PREFACE.

To me, Apuleius has always seemed to require an editor who is both cautious and bold: one who, having diligently considered the nature of the Apuleian style as well as the flow of the sentences and the ductus the shape and style of the handwriting of the lines, could reasonably restore passages that appear, with good cause, to be corrupt. Whether I have proven myself to be such an editor, let the candid reader judge. I have often seemed to detect lacunae missing portions of text in the manuscript, and I have attempted to restore them to integrity; for I am firmly convinced that in almost all ancient texts, there are just as many passages omitted as there are corrupted. I have studied what learned men, especially those of this age, have written about the words and works of Apuleius, and if any of their findings seemed plausible, I have turned them to my own use.

Regarding the orthography of the words, I have followed the system of the older Florentine manuscript as much as was possible, and where the codex is inconsistent with itself, I have not reduced everything to a single norm. However, where the consistency of the text could be restored without drastic changes, I did not neglect to follow uniformity, in this matter following for the most part the precepts established by H. Mueller in his review of the Eyssenhardtian edition (Zeitschr. f. d. Gymn. Wes. 1871 p. 43 sqq.) and H. Petschenig (Wiener Studien 1882 p. 136 sqq.). I have not even attempted to correct the inconsistency of the codex in assimilating the consonants of compound prepositions, lest the reader be deprived of their own judgment, or lest I throw away the good grain of an ancient reading along with the weeds original: "zizania" of a more recent orthography.

That φ the Florentine manuscript was copied from F the original witness, no one has yet doubted; nor is it possible to doubt this fact, although in a few places—especially in the final part of the work see p. 243.29 regarding the word "medicinae"—a not insignificant difference exists between the readings of the two codices.