Varro: On the Latin Language (De Lingua Latina)

the library of the monastery of the Benedictine Order no. 361 contains, besides Vegetius and Frontinus and certain minor works of Petrus Diaconus (such as the treatise on the origin and life of the just men of the monastery of Monte Cassino), a fragment excerpted from the book de l. l. V § 41—56—which is signified by the name of an epitome by the Spengels and ourselves—: concerning which, when the most famous physician Giovanni Battista Morgagni had already produced certain things ('Raccolta d’ opuscoli scientif.' Venet. t. IV p. 3 sqq.)—a fact which O. Mueller, warned by Blume, commemorated in the preface p. XIII and in the note to V 41, as did L. Spengel l. s. s. p. 440 and P. Canal in the preface p. XXVI—H. Keil, unaware of it, as it seems, drew it forth in Mus. Rhen. VI (a. 1848) p. 142 sqq., and L. Spengel handed it over to be edited in Comment. acad. Bavar. VIII (1854). Since Keil had already concluded that this fragment had flowed from that formerly Casinensian one, L. Spengel l. s. p. 434 confirmed it from the fact that in F at VII § 28, where the name Casinum exists, the first hand appended in the margin NOT—which happened in this one place1 and is uniquely explained by the attention of the Casinensian scribe. Now Goetz added a new and third argument using the notes of our Loew in Quaest. Varron. (Ienae 1886 p. III sqq.): for when Loewe plausibly conjectured that Petrus Diaconus himself, a monk of Monte Cassino (who is known also to have abridged Vitruvius on architecture and Solinus on wonders, to have collected astronomy from the ancients, and to have amplified the book of notes used by Th. Mommsen, GL. IV p. 333 sqq.), had compiled that Casinensian codex, it is added that in the book just cited on the origin and life of the just men of the monastery of Monte Cassino, in the preface prefixed to the life of St. Severus, certain things are exhibited from that passage of Varro to which NOT was written; in the same place, however, what exists regarding that same Varro, repeated from Augustine, has these added: indeed he published nine books on the Latin language; where the nine books since in no way to Varro’s own epitome of these books2

1) Unless you wish to compare the fact that at 13, 3 sq. R (= require look up) is written above the line by the first hand, as it seems.—Furthermore, we think it coheres with that noted place that in cod. Casin. 257, at the name of Varro, it is written: 'Here at Casino he held a school of philosophy', which fiction there is hardly any doubt proceeded from the same Petrus Diaconus. For it is established that he feigned very many things to increase the fame of Monte Cassino: cf. Wattenbach 'Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter' II p. 236 sqq. ed. VI.
2) Recently, indeed, the most learned Italians Mercati and Bonfanti, 'Rend. dell’ Ist. Lomb.' vol. XLII (a. 1909) p. 316 sqq. (where also the information we just mentioned is brought forward), from certain words of Petrus Diaconus taken from the commentary on the rule of St. Benedict in Cod. Casin. 257, wished to conclude that Petrus knew the 'de iure civili l. XV' fifteen books on civil law of Varro, known from Jerome’s catalog. But the most learned jurist Maximilian Conrat (who pointed this out to us) clearly demonstrates that Petrus simply expressed the words of Lactantius, Inst. div. I 1, 12, in such a way that he inserted the name of Varro for 'certain prudent men and arbiters of equity': cf. 'Zschr. f. Rechtsgesch.' XXX p. 412 sq.