The Extant Works of Macrobius, Vol. 2

PREFACE.

When I was publishing the first volume of my Macrobius, I hoped that I would finish this second volume in that same year; four years have intervened, years in which things occurred that I had deemed impossible. I would not deny that the completion of this volume was somewhat delayed in recent times, but certainly less by the difficulty of the task than by the procrastination on the part of the printer. For I let no time pass, except for a few months in the year 1849, during which I was hindered by poor health; and in that very year the first proofs were submitted to the press. The printer never asked me in vain for text to set; he himself, however, often stalled—once, indeed, without even a warning from me for a period of six months.

Concerning the matter itself, I have little to say: for I have already discussed the condition and format of the edition in the preface to the first volume, and the critical apparatus in the prolegomena, pages LXXX and following. This volume is augmented by those items which, beyond the excerpts from the Bourbon codex (N) mentioned in that same place on page LXXXVII, were sent to me—such is his generosity—by H. KEIL, transcribed from that very same codex¹), and from the Medicean codex of the eighth shelf.

1. Having collated these parts of the Saturnalia with the Bipontine edition: I, 7, §§ 36, 37; I, 10, 3; I, 17, §§ 10, 20; II, 2, 17; II, 7, §§ 3 and 9–11; III, 16, 16; 17, 14; with verses of the ancient Latin poets VI, 1, 8; 5, 5. To the description of the codex which is read in the prolegomena, p. LXXXVII, the following must be added: In the Bourbon codex the books are not distinct, but a new line begins with a larger letter at the words: Accentaque (sic) sorte (I, 7, 28); Quae de libero patre (I, 19, 1); Saturnus ipse (I, 22, 3); Sicubi (sic) modestus (II, 1, 1); Has tot interpretationis ambages (III, 2, 12); Sermone movetur (IV, 1, 1); Post haec (V, 1, 1); Hic (VI, 1, 1), at this point having prefixed the words: FINIT DE HIS QVE VIRGIL. A GRECIS TRAXIT. DE HIS Q. A VETERIBVS LATINIS MARO TRANSTVLIT; Primis mensibus (sic, VII, 1, 1). In book VI, from chapter 1, § 8, the words of Virgil and the ancient poets are in two columns.