This week I have been on holiday, at least notionally. I had intended to undertake various projects, as well as visiting some friends. Unfortunately a headache has been with me all week, and little has been done.
This afternoon I took down volume 1 of the Loeb edition of Valerius Maximus and dipped into it, hither and yon, for some time. We all need books that can be dipped into anywhere. Books of letters can fulfil such a function, if they are short. Aulus Gellius serves the same function. Valerius Maximus is so relentlessly Roman and military that he is less attractive.
But I have decided that volume 2 shall grace my shelves. Amazon “guarantee” that it will be with me on Saturday. If they send it by Royal Mail, that may happen. If they send it by Home Delivery Network then it will not arrive until Monday, when it will be tossed over my garden gate, and discovered a week later, soaked from the rain. Such is Amazon’s guarantee, these days.
I’ve also noticed, via Evangelical Textual Criticism, that Stephen Carlson’s dissertation, The Text of Galatians and its history, has now appeared on the web (as is very proper). It looks interesting, in that it attempts to study how the variants made their way into the text in the manuscripts. Sadly there is no way that I can read 300+ pages of anything right now.