Where is the Oldest Manuscript Copy of Suetonius?

[Curt Symansky]

After recently reading "The Twelve Caesars" by Suetonius, I got to wondering
just how accurate the English translation by Robert Graves was. Does anyone
know where he got his latin copy from? Does anyone know where and how old
is the oldest surviving copy? Is it an original scroll or a book that is
the copy of a copy etc. What library or museum is it in? Since I don't
understand latin anyway, I can't read it but I'm curious.

[Franziska Gasser]

Hallo curt,

I'll try to answer your question, althought - as you'll certainly notice -
English is not my mother tongue, nor was it my favourite subject at school ...
If you're reading a mere translation of a classical work, the translator
often didn't look at the manuscripts himself. Translators often use a
"critical edition" of the work to do their job (perhaps their's a note of
his source somewhere in the book). "Critical editions" are works of (if
you're lucky ...) competent scientists, who viewed all the available
manuscripts of a work (they can differ a lot, be full of (different)
faults, not be complete etc.). Viewing means: you look which manuscripts
are related (copied from each other, it is depending), trying to establish
a "stemma" (sort of genealogic tree of manuscripts), then, if there're
differences, you take the presumably best version (most up in the "tree",
most parallel versions of other manuscripts of another branch of the
"tree" (it is: not related), good meaning etc.). You see, it's very
complicated (The science is called "textual criticism") and be aware: The
"oldest" surviving manuscript can, but isn't bound to offer the best
version of the text (a "younger" manuscript can be copied from a very old,
but lost version) ...
As for "Suetonius, De vita Caesarum" you're lucky:
The oldest surviving manuscript is the most important. It comes from the
the early ninth century and it's now in Paris ("Paris.lat. 6115").
Traditionally it's called "Memmianus" (M) from its sixteenth-century
owner, Henri de Mesmes. M was written at Tours (France) about 820.
(Although over 200 manuscripts are extant, "De vita Caesarum" seems to
have survived into the ninth century in a single manuscript, since lost.
The surviving manuscripts are traditionallyy diveded into two classes,
usally designated X and Z (M is member of the X-family).

If your interest has grown, consult:

- "Texts and Transmission", A Survey of the Latin Classics, ed. L.D.
Reynolds, Oxford 1983 (as for "Suetonius": pp. 399-405)

- "Scribes and Scholars", A Guide to the Transmission of Greek and Latin
Literature, Oxford 1991 (u.a.) (as for "Textual criticism", pp. 207-241)

greetings
Franziska Gasser, University of Zurich (Switzerland),
Classics department

--
fga...@klphs.unizh.ch (Franziska Gasser)

[Curt Symansky]

fga...@klphs.unizh.ch (Franziska Gasser) wrote:

[text deleted]

>As for "Suetonius, De vita Caesarum" you're lucky:
>The oldest surviving manuscript is the most important. It comes from the
>the early ninth century and it's now in Paris ("Paris.lat. 6115").
>Traditionally it's called "Memmianus" (M) from its sixteenth-century
>owner, Henri de Mesmes. M was written at Tours (France) about 820.
>(Although over 200 manuscripts are extant, "De vita Caesarum" seems to
>have survived into the ninth century in a single manuscript, since lost.

Thanks for your excellent reply. this is just the information I was looking
for. One question: are you saying that the M manuscript is thought to be a
9th century copy of a manuscript in Suetonius' own hand (or one of his
scribes)?

[Edwin P. Menes]

Except for chance finds (usually out of Egypt) Classical manuscripts are
in codex form (like a modern book) rather than in scroll form. One of
the great filters in the transmission process, in fact, was the choice of
what to copy from papyrus scrolls onto vellum pages (late 3rd to early
5th century, for the most part).

Also, though autograph manuscripts would be neat to have, the only one I
know of is papyrus pieces in the hand of Dioscorus of Aphrodito (6th
century A.D. Egypt). There's a lot of dispute about ancient book
production, but the author most likely wrote on wax tablets (which
allowed easy correction). The finished work on wax would then have been
copied onto a papyrus roll by a secretary, for final correction by the
author. From there it would go to friends for further comment or it
might enter the book trade immediately, either via a
commercial seller or via a private publisher (it's here the meaning of
the terms is uncertain).

There's also some dispute about the durability of materials, but the best
I've read for papyrus under ordinary care in Italy is 100 years, for
vellum 1000 years.

So, there is no Suetonian autograph. There is also no Suetonius in
scroll form. There is no Suetonius on papyrus. The line from the oldest
available S. manuscript in the ninth century (which time and place
connect it with the Carolingian Renaissance) is most likely to a
manuscript copied in the sixth century and from then to one copied in the
fourth century from papyrus. Before that, there was another papyrus
copy, and before that another one (and perhaps one more). The original
trade papyrus would have been copied from the author's final copy, which
would have been made from his tablets.

The oldest surviving manuscript, then, is at six or seven removes from
Suetonius' own hand.

Ed Menes