RICERCA ITALIANA     

Critical editions and scholarly commentaries on texts of the Augustan and early Imperial period

Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa

Abstract

The research project of the five research units, inspired by the project of a new critical edition of Vergil's Aeneid commissioned to the main proponent, G. B. Conte, by Saur Verlag for the Teubner series, will center in particular on the publication of new critical editions (notably that of Vergil's Aeneid) and scholarly commentaries on critically assessed texts. The classical authors who will be the targets of this editorial enterprise will be mainly Vergil, Horace, Properce, the two Senecas, and the fragments of Roman mime. Even if the main target of the project is editorial and ecdotic, as well as exegetical, editions and commentaries published by members of our research group will aim at a substantial re-interpretation of the Augustan literary system, with a particular attention for the interaction of the literary genres. thse objectives have been selected with an eye to the most significant representatives of the transition between the late augustan period and the early imperial age.
The commentaries will be composed according to common criteria, and publication of new works will be decided collegially. Each volume will be preceded by a wide-ranging introductory essay, which will set out the guidelines in the interpretation of the text. The notes will be focalized on issues of a textual-critical nature, as well as relating to matters of literary interpretation. Intertextuality and parody will also be considered. Attention will also be devoted to the >>>

Principal Investigator

Gian Biagio Conte Scuola Normale Superiore di PISA

Research Objectives

Even if the main target of the project is editorial and ecdotic, as well as exegetical, editions and commentaries published by members of our research group will aim at a substantial re-interpretation of the Augustan literary system, with a particular attention for the interaction of the literary genres. these objectives have been selected with an eye to the most significant representatives of the transition between the late augustan period and the early imperial age. The most important authors on which these editorial activities will center will be Vergil (critical edition of Aeneid), Horace (editions of Odes I-II), Properce (Elegies IV), the two Senecas (commentaries on Controversiae and Suasoriae, Hercules Oetaeus), the fragments of Roman mime. For details see the descriptions of specific tasks assigned to the local units as described in 2.3.
The commentaries will be composed according to common criteria, and publication of new works will be decided collegially. Each volume will be preceded by a wide-ranging introductory essay, which will set out the guidelines in the interpretation of the text. The notes will be focalized on issues of a textual-critical nature, as well as relating to matters of literary interpretation. Intertextuality and parody will also be considered. Attention will also be devoted to the 'nachleben' of all authors under study.

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

VERGIL
The present research originates from a proposal issued by Teubner to the proponent, Prof. Conte, to edit a new critical edition of Vergil's Aeneid, to replace the two older editions of Ribbeck and Janell. It is generally assumed that Vergil is among ancient writers one of those with the strongest and soundest textual tradition. Yet, the study of the numerous variant readings preserved by the direct and indirect tradition, as well as the presence of undeniable corruptions and lacunae spread over the entire tradition force on us the conviction that the poem was never completed - a fact that sometimes modern editors seem to forget when they come to establishing the text. Mynors' splendid 1969 Oxford edition, to give just one example, gives a very smooth text, which has become a new vulgata. Mynors, however, seems to glide over passages which are decidedly problematic, and would require further thought. A good starting point is offered by the critical apparatus of two Italian editions, Sabbadini 1930 and Geymonat ("Corpus Paravianum"), 1973, which is also the most recent critical edition of Vergil we have. The latter edition's apparatus contains much erudition which is more pertinent for the history of the text of Vergil than for the users of a critical text. One of the objectves of the new critical edition will be to find a third way between the excessive briefness of Mynors's apparatus and the superabundance of Geymonat's >>>