PREFACE.

...the orthography; then (chapter IV) of their fates and the diverse opinions which learned men have brought forth about them; finally, I enumerated (chapter V) the manuscripts I used, and (chapter VI) all the editions I either saw myself or heard of from others as being found in any library.

On every page, I have marked not only the book but also (which has been done until now only in the Gronovian edition) the chapters; I have divided individual chapters into paragraphs; the excerpts from the book on the differences and similarities of the Greek and Latin verb and the fragment of an uncertain author on the verb into chapters and paragraphs; to this I have added the paragraphs and pages of the Analecta Grammatica, and the pages of the Bipontine edition for the Macrobian works. To the second volume, which I hope to finish this very year, indices will be added: one of writers, in which I will enumerate all the passages cited by Macrobius and discuss the less known writers, and another of matters and words, richer than the previous ones.

As regards the form and appearance of this book, the printer, for the same reason I mentioned above, spared space as much as possible, though not entirely neglecting elegance; the result is that, however much has been added, this edition slightly exceeds the Bipontine in the number of pages. Errors, not very grave indeed but more numerous than I would have liked, have crept in; I am no less burdened by the blame for this than he is, for individual sheets were sent to me before they were submitted to the press, but since I was accustomed to correct some things even in those which I had written before, and the sheets could not be sent more than once at such an interval of places, it could easily happen that new mistakes arose from the correction itself. The things I found, I corrected in the Corrigenda corrections; but, if any should happen to remain in the critical apparatus, so that no one who later undertakes to handle or emend Macrobius should ever be left in doubt, I will deposit whatever I have excerpted from the manuscripts along with all the editions I purchased in the library of the Ludovician Gymnasium, which is in Suevofurtum, to be sent to whoever requests them.

As I know I have failed in some things, I am not unaware that I have left many things. But those who are going to judge this work of mine, such as it is, I would like to ask that they not look only at those things, but also recognize what I have done; and, having carefully examined everything, they will concede to me that this edition contains whatever is read in all previous editions pertaining to Macrobius (for I deliberately omitted the foreign things that others inserted into their annotations) and besides that, other things not entirely useless...