; 2. Aesop (L. Paris. 6503, PSI 848): Nøjgaard, M., La Fable Antique (1967), 11, 398 ff.Google Scholar; 3. Tract on Manumission, ?Gaius (L, Paris. 6503): Honoré, A. M., Rev. Internat.des Droits de l'Ant. 3 12 (1965), 301–23,Google ScholarNelson, H. L. W., Überlieferung, Aufbau und Stil von Gai Inst. (1981), 360–8Google Scholar; 4. Hyginus (L, Mp, Salmas.—the last un-published): van Krevelen, D. A., Philologus 110 (1966), 315–18Google Scholar; 5. Iliad epitome (L): Jahn, O., Griechische Bilderchroniken (1873), 89 ff.Google Scholar; 6. & 7. Niciarius and Carphilides (S): Perry, B., Secundus the Silent Philosopher (1964), 5–6Google Scholar; 8. Responsa Sapientum (S): Merkelbach, R., Die Quellen des gr. Alexanderromans2 (1977), 72 ff.Google Scholar, 156 ff.; 9. Praecepta Delphica (S): Dittenberger, , Sylloge3 III (1920), no. 1268Google Scholar, RE Suppl. VII (1940), s.v. Sosiades. Cf. also n. 17, and on nos. 6—9, p. 91 below.

26 Krumbacher, C., De codicibus quibus interpretamenta Pseudodositheana nobis tradita sunt (1883)Google Scholar.

27 cf. M (166. 20–9), Mp (280. 30–7).

28 ‘Sicut autem promisi similia verba reddam. Maximo et Apro consulibus tertio id. septembr. ygini genealogiam omnibus notam descripsi, in qua [?] erunt plures historiae interpretatae (διερμηνευμεναι) in hoc libro. deorum enim et dearum nomina in secundo [sc. in the capitula] explicui, sed in hoc erunt eorum enarrationes, licet non omnes, eorum tamen quorum interim possum.’

29 In all the prefaces μετα/ναἀ/συγ-γρὰφω = describo, conscribo, as opposed to (δ)ερμηνεύω = interpretari = translate, cf. e.g. 48. 3–7. (Note that Goetz's indices do not cover the prefaces, texts or colloquia.)

30 CGL I, 18 (cf. III, xvi).

31 CGL in, xiv–xv.

32 It could equally have been no. 12 in a series of capitula, cf. n. 24.

33 30. 49, 31. 23, 39. 49, 48. 45, 57. 41, 120. 17, 166. 28; and note 122. 56–61, 337. 7/9.

34 421–38; edited by I. David (Comm. Philol. Ienenses v) (1894).

35 H (109. 3–6) ‘gratias confiteor maximas apud deum’, but cf. n. 46.

36 The exceptions are 30. 35 (et graecae omitted ? cf. 31. 20–1), 109. 16, 32 (H), 283. 41 (interpolation ? cf. 28–9), 421. II–15 (Vat.).

37 cf. Top. 32, adulescentia = flos aetatis, senectus = occasion vitae as definitiones.

38 G. Baesecke, Der Vocabularius Sti. Galli (1933).

39 P. Berlin inv. 10,582, s.v–vi, Greek-Latin-Coptic colloquium related to Mp. See W. Schubart in Klio 13 (1913), 27–38; G. Esau in Philol. 73 (1914/1916), 157–8. A number of bilingual Aesop fragments have also survived.

40 So the criteria elaborated by Bataille, A., Recherches de Papyrologie 4 (1967), 161–9Google Scholar (and cf. J. Bouffartigues, in S. Said et al., Études de Littérature Ancienne (1979), 81–95) seem to me inapplicable to transmitted bilingual texts, though useful for located original documents.

41 Chapter headings underlined do not occur elsewhere (though some of their contents do, of course). Note that a colloquium is listed as no. 13 of the capitula, cf. n. 24.

42 I refer to it by the section numbers.

43 They are also called de sermone cotidiano, de fabulis cotidianis, περὶ ὁμελίαϛ καθηερινῆϛ. Mp and S have no title.

44 e.g. 23–6, 57–8; L (379. 8–66); half-way stage 49–54, Mp (652–3).

45 In Stephanus' MS (376. 47–9).

46 Numbers = order of scenes, brackets = brief reference only, * = only in Stephanus' MS. I have excluded H, as it is clearly a patchwork, cf. 640. II, 643. 25.

47 So, with reference to M, Krumbacher in Festschr. W. von Christ (1891), 309 (this edition of M is the best of any colloquium).

48 The barbarous ‘νονη’ was doubtless in Celtes' exemplar, but may just have interpreted a numeral in the original title. It is also possible that the colloquium was once no. 9 in the capitula.

49 637–59; cf. xxxiv–vi.

50 A few original spellings and corruptions survive uncorrected, e.g. 19 habe, 52 allium, 56 colla.

51 He normally puts an accent on καὶ, and see app. crit. on e.g. 5 λειπα, 16 Χερε, 37, 39; he generally does not delete the original, as he does correcting the Latin, and it may be that there were Greek corrections in the exemplar. A few corruptions look like the result of incorporated interlinear variants: 17 επανειημι, 45 μηετρι, 52 Χεριουδιου, ?61 μνμρουϛ (μ/η).

52 e.g. 47 ποιη κονδυνον, 66 ουλετωτε, 72 κνεπθυ. There are recurrent confusions of α/δ, λ/δ, ιτ/τι/π, ν/ρ and a whole series of κ for ς (12, 39, 42, 46, 47, 63. 70). Final sigma is always lunate, the only regular ligature is ςτ, ςπ and ες occur occasionally, υι once; abbreviations only occur at 17 προϲ = πατροϲ, 35 φονιε̃δα, 37 ·π· = περι, 70 δυναμῑ, 71 κϲ = κυριοϲ, 35, 73 γραματων, 74 π̸ = προϲ. At 58 and 59 there is an abbreviation ρ: which I do not understand. Where a word recurs at short intervals it is often abbreviated with a colon, or left un-translated. Some of this may be due to Celtes. The Latin text also sometimes had no or false word divisions, cf. 62.

53 So in fact use of the article is odd in translations even when we have the original document, cf. Meuwese, op. cit., next note, 127.

54 Similarly 39 pro posse = κατα την δυναμιν, cf. app. crit. and 70; 66 qui te viderunt = οι ιδοντεϲ ϲε. Gerundives (74, 75) are rendered with pf. part. For the technique, see Bouffartigues, op. cit. in n. 40; H. Marti, Übersetzer der Augustinzeit (1974); S. Lundström, Übersetzungstechnische Untersuchungen (1955); I. Müller-Rohlfsen, Die lat. Ravennatische Übersetzung der Hippokratischen Aphorismen (1980). For Greek translations from Latin see Reichmann, V., Römische Literatur in gr. Übersetzung (Philologus Suppl. 24) (1943)Google Scholar, A. P. M. Meuwese, De rerum gestarum Divi Augusti versione Graeca (1920); E. G. Domingo, Latinismos en la Koine (1979) (based on bilingual inscriptions, but with general bibliography).

55 17 amicos, 75 crescit; possibly also 67 accidit.

56 e.g. George Hermonymus, copying E in Paris, gr. 3049, misread (232. 50) adice amiculum as aduce avunculum, and so altered ἐπίδος ἐπικάρσιον to εἴσαγε τὸν θεῖον. Such alterations, of course, imply some knowledge of Greek.

57 Gignac, F., A Grammar of the Greek Papyri of the Roman and Byz. Periods I (1976)Google Scholar; II (1981) [= G., vol. and p.]; Mandilaras, B. G., The Verb in the Greek Non-literary Papyri (1973)Google Scholar [ = M §]; Palmer, L. R., A Grammar of the Post-Ptolemaic Papyri (1945)Google Scholar [ = P. and p.]; Blass, F., Debrunner, A., Rehkopf, F., Grammatik des neutestamentlichen Griechisch (1975)Google Scholar [ = BDR §].

