Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/33

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INTRODUCTION

expressly describes as taken from an old MS. he has recently discovered (1494), which MS. he says is that which Poggio, the Renaissance scholar, brought into Italy from Gaul. He also says that from this MS. all other MSS. are derived, but although we can say the same of M we cannot identity it with Poggio’s MS., for (i.) Politian states that the line Silv. i. 4. 86a, which is in M and subsequent MSS., was not in Poggio’s. (ii.) Some of the excerpts from the latter differ from M. (iii.) He would not have called a fifteenth-century MS. “vetustus.”[1] This MS. of Poggio is usually identified with the one that Poggio says he sent to Florence in 1416 or i417, from Constance or St. Gall, which was probably a copy of a much older one that he found there. It is quite possible, however, that it was the original that he sent to Florence, and not a copy, and Politian’s description of Poggio’s MS. as “vetustus” would help this identification. See the Classical Review, Nos. 15–17, 20, 26, 27, 32.[2]

  • M : codex Matritensis M 31, dated about 1430.
  • M1 : first hand, i.e. transcriber of the MS.
  • M2 : second hand, i.e. first corrector of the MS.
  • m : later correctors.
  • L : codex Laurentianus (only of ii. 7), dated tenth century.
  1. ↑ It should be added that some of Politian’s emendations in the Corsinian copy appear to be of the same date as those stated by him to be from Poggio’s MS., and may therefore also come from there.
  2. ↑ Also J. S. Phillimore’s Introduction to Silvae (Oxford Classical Texts). Prof. A. C. Clark would identify Poggio’s MS. with M (Introduction to Asconius, Oxford Classical Texts, p. xxxi); holding that Politian must have been mistaken.

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