Nonius Marcellus: On the Propriety of Language

...the book was circulated so corrupted that the scholars of that age professed to have refrained from reading it due to its profound corruption, when it would have been most just that the one who had most negligently transcribed the exceptional passages of the best writers should himself be transcribed by the most negligent copyists. Hadrianus Iunius, a man of outstanding learning and judgment, was the first, nearly fifty years ago, to produce an edition from old examples, which all subsequent editions have followed, with the addition of conjectures from learned men concerning some of the more significant passages. Nearly thirty years ago, we had the abundance of an excellent and very ancient manuscript codex from the library of St. Victor in Paris, from which there is certain evidence that all copies of this book currently in Europe have been transcribed. That was the primary foundation for me for this entire edition. At the same time, I used a manuscript book belonging to the greatest jurist, Iacobus Cuiacius Jacques Cujas, by whose aid he had wiped away some significant stains; but it was much more recent, and not complete. For the middle part of the fourth chapter was missing, as was also the case in several other codices which I saw later in Germany and Britain. Furthermore, most of the examples from the authors were missing, which the copyist had omitted wherever he had found them to be significantly corrupted. I also had a paper manuscript from the most learned and accomplished Nicolaus Faber, but it was the most uncorrected of all that I have seen. With these codices accurately collated, I [prepared this] edition.