58 Contrast the Folium Parisinum (CGL II, 563), newly edited by J. Kramer in Proc. XVI Intemat. Congr. of Papyrology (1981), 55–71.

59 So beside δοϲ, δοθηναι, διδοϲθαι, διδωϲι, απεδωκα we find διδεται = datur, επιδιδει = porrigit, επιδιδειν = adferre, αποδιδουσιν = reddunt (cf. G. II, 382–4); beside απιμι = eo (and imperatives), also απιουσι = eunt, επανειημι = regredior (cf. n. 51), επανιετε = regreditur (cf. M §120, BDR §99); beside ανεϲτην = surrexi, also ανιϲταϲϲα = surrexi, ανιϲταϲον = surge; ϲταθηναι = sisti, ϲταθηται = sistitur; 26 δικνυϲον, διξον; ηλθον regularly, but 62 ελθατω (G. II, 341), 71 προηλθειϲιν, 77 ηλθουϲιν ; ενεγκε but κατενεγκατε (cf. M §317). Note also 47 ϲαριϲον, 48 ϲτρωνηϲον, 53 ρενεϲον.

60 e.g. 10, 59 ητηϲαμην = poposci, 43 αιτω = posco (and cf. 14); -ερχομαι regularly, but 73 ειϲερχουϲιν; 69 αναπαυϲαϲθαι, 71 αναπαυϲον; 67, 73 δυνατε (= -αι), but 28 δυνηϲομεν; at 9 ενδυο με is probably influenced by the Latin, cf. 43. In general, see G. II, 325–7, M §316.

61 cf. G. 11, 223–54, M §§231–64; but augments are much more frequently omitted here than in the papyri.

62 3 υποδενον, 25 παραγραφον, 47 επιταϲϲον, ? 56 επερον; aorist imperatives so outnumber present ones that the transference is not surprising. The opposite phenomenon (-ϵ on aorist stem) is found in papyri (M §684).

63 3 ορθριομεν, 28 δυνηϲομεν (cf. 68), and 47 ϲχηϲω, M §540–3.

64 45 πεποκα, 68 τεθοριβημε, 66 ειρηκαϲι = dicent, but there are other non-matching tenses.

65 Not as much as in koin generally (BDR §285), probably because of Latin influence, cf. Meuwese, op. cit. (n. 54), 127; Domingo, op. cit., ibid., pp. 192 ff. At 39 and 73 ιδιου replaces the possessive (BDR §286). The possessive is omitted with κυριοϲ (12, 62; but cf. 44, 71).

66 67 καταιϲχεινει, 77 λελειμενοι; 14 εξηρτημενη = -οι; 67 τοιαυτοιϲ = -ηϲ. Cf. G. I, 272–3, 265–6.

67 e.g. interchanges of υ/οι, η/υ and η/ει are less frequent here than in the papyri, ι/υ much more frequent (or scribal error ?). Recurrent peculiarities include: -γενωϲκω, γενεται, λειπα; 14 θεοϲ, 51 θερμοϲ, 50 αϲπαραγοϲ, 72 πολιτικοϲ, all accusative plural; 37 κωμηδιαν, 38 κωμεδιαϲ; 50, 52 απωρα, Latin influence ? cf. 4 πραβατου, 51 βουλβουϲ.

68 e.g. 42 αργειαι = feriae, well attested in the Roman period.

69 It remains possible that the translator was inconsistent, so I have left these cases, dubitanter; cf. 21 επανω, 39 εγγυϲ, 77 ατερ, all with ace.

70 Some further linguistic oddities, for which any evidence would be most welcome: nom. for voc. without article (cf. BDR §147) at 3, 6 (cf. 70); 17 τροφεον, 52 πλερον accus.; 44 γαλαϲ, 72 κριθεντοϲ genit.; 17 απαϲιν, 67, 76 μεγα indecl. ? 74 ποιαϲ relative. Various non-words are discussed in the notes, but much remains to do.

71 45 reverti (taken as imper. ?), 74 custodis (as dat. plur. ?), 76 cui (as interrog.). Two Greek words are often given for one Latin one, in some cases apparently pairing vox propria with etymological calque, e.g. 35 καλειϲματα, ονοματα = vocabula; in one case (57) the vox propria seems to have spawned a Latin caique, devestitorium. Moreover, as Prof. Maehler points out to me, a Latin speaker would probably have learnt to spell Greek more by the rule-book. There are any number of inappropriate renderings, but these could be due to ignorance of either language.

72 cf. Booth, A. D. in Florilegium I (1979), 1–14Google Scholar (also Beudel, op. cit., p. 110, 29–30). Booth's parallel thesis (TAPA 109 (1979), 11–19), that ludi magistri mainly taught slaves, would at best be proved for upper-crust Rome in the first century A.D.

73 7. 66–71.

74 Cod. Iust. 10. 53(52), 6, 7, 11. Cf. Parsons, P. J. in Hanson, A. E. (ed.), Collectanea Papyrologica in honor of H. C. Youtie (1976), II, 441–6Google Scholar.

75 cf. e.g. CIL XIV, 472 (Ostia, A.D. 144) where a praeceptor, not apparently a mathematician, commemorates a prodigious calculator who had been his verna.

76 Conf. I, 13 ‘tenere cogebar Aeneae nesciocuius errores, oblitus errorum meorum …’, 14 ‘credo etiam graecis pueris Vergilius ita sit, cum eum discere coguntur, ut ego ilium [sc. Homerum]’. Paulinus' dogmata Socratus are presumably gnomic verses, though 92–9 suggest that besides Augustine he had in mind Sulp. Sev., , Vita Martini I. 3Google Scholar ‘aut quid posteritas emolumenti tulit legendo Hectorem pugnantem aut Socraten philosophantem’, representing not a school curriculum, but pagan culture in general. In Aus., Prof. 27. 5 dogma Platonicum is set beside oratory and medicine as a higher study.

77 P. Wessner in Phil. Wochenschr. 49 (1929), 296–303, 328–35.

78 For detail see notes ad loc.

79 Hist. Graeci Minores, ed. L. Dindorf (1870), I 306–7; my thanks to Keith Hopkins for pointing it out to me.

80 Contrast Mp, apparently set in Rome (656. 8, 657. 14).

81 Stern, H.—Lemée, M. Blanchard, Recueil Général des Mosaïques de la Gaule II 2 (Gallia Suppl. x) (1975), no. 213Google Scholar.

82 Throughout this and the other colloquia there are alternatives of both vocabulary and syntax, in tune with its being a linguistic exercise.

83 cf. H. Bannert in WS 90 (1977), 87–91.

84 Martial 4. 8 is a cameo, using the daily routine as frame for one epigram. Otherwise, the theme occurs, not surprisingly, in biography, satire and letters, usually coloured by a moral or philosophical point (e.g. Hor., Sat. I, 6, 111 ff.; Pliny, ep. 3. 1, 3. 5. 8–15, 9. 36 with 9. 40 as rather lame pendant), taken to idiosyncratic extremes in Sen., ep. 83, but detectable even in a real letter like Cic., ad fom. 9. 20. 3. (I am grateful to Professor Nisbet for references on this point.) Ausonius' poem seems to me more like the colloquia than like any of these in scale, form and stance. Admittedly, Ch.-M. Ternes, in R. Chevallier (ed.), AION: le temps chez les Romains (1976), 239–52, reads the poem as an ‘itinéraire spirituel’, ‘témoignage poignant d'une conversion’, etc.; if Ausonius intended that, he was a hopeless poet.

85 Peiper (ed. Leipzig 1886) inserted the poem In Notarium between 6 and 7, saying (p. xvii) ‘nemo non bene factum concedet’; maybe, but we still miss dinner, and probably baths.