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Literary Criticism Ancient & Classical

Reading and Variant in Petronius

Studies in the French Humanists and their Manuscript Sources

by (author) Wade T. Richardson

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Dec 1993
Category
Ancient & Classical, Medieval, General
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780802028662
    Publish Date
    Sep 1993
    List Price
    $87.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781487586669
    Publish Date
    Dec 1993
    List Price
    $37.95

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Description

Critical editions of most classical authors are based on readings transmitted by medieval scholars that can be examined and collated. Modern editions of Petronius, on the other hand, are principally based on printed editions, most of them published in France during the sixteenth century. In this volume T. Wade Richardson considers the use made of the Petronius manuscripts then extant by seven French humanist editors for their various editions, commentaries, and notes.

Some of the manuscripts they used may be equated with extant exemplars, which therefore serve as a good check on the quality of their readings. But as much as half of the text rests on the sixteenth-century witness alone. Through a broad and integrated study of the problems of the Petronius text the author attempts to unravel the tangled skein of humanist work on Petronius, to settle some of the old textual puzzles, and to solidify the text and recast the apparatus.

Richardson also provides information on the codicology and palaeography of the texts and on the talents and habits of the scholars who created them.

About the author

Wade Richardson is an adjunct professor in the Department of Greek and Roman Studies at the University of Victoria.

Wade T. Richardson's profile page