PREFACE OF THE EDITOR

p. 170, 8 multitudine pontem succidisset L multitudine sputi (s above the line m. 2.) succedisset (1st e changed to i m. 1.) N incorrectly

p. 175, 6 fuit post gaudium om. L, incorrectly adds N. Now, with these passages brought forward, none of which those who have known the stupidity and supine negligence of scribes will contend was cured by their conjecture—for I have omitted others in which this could have been possible—I seem to have sufficiently proven the goodness of this book. Although the number of cases where N has preserved better readings and is free from the interpolations with which the scribe of codex L ruined things he did not understand1) is even greater, still, that the archetype was represented by him with sufficient care is proven also by the fact that he imitated the open form of the letter a which he had found there, not rarely, but not with enough dexterity, as for instance on p. 7, 3 in matremque and p. 25, 5 in anseris. The same thing, however, gave cause for errors elsewhere, as on p. 142, 25, where he wrote ufranio instead of afranio, and p. 151, 7 auicum instead of ciuicum2). Beck imitated the forms of the abbreviations, of which there are few in it, in appendix III 2 of his 'observations'.

Since, therefore, it is understood from the combined readings of the codices N and L what was written in their common source, I have indicated C = N and L combined those readings that are found in both with the letter C. Furthermore, I have appended the full and complete variety of the readings of both these and the book B, and I have not neglected even the smallest things, besides the interchange of the elements e, ae, oe and c, t and similar ones. This was necessary both because of the supreme authority of those codices and because, after the imperfect attempts of previous editors, it had to be determined once and for all what had been handed down in the primary books. I did not want, however, to attack the errors of others in every single place, but...

1) See p. 7, 20, where he added quia before deerant; p. 19, 10 he changed deis to De his; p. 22, 13 Veios to uera; p. 26, 11 insidente galeae to insequente gallo, and others.
2) cf. 'On the recension and correction of Seneca' p. 42 sq.