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AN EMENDATION TO A FRAGMENT OF VARRO'S DE BIBLIOTHECIS (FR. 54 GRF FUNAIOLI)1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2015

Thomas Hendrickson
Thomas Hendrickson*
Affiliation:
Dartmouth College
*
thomas.g.hendrickson@dartmouth.edu
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Extract

Varro wrote three books De bibliothecis, according to a list by Jerome (Ep. 33.2 = testimonium 23 GRF Funaioli). The work may have had something to do with his commission to build a massive public library for Julius Caesar (Suet. Iul. 44.2), though Caesar was assassinated before the library could be built. It may also have some connection to Rome's first public library, which Asinius Pollio added to the Atrium of Liberty in the 30s b.c. Pollio, after all, gave a portrait to Varro alone among living authors (Plin. HN 7.115). The known fragments are few.

Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 65 , Issue 1 , May 2015 , pp. 395 - 397
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2015 

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Footnotes

1

I would like to thank Dylan Sailor, Bruce Gibson and the anonymous reader for their helpful comments and suggestions.

References

2 So P. Schmidt, ‘Suetons “Pratum” seit Wessner (1917)’, ANRW 2.33.5 (1991), 3794–3825, esp. 3806, 3814–15.

3 Isidore cites Suetonius explicitly at Orig. 8.7.1, 18.2.3 and 18.6.8. At Orig. 6.14.1, Isidore gives a definition of bibliopola that is also found in a scholiast (on Hor. Ars P. 354), who attributes it to Suetonius.

4 Fragments at Varro, fr. 53 GRF Funaioli (= p. 186 Barwick [p. 146 Keil]) and fr. 54 GRF Funaioli (= p. 110 Barwick [pp. 87–8 Keil] and p. 167 Barwick [p. 131 Keil]).

5 As it appears at p. 167 Barwick, reficit at p. 110 Barwick.

6 Sheets of papyri were glued together to form a book-roll. The adhesive used was sometimes described as gluten (or a related word) in ancient sources, e.g. Isid. Orig. 6.10.2: carta autem dicta quod carptim papyri tegmen decerptum glutinantur; SHA, Quadr. Tyr. 3.2: exercitum se alere posse papyro et glutine; Plin. HN 13.81: inserta mediis glutinamentis taenea; Plin. HN 22.127: chartae glutinantur. Slaves and freedmen who worked on book-repair were called glutinatores (see TLL 6.2.2113 s.v. glutinator).

7 This is stated in the apparatus criticus in Keil, H., Grammatici Latini, vol. 1 (Leipzig, 1857 [reprinted Hildesheim, 1961])Google Scholar. Barwick does not note the emendation. In the first case, the editio princeps also deleted the reficit.

8 E.g. Cic. Ver. 2.4.37: maximam et pulcherrimam mensam citream; Plin. HN 13.102: nec aliunde pretiosiora opera; Apul. Met. 2.19.1: citro et ebore nitentes.

9 E.g. Cato the Elder, fr. 185 ORF Malcovati: expolitae maximo opere citro atque ebore; Varro, Rust. 3.2.4: nuncubi hic uides citrum aut aurum?; Petron. Sat. 119.28–9: citrea mensa ... imitatur uilius aurum; Plin. HN 5.12: luxuriae, cuius efficacissima uis sentitur atque maxima, cum ebori, citro siluae exquirantur.

10 HN 16.197: cedri oleo peruncta materies nec tiniam nec cariem sentit; HN 16.212: cariem uetustatemque non sentiunt ... cedrus ... rimam fissuramque non capit sponte cedrus.

11 The use of cedar oil to preserve books is often noted, and is an indication of a good quality book: Hor. Ars P. 331–2: speramus carmina fingi | posse linenda cedro; Porph. on Hor. Ars P. 332: libri enim, qui aut cedro inlinuntur ... a tineis non uexantur; Schol. Hor. Ars P. 332: cedrus ... <cuius> ligna sunt imputribilia et hac re uermes et serpentes fugantia; Pers. 1.42: cedro digna locutus; Pacian, Ep. 2.4.5: litteras tuas uiuaci cedro perlinam propter cariosas hostes Musarum; Marcell. De med. 12.36: cedrum, quo libri perunguntur; Marcell. De med. 31.21: cedria, quo librarii utuntur.

12 E.g. Ov. Trist. 1.1.7: nec cedro charta notetur; Ov. Trist. 3.1.13: neque sum cedro flauus; Ov. Trist. 3.1.55: aspicis exsangui chartam pallere colore; Mart. Ep. 3.2.7: cedro ... perunctus; Mart. Ep. 5.6.14: cedro decorata; Mart. Ep. 8.61.4: decorus et cedro; Lucian, Ind. 16: τὰ βιβλία ... ἀλείφεις τῷ κρόκῳ καὶ τῇ κέδρῳ; Mart. Cap. 2.136: alia ex papyro, quae cedro perlita fuerat.

13 E.g. Frösén, J., ‘The conservation of ancient papyrus materials’, in Bagnall, R. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Papyrology (Oxford, 2009), 79–100Google Scholar, at 83.