Attic Nights

Therefore, where we are destitute of the help of this book, it may be a matter of doubt whether we are viewing the whole hand of the writer or only the reading of the archetype of those manuscripts PRV; but, deprived of the best guide, we shall use those that are present, such as they are.

This book, to whose praises I have already risen, is the palimpsest manuscript Palatino-Vaticanus XXIV (A)1) Regarding which, besides Hertz, see Stevenson in the Catalog of Latin Palatine Manuscripts of the Vatican Library (Rome 1886) I p. 4, where there is not even a word about Gellius. of the 7th century, A, which contains under the version of some books of the so-called Old Testament: book XCI of Livy; fragments of Cicero's Pro M. Fonteio and C. Rabirio, Seneca, Lucan, and others; and from folio 80 onwards, apart from a few chapter summaries, it contains great parts of books I—IV of Gellius in 'letters distorted from the square form' (uncial). Of these, what could be made out are as follows: chapter summaries I 15 (inportunum vitium [inopportune vice], etc.); 16; XVII 21 (si floruerint [if they have flourished], etc.); XVIII 1; 2 (-certa); then I 2, 13—3, 7 (molestiam quod [the trouble which]); 3, 16 (minime [least]) — 5, 2 (iactatus [having been tossed]); 6, 1 (eum ad [to him]) — 7, 2 (cognitoribus [defenders]); 7, 4 (multa exercitus [many of the army]) — 9 (occupatas [occupied]); 9, 12 (quod quisque [that each one]) — 10, 1 (expromenti [to one bringing forth]); 12, 5 (cuius [whose]) — 7 (sacerdotio [priesthood]); 22, 7 (stoicas [Stoic]) — 13 (blando [flattering]); II 6, 3 (totius generis [of the whole kind]) — 5 (quam tangere [than to touch]); 7, 8 (est patri [is to the father]) — 13 (esse dicunt [they say it is]); 8, 6 (cuiusmodi [of what kind]) — 9, 5 (insectatur [pursues/attacks]); 22, 22 (eurum [the southeast wind]) — 25 (oritur [arises]); 23, 20 (acciderat [had happened]) — (Greek omitted) 21 (educit in [leads into]); 24, 4 (misellus [wretched little]) — 7 (e terra [from the earth]); 25, 8 (alii rarenter [others rarely]) — 26, 2 (eorum [of them]); 26, 13 (pedem [foot]) — 19 (Nigidius); 27, 2 (haec [these things]) — (paratu militum [the preparation of soldiers]); 27, 5 (quibus [to whom]) — 28, 1 (terrarum causis [for the reasons of the lands]); 29, 8 (haec [these]) — 11 (adfinesque [and relations]); 29, 15 (id ubi [when that]) — 17 (plerumque [mostly]); III 13, 2 (causam [cause]) — 5 (dicentem atque [speaking and]); 16, 4 (Caecilius) — (Caecilii); IV 1, 7 (et lentem [and the lentil]) — 13 (alias [otherwise]). That the memory of this manuscript flows in its own channel and does not cohere with the others, so that it may be proven, it suffices to have noted that the end of chapter two of book I and the beginning of the third are read in this. Indeed, its excellence shines forth so much in every single chapter that it is not relevant to pluck out individual points from such abundance. Nevertheless, in one thing [it differs from] the books...