Surviving Works, Vol. II

1650. (R) ⁴). In correcting the author's words, I have followed the method that I set forth in that preface on page xi; in Greek matters, I have relied almost everywhere on the authority of codex P. There is hardly any need for me to warn that I have very rarely indulged in conjectures regarding these words or those of the ancient Latin prose writers and poets, since in such an author, one does not so much seek the true form of those fragments as what that form might have been in the copies that he had before his eyes. Moreover, I am not sufficiently skilled in the art of metrics, nor am I sufficiently equipped with the resources necessary to thoroughly amend those fragments. ⁵) Thus, since the numbers not infrequently suffer from errors,

h) Ottobonianum 2052. „Altaemps“, parchment of square format from the 14th or 15th century. Subscription: The third book of the Convivia [Saturnalia] of the most distinguished man, Macrobius Theodosius, ends here.
⁴) This parchment codex of square format from the 10th century, written in two columns, contains books I–III of the Saturnalia starting from folio XLI, omitting the first words: Many and varied in this life, and to book II is added the subscription: THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CONVIVIA [SATURNALIA] OF THE MOST DISTINGUISHED AND ILLUSTRIOUS MACROBIUS THEODOSIUS ENDS HERE, and to book III, merely: Ends.
In the same library, the distinguished man [V. D.] saw these codices:
a) Reginensis 1647. Parchment of square format from the 15th century. „College of the Society of Jesus at Olomouc; Catalog of manuscripts 1604.“ Inscription: The first book of Macrobius Theodosius on the Saturnalia begins. The last words of the Saturnalia are read on folio CLIII. On folio CLV follows book VII up to chapter 12, § 29.
b) Reginensis 1983. Paper of the largest format from the 15th century. Subscription: THE THIRD BOOK OF THE CONVIVIA [SATURNALIA] OF THE CONSULAR AND ILLUSTRIOUS MACROBIUS THEODOSIUS ENDS HERE.
Finally, in Padua, in the library of Saint Anthony, he saw a fragment of 6 folios from the 10th century, which begins with the words: THE BOOK OF THE SATURNALIA OF MACROBIUS AMBROSIUS THEODOSIUS, FIVE-TIME CONSUL (i.e., most distinguished and illustrious) TO HIS SON EUSTATHIUS BEGINS. Then the same [text] inserts, for the sake of the Saturnalia, many such exchanges (I, 11, 50.) and ends with the words (I, 15, 20.): he happily consecrated the beginning of the months, that is, the Calends, to this goddess.
⁵) When everything had already been typeset, there came into my hands the book of Eduard Munkius titled On the Atellan Farces (Leipzig, 1840). There, on page 143 and following, I found the verses of Pomponius which are read in Sat. VI, 4, 13, arranged thus:

You must lower your voice, so that the words of the woman
may be seen. — Just order a gift to be brought, and I will return
a thin and shrill voice.
In the same place, a fragment from the Transalpine Gauls (Sat. VI, 9, 4.) is read, and on page 146, a fragment of the play titled Maevia (Sat. I, 4, 22.) without any discrepancy, but it is noted for this second fragment that the word dies [day] is counted as one syllable twice. A fragment of Novius (Sat. I, 10, 3.) is read on page 184 with the order of words changed:
At last the long-awaited seven Saturnalia arrive;
and a fragment of Mummius (Sat. I, 10, 3.), whom Munkius calls Memmius or Mummius, on page 186: