Here is a question on which we can perhaps exercise our collective wisdom.
When writing about medieval authors who referred to or imitated Virgil,
to
which text of Virgil should we compare the medieval author's final product?
The question occurred to me (not for the first time) as I was going
through an item that Otfried brought to my attention a few weeks ago:
Hollander, Robert. "Le opere di Virgilio nella Commedia di
Dante." Dante e la "bella scola" della poesia: Autorita\ e
sfida poetica. Ed. Amilcare A. Iannucci. Ravenna: Longo, 1993.
247-343.
It's an exhaustive census of the references Dante makes to Virgil, and
while one might quarrel with the inclusion of a few of the items (is there
really an echo of "Arma virumque cano" in Purg. 1.4, "e cantero\ di quel
secondo regno"?), it is an extremely useful and well-produced piece of
scholarship.
Strangely enough, though, the text of Virgil cited for comparison with
Dante's text is that of the Loeb. Now I happen to like Fairclough's
translation quite a bit, but I can't see that his text has any special
authority. Then again, would Mynors or Geymonat really be much of an
improvement here? It's not as though Dante had access to them, either.
What text of Virgil should we cite for comparison with medieval authors?
The situation is somewhat better in the early print period, where at least
you can pick a popular edition (say, Gryphius, Manutius, or Plantin). But
what about the manuscript period? Except in special cases (like Petrarch or
C. Salutati), it's unlikely that we'll ever find the precise Virgil MS. a
given author used. But is it possible to say which MS. families were most
popular in, say 12th century France or 13th century Italy? If so, then at
least we have some idea of which witnesses to look for in the apparatus.
But if not, what then? Are we back to citing modern eds. like the Loeb or
OCT?
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David Wilson-Okamura http://www.virgil.org [EMAIL PROTECTED]
University of Chicago Online Virgil discussion, bibliography & links
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