On the Latin Language

...the library of the monastery of the Benedictine Order, no. 361, contains, besides Vegetius and Frontinus and certain short works of Petrus Diaconus (such as a treatise on the origin and life of the just men of the Cassinese monastery), a fragment extracted from the book On the Latin Language, V § 41—56—which is signified by the name of an epitome by the Spengels and ourselves. Regarding this, since the famous physician Giovanni Battista Morgagni had already produced some information (Collection of Scientific Tracts, Venice, vol. IV, p. 3 ff.)—a fact which O. Mueller recalled, having been warned by Blume (Preface, p. XIII and in the note to V 41), as did L. Spengel (loc. cit., p. 440) and P. Canal (Preface, p. XXVI)—H. Keil, seemingly unaware of this, brought it forth (Rhenish Museum VI, 1848, p. 142 ff.) and L. Spengel handed it over to be edited in the Memoirs of the Bavarian Academy VIII (1854). Since Keil had already concluded that this fragment flowed from that formerly Cassinese codex, L. Spengel (loc. cit., p. 434) confirmed it from the fact that in F at VII § 28, where the name Casinum appears, the first hand added "NOT" in the margin—which happened in this one place 1 and is uniquely explained by the attention of the Cassinese librarian. Now, Goetz added a new and third argument using our Loew’s notes in Questiones Varronianae (Jena 1886, p. III ff.): for since Loewe probably conjectured that Petrus Diaconus, the Cassinese monk (who is also known to have summarized Vitruvius on architecture and Solinus on wonders, collected astronomy from the ancients, and amplified the book of notes used by Th. Mommsen, GL. IV p. 333 ff.), had compiled that Cassinese codex, it is added that in the book just cited, On the Origin and Life of the Just Men of the Cassinese Monastery, in the preface set before the life of St. Severus, certain things are exhibited from that passage of Varro to which "NOT" was written; in the same place, however, the things that exist pertaining to that same Varro, repeated from Augustine, have these added to them: he published nine books on the Latin language; where, since "nine books" in no way pertain to Varro’s own epitome of these books 2...

1) Unless you wish to compare the fact that at 13, 3 ff. ".R." (= require) was written above by the first hand, as it seems. Furthermore, we think that what is written in the Cassinese codex 257 next to the name of Varro is connected to that noted place: "He held a school of philosophy here in Casino," which fiction there is hardly any doubt originated from the same Petrus Diaconus. For it is established that he invented many things to increase the fame of Monte Cassino: cf. Wattenbach, "German Historical Sources in the Middle Ages," II, p. 236 ff., 6th ed.

2) Recently, the most learned Italians Mercati and Bonfanti, in "Reports of the Lombard Institute" vol. XLII (1909) p. 316 ff. (where the information we just mentioned is also brought forward), wished to conclude from certain words of Petrus Diaconus concerning the commentary on the rule of St. Benedict in Codex Casinensis 257 that Peter knew Varro’s "15 books on civil law" from Jerome’s catalog. But the most learned jurist Maximilian Conrat (who pointed these things out to us) clearly demonstrates that Peter simply expressed the words of Lactantius (Divine Institutes I 1, 12) in such a way that he inserted Varro’s name for "certain prudent men and arbiters of equity": cf. "Journal of Legal History" XXX, p. 412 ff.