A Sixth-Century Fragment of the Letters of Pliny the Younger: A Study of Six Leaves of an Uncial Manuscript Preserved; in the Pierpont Morgan Library New York — John Shaqi
A Sixth-Century Fragment of the Letters of Pliny the Younger: A Study of Six Leaves of an Uncial Manuscript Preserved; in the Pierpont Morgan Library New YorkRand, Edward Kennard
General
A Sixth-Century Fragment of the Letters of Pliny the Younger: A Study of Six Leaves of an Uncial Manuscript Preserved; in the Pierpont Morgan Library New York
Rand, Edward Kennard
Manuscripts, Latin -- Facsimiles; Manuzio, Aldo, 1449 or 50-1515; Paleography, Latin; Pliny, the Younger -- Correspondence
[Footnote 9: The strokes over the two consecutive _i_’s on fol.
53v, l. 23, were made by a hand that can hardly be older than the
thirteenth century.]
There is a ninth-century addition on fol. 53 and one of the fifteenth
century on fol. 51. On fol. 49, in the upper margin, a fifteenth-century
hand using a stilus or hard point scribbled a few words, now difficult
to decipher.[10] Presumably the same hand drew a bearded head with a
halo. Another relatively recent hand, using lead, wrote in the left
margin of fol. 53v the monogram QR[11] and the roman numerals i, ii, iii
under one another. These numerals, as Professor Rand correctly saw,
refer to the works of Pliny the Elder enumerated in the text. Further
activity by this hand, the date of which it is impossible to determine,
may be seen, for example, on fol. 49v, ll. 8, 10, 15; fol. 52, ll. 4,
10, 13, 21, 22; fol. 53, ll. 12, 15, 16, 17, 20, 27; fol. 53v, ll. 5,
10, 15.
[Footnote 10: I venture to read _dominus meus ... in te deus_.
[Footnote 11: This doubtless stands for _Quaere_ (= “investigate”),
a frequent marginal note in manuscripts of all ages. A number of
instances of _Q_ for _quaere_ are given by A.C. Clark, _The Descent
of Manuscripts_, Oxford 1918, p. 35.]
[Sidenote: _Syllabification_]
Syllables are divided after a vowel or diphthong except where such
a division involves beginning the next syllable with a group of
consonants.[12] In that case the consonants are distributed between the
two syllables, one consonant going with one syllable and the other with
the following, except when the group contains more than two successive
consonants, in which case the first consonant goes with the first
syllable, the rest with the following syllable. That the scribe is
controlled by this mechanical rule and not by considerations of
pronunciation is obvious from the division SAN|CTISSIMUM and other
examples found below. The method followed by him is made amply clear
by the examples which occur in our twelve pages:[13]
fo. 48r, line 1, con-suleret
2, sescen-ties
3, ex-ta
7, fal-si
fo. 49v, line 3, spu-rinnam
5, senesce-re
7, distin-ctius
12, se-nibus
13, con-ueniunt
15, spurin-na
18, circum-agit
20, mi-lia
24, prae-sentibus
25, grauan-tur
fo. 50r, line 1, singu-laris
4, an-tiquitatis
5, au-dias
9, ite-rum
11, scri-bit
12, ly-rica
15, scri-bentis
17, octa-ua
19, uehe-menter
20, exer-citationis
21, se-nectute
22, paulis-per
23, le-gentem
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