Proclus: Commentary on Plato's Timaeus, Vol. III (1903) - Page 15

X
PREFACE

...J. Bidez compared them in Revue de Philologie XXIX 4, p. 321 ff. (Psellus and the Commentary on the Timaeus by Proclus). This matter, already known for some time by Georgius Linder, the Uppsala editor of Psellus, escaped me by some chance when I was editing the context, though I had been warned of it by Guilelmus Kroll five years ago. However, Bidez rightly establishes that the recension of the Proclian text did not suffer serious losses from that error. For I have no doubt that the Proclian book of Psellus, which he exhausted for the most part, although it was older than all the codices preserved to this day, stood apart from the part of the codices Q, D, and varsigma, or rather from the Vulgate recension.

I will bring forward some very important examples so that the old memory of the Vulgate recension may shine through:

II p. 159, 20 varsigma: "having made conversely" (it should be "one conversely" original: "ἓν πάλιν") M P : "one having made conversely" Q varsigma : "one having made, he brings in conversely" Psellus.
p. 175, 13 "above all" — 14 "of the monad" M varsigma Psellus : omitted in P Q
p. 176, 7 varsigma — 8 "the" omitted in Q varsigma Psellus
15 the second "the" omitted in Q varsigma : Psellus (twice)
19 "indeed" omitted in Q varsigma : Psellus (twice)
(p. 176, 20 "indeed" is exhibited by varsigma Psellus)
p. 177, 2 "to take such a thing that it is of it and... another" M P : "after the... to have" Q varsigma : "between the... to have" Psellus.
7 "it is" M P : "it has" Q varsigma Psellus.
30 "the" omitted in Q varsigma Psellus.
p. 178, 23 "the" omitted in Q varsigma Psellus.
p. 203, 3 "seven-part" varsigma Psellus.
p. 265, 13 "also" omitted in Q varsigma Psellus.
14 "four" P : "four" using the alternative Greek form for four Q varsigma Psellus.

Four times, however, Psellus agrees with P against varsigma (M Q):

p. 178, 19 "to us" omitted in P Psellus.
p. 205, 19 "they presuppose" M Q varsigma : "it presupposes" P Psellus.
p. 231, 15 "of descent" or diminution M Q varsigma : "of nature" P Psellus.
p. 270, 7 "line" — 8 "pentad" P Psellus : omitted in Q varsigma

Those various readings are too slight to necessitate having flowed from one source. But if anyone were to contend that a lacuna caused by homoeoteleuton similarity in word endings existed entirely in the archetype of Q and varsigma, and were to deny that the supplements can be attributed to the genius of Psellus, let him remember that the same words return in another place of the commentaries (II 328, 13 ff.).