On Agriculture and On Farming

In the final part of the book, similar to what was said above regarding the Laurentian codex, gaps were left in the writing of the codex; although it does not fully agree with that one regarding these, some things which were omitted in the Laurentian codex due to the indicated gap are read in this one.

Those who, before Victorius, edited the books of Cato and Varro together with the rest of the Roman writers on rural affairs in Italy, used the same codices that we now have. For whatever is expressed in the most ancient editions otherwise than we read in the manuscript books must certainly be attributed either to the negligence of the editors or to conjecture. First, however, Georgius Merula, who produced the editio princeps printed at Venice by Nicolaus Ienson in the year 1472, changed very many things according to his own judgment, without the authority of any manuscript books. After him, Iucundus of Verona, who presided over the Aldine edition made in the year 1514, used manuscript books, including the Medicean codex which I mentioned above; yet he did not restore the writing to the authority of the codices, but with even greater license, he renewed very many things by his own conjecture. The Aldine edition of 1515 was followed by the Juntine, made by Nicolaus Angelius of Florence, in which in some places the readings of the Aldine edition were corrected from Florentine codices, yet most things were repeated just as they were published in that one. Petrus Victorius used this as the foundation for his own edition, and he did not consistently restore the genuine writing of the archetype codex in place of the interpolated reading of the printed copy, but often accepted the once-vulgar reading from the Juntine edition. I will not say in this place what the most ancient editors or those who later spent effort on these same books achieved in the emendation of the corrupted writing. For I think it appears from what I have said that the authority of the reading is not to be sought from them.

It remains for me to speak of the method of the new edition. Therefore, for restoring the ancient writing, which in the editions published thus far was severely corrupted, the excerpts of Politianus are undoubtedly of the greatest value. Wherefore, I have taken care that these be represented as accurately as possible in the new edition. And since their authority is more uncertain in those things which Politianus had left unchanged in the editio princeps than in those which he annotated from the manuscript book, I have distinguished these two types in such a way that I indicated with the letter P those which he had annotated from the codex, and with the letter V those which he had not changed in the editio princeps.