Nonius Marcellus: On the Propriety of Language

he is to be preferred to the others I have seen, although μειουρὸς tailless/imperfect, and even in the complete sheets themselves, imperfect, with the copyist having omitted whatever was more corrupt. In this final revision, I have changed very little in the text itself which I had established long ago. In the notes, I cut out more than I added, and I permitted my light work to be released to the public by my friends. I am so far from seeking glory from it that I rather pray forgiveness for having consumed so much time in a trivial work, which would have been spent more usefully on weightier cares. This is the only favor I ask of you, reader: for I do not excuse the fact that I left many things uncorrected in a most corrupt book, whose desperate passages it was enough to have preserved by showing the ancient writing. Nor do I excuse the fact that I did not touch many corrupted and obscure things in the notes; I feared rather that I might be faulted for being too excessive in them, and for having sought the true reading in the very words of Nonius no less curiously than in the examples of the ancient writers brought forth by him. I thought that although we have these gems committed to the vilest lead, yet even to this lead, whatever belongs to the craft of its author ought to remain. The notes of learned men, which other editions displayed without any selection, we have omitted for the present; there will be someone hereafter who may present them with judgment, along with all the readings of the ancient and modern codices. Meanwhile, enjoy these and farewell.