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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

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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

Name: 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
Author: Rand, Edward Kennard

Rand, Edward Kennard

Manuscripts, Latin -- Facsimiles; Manuzio, Aldo, 1449 or 50-1515; Paleography, Latin; Pliny, the Younger -- Correspondence

[Footnote 13: For further details on syllabification in our oldest
  Latin manuscripts, see Th. Mommsen, “Livii Codex Veronensis,” in
  _Abhandlungen der k. Akad. d. Wiss. zu Berlin, phil. hist. Cl._
  (1868), p. 163, n. 2, and pp. 165-6; Mommsen-Studemund, _Analecta
  Liviana_ (Leipsic 1873), p. 3; Brandt, “Der St. Galler Palimpsest,”
  in _Sitzungsberichte der phil. hist. Cl. der k. Akad. der Wiss. in
  Wien_, CVIII (1885), pp. 245-6; L. Traube, “Palaeographische
  Forschungen IV,” in _Abhandlungen d. h. t. Cl. d. k. Bayer. Akad. d.
  Wiss._ XXIV. 1 (1906), p. 27; A.W. Van Buren, “The Palimpsest of
  Cicero’s _De Re Publica_,” in _Archaeological Institute of America,
  Supplementary Papers of the American School of Classical Studies in
  Rome_, ii (1908), pp. 89 sqq.; C. Wessely, in his preface to the
  facsimile edition of the Vienna Livy (MS. lat. 15), published in the
  Leyden series, _Codices graeci et latini_, etc., T. XI. See also
  W.G. Hale, “Syllabification in Roman speech,” in _Harvard Studies of
  Classical Philology_, VII (1896), pp. 249-71, and W. Dennison,
  “Syllabification in Latin Inscriptions,” in _Classical Philology_, I
  (1906), pp. 47-68.]


[Sidenote: _Orthography_]

The spelling found in our six leaves is remarkably correct. It compares
favorably with the best spelling encountered in our oldest Latin
manuscripts of the fourth and fifth centuries. The diphthong _ae_ is
regularly distinguished from _e_. The interchange of _b_ and _u_, _d_
and _t_, _o_ and _u_, so common in later manuscripts, is rare here: the
confusion between _b_ and _u_ occurs once (_comprouasse_, fo. 52v, l.
1); the omission of _h_ occurs once (_pulcritudo_, fo. 51v, l. 26); the
use of _k_ for _c_ occurs twice (_karet_, fo. 51r, l. 14, and _karitas_,
fo. 52r, l. 5). The scribe uses the correct forms in _adolescet_ (fo.
51v, l. 14) and _adulescenti_ (fo. 51v, l. 24); he writes _auonculi_
(fo. 53v, l. 15), _exsistat_ (fo. 51v, l. 9), and _exsecutos_ (fo. 53r,
l. 8). In the case of composite words he has the assimilated form in
some, and in others the unassimilated form, as the following examples
go to show:

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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

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