The Poems of Tibullus and the Elegies of Sulpicia

Since, therefore, by this sad turn of fortune, Tibullus was deprived of his editor, and someone was now required to bring the initiated edition to a conclusion, the task of completing the work was offered to Huschke, who was staying in Göttingen at that time, and than whom no more suitable editor of Tibullus could seem to be found. Huschke, who was himself a friend of Wunderlich while he lived, undertook the matter; a contract was made, and everything was handed over to him that had been noted here and there by Wunderlich, and whatever had been offered by other learned men. But then Huschke truly hesitated, not refusing outright, but yet not addressing the work; finally, after dragging the whole matter out for an entire summer, he flatly refused and renounced the conditions. By what right he did this, let him see for himself; for me, the truth must be told. Therefore, since the edition of Tibullus could no longer be delayed, lest the publisher—a most honest man—suffer even greater loss, I finally took the matter upon myself, and did what could be done in the short space of time granted to me. Regarding this, I must now speak. Wunderlich himself delivered the first book with notes and observations to the press, having occupied himself in preparing it such that he frequently changed the reading and added more abundant critical notes, maintaining in the rest almost the same method as he had explained for Virgil. Finally, he accurately distinguished all the things he added from Heyne's notes and observations with the letters H. — W. I took care of the printing of the remaining three books, and continued the work in this manner: Since, while examining what had been left by Wunderlich, I had found many things corrected by his final hand, I received all these while keeping his very words; then I also transferred other things I knew he had noted here and there that would be useful for Tibullus, and in general I set for myself the law that whenever I added notes and ob-