Columella: On Agriculture, Vol. I (Loeb)

relationship of R, the fifteenth-century group, to S and A. Van Buren¹ thinks the R family is descended from A, to which they often bear a close resemblance when S and A differ. The most recent and thorough treatment of the manuscript tradition is that of Sobel,² whose ingenious and carefully constructed stemma (family tree of manuscripts)³ shows, through a series of lost archetypes, the descent of representative members of the R class from a common ancestor (Sobel's $β$). It also shows the relationship of A to R through a better line of descent from the same early ancestor; the descent of S and A from a common archetype, with S inheriting the better readings through an intermediary copy of mixed parentage; and the descent of them all from an ultimate archetype (Sobel's $ω$) written after the fifth century. The vexed question as to how and when De Arboribus was inserted into Res Rustica is likewise discussed by Sobel.⁴

Columella's works were edited many times in the century following the introduction of printing, usually in company with Cato, Varro, and Palladius.⁵ The editio princeps (first printed edition), edited by George Merula, was printed at Venice by Nicolas Jenson in a collection of Rei Rusticae Scriptores (Writers on Agriculture) in the year 1472. This was

¹ A. W. Van Buren, "The Text of Columella," Suppl. Papers of the Am. Sch. of Class. Stud. in Rome, Vol. I, pp. 189-190.
² Ragnar Sobel, Studia Columelliana Palaeographica et Critica (Columellian Palaeographical and Critical Studies), Göteborg, 1928.
³ Ibid., p. 15.
⁴ Ibid., pp. 15-21. Cf. J. Trotsky, "Studien zur Ueberlieferungsgeschichte Columellas" (Studies on the History of the Transmission of Columella), Raccolta . . . Ramorino (Publications of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Vol. VII, Milan), p. 449f.
⁵ Only the most important editions are named here. For a full account of the early editions, see Schneider's Rei Rusticae Scriptores, Vol. II. 2, pp. 5-15, and Vol. IV. 1, pp. 73-80.