On the Latin Language

PREFACE

It happened almost by chance that we transferred our partnership—formed years ago for the revision of Plautus under our most beloved teacher Ritschl—to the books of Varro on the Latin language. For when one of us offered himself to the publisher for an edition in the Teubner Library, he discovered that the other had already come to an agreement on the same matter. Thus, we decided to enter into a partnership for this task as well. We did not regret this new token of friendship, even though we argued sharply in not a few places until either one gave way to the other, or we conceived an entirely new opinion, or we left the matter in the middle by admitting a non liquet it is not clear. We also did not wish to distinguish between our individual efforts, so that we might more openly declare that we have set forth nothing which we do not acknowledge as being in some way acceptable, and at the same time to signify that we do not attribute too much to ourselves for our discoveries or the praise of those discoveries.

But as the work progressed, we were moved from a simple revision, which both had intended at the beginning, to the preparation of a larger edition. For we realized that a new collation of the Codex Laurentianus a primary manuscript from the Laurentian Library was necessary, and that both the interpretation and the constitution of the words would be greatly aided by the addition of 'testimonia.' By this name, we understand not only the passages presented by writers in the actual words of Varro, which are few, but also a wealth of parallel passages and homoiotēton similarities/correspondences. Where we selected the better ones, we only indicated the others. We do not doubt that a great deal could be added to this apparatus, as we gave our efforts to seeking out these testimonies late in the process. Yet, even so, anyone who compares the passages we have marked for 'testimonia' with the commentaries of our predecessors will easily understand that much can be gained from it. From their great number, we have deliberately omitted quite a few things that could be adopted from the richer apparatus of the Spengels. Finally, we decided that both fuller prolegomena and added annotations, along with expanded and slightly reorganized indices, were necessary.

Although we had decided from the start to add the fragments of Varro's remaining grammatical writings, we did not deviate from this plan, even though Funaioli in the meantime inserted these into the first volume of the Roman Grammar