Thoughts on Antiquity, Patristics, putting things online, freedom of speech, information access, and more
Scribonius Largus was a physician in the time of Claudius. He was the author of a collection of medical recipes, written in 47-48 A.D. The work begins with a preface; then there is an index; and then the recipes. At the end of the preface, Largus writes: Primum ergo ad quae vitia compositiones exquisitae et aptae [...]
I need to do some further research on chapter titles in ancient texts, and whether they are authorial. A correspondent has drawn my attention to Bianca-Jeanette Schroder’s Titel und Text: Zur Entwicklung lateinischer Gedichtüberschriften. Mit Untersuchungen zu lateinischen Buchtiteln, Inhaltsverzeichnissen und anderen Gliederungsmitteln (De Gruyter, 1999, 349 pages). It retails for the eye-watering sum of [...]
In the Sources Chretiennes edition of Gregory of Nyssa’s Contra Eunomium, there is an annex which is of wider interest. Annex II — p.359-364 – was written by Matthieu Cassin, and summarises rather nicely the question of indices and chapter titles in the manuscripts of this work. I know that French is a closed book to [...]
In his work De hominis opificio (On the making of man), in the praefatio, Gregory alludes explicitly to a list of chapter titles for the work: …and for clearness’ sake I think it well to set forth to you the discourse by chapters, that you may be able briefly to know the force of the [...]
A little while ago a kind correspondent sent me a partial list of ancient works where the manuscripts contain “indices”, or “tables of contents” of the chapters or subjects covered in the book or books. I had meant to go and investigate each of these, but my work life is eating all my time at [...]
I’ve had an email with some material extracted from Matthieu Cassin’s thesis about Gregory of Nyssa, with the pages discussing the chapter titles in the manuscripts. I’ve not had a chance to read it yet, but it looks fascinating. Dr Cassin has done some real work here, and I will discuss it further. Also I [...]
There is a paper on the web by Matthieu Cassin, discussing the context of the three books of the Contra Eunomium of Gregory of Nyssa. In the middle of it (p.112) he discussed the divisions in the text, as it has been transmitted. It’s fascinating stuff. Besides the division of Book III, the different manuscripts present a [...]
The Lowe and Rand publication of the Morgan fragment of the 5th century Saint-Victor manuscript of the letters of Pliny the Younger has, by great good fortune, images of the transition between books 2 and 3. These include a contents list for book 3, consisting of the recipients, followed by the opening words. Let’s have [...]
I’m going through the mill at work at the moment, which makes life rather heavy, and engagement with hobbies impossible. To add to the fun, I have only a slow mobile broadband connection on my laptop in the evenings, which makes the necessary task of collecting and responding to my email a slow and painful [...]
Six folios survive of a 5th century manuscript of the Letters of Pliny the Younger. They are in New York, in the Pierpont Morgan collection, where they have the shelfmark M.462. They contain letters from Book 2, Letter XX, line 13, to Book 3, Letter V, line 10. But I learn that they also contain [...]