PREFACE. XI

I have presented in this volume the letter of Godefroy Ernst Groddeck, librarian to His Most Serene Highness Adam Czartoryski, which exhibits various readings of the Phaenomena and Diosemeia of Aratus, most diligently excerpted from the codices of the Vindobonensis Viennese library, together with a learned description of the codices and other observations pertaining to Aratus. I have inserted this letter into this volume with all the greater pleasure because it may serve simultaneously as a monument to the friendship and fellowship that I once enjoyed at Gottingen with its author, an excellent and most distinguished man, the memory of whom will remain most sacred and pleasant to me throughout my entire life.

Following the letter of Groddeck is a Commentary on the life, character, and writings of Aratus, especially on the Phaenomena and Diosemeia, and then on his interpreters, both Greek and Latin. I have prefixed to this Commentary several Greek Lives of Aratus, in...