Rasārṇavakalpa

PRAEFATIO.

...the audacity of the painters, so that, when the descriptions of the Gemini and Cancer of Germanicus are lacking, they insert scraps from Avienus, so that the images might not lack the explanations written beneath them. It is strange that the editions of Germanicus, older than the Gratian Syntagma, especially the Aldine, Basle, Morellian, and Sanctandrean editions *) agree in very many things, even in the most foolish errors, in omitted, transposed, or miserably distorted verses; for what Morellius corrected in the notes is little, and for the most part, they are typographical blunders of the Aldine edition. It seems, therefore, that all these editions flowed from the Aldine. Grotius deserved very well for amending the fragments of Germanicus, partly by the help of a manuscript codex, which I have already mentioned, partly by following Aratus and his commentators, and partly also by contemplating what the matter itself, about which Germanicus was speaking, demanded. The text ends abruptly at "flagi-", likely a catchword or line break.

*) Regarding the editions of the Aratean works of Cicero, Germanicus, and Avienus, see the preface to Volume I.