12 - Commentary

Summary

Title Part of the title is closely related to title A of the colloquium Leidense–Stephani, which mentions καθημερινὴ συναναστροφή/cottidiana conversatio, and less closely related to titles in ME and H; see on ME 3a (with vol. I figure 2.10) and on the LS title. There is no Latin title at the start of the colloquium, only a Greek one, but as Dionisotti (1982: 93) points out, the table of contents to the capitula (folio 18r) has an entry for a section that does not appear in the actual capitula but could refer to the colloquium, namely Περι κατημερινι αναστροφης/De quotidiana conversatione (the reading of the last word is uncertain). It is very difficult to tell whether or not this title does in fact relate to the colloquium. On the one hand it is not the same as the actual colloquium title, as it omits the distinctive first part of the colloquium title with the reference to Cicero, and the words it does contain – which simply mean ‘about daily conversation’ – could easily have been the title of a capitula chapter listing conversational words. The entry in question is the thirteenth of fifty in the contents, and not only would it be unparalleled for a colloquium to be found in the midst of the capitula (see vol. I pp. 38–9), but that is not in fact where the colloquium does occur in the extant manuscript.

On the other hand, the title that stands at the head of the actual colloquium contains a reference to κεφάλαια, the Greek for ‘capitula’ (cf. below on 36a); such a reference is not found in any other colloquium title and does seem as though it might connect this colloquium to the capitula, though the exact function of κεφάλαια here is obscure (see below ad loc.). There is another point (70a; see ad loc.) at which this colloquium may have borrowed a heading from the capitula. Moreover, the similarity between the Greek version of the table of contents entry (περι κατημερινι αναστροφης) and the last three words of the title at the head of the colloquium (περι καθιμερινη αναστροφης in the manuscript) is striking, especially the mixture of what seems to be the dative of the adjective with the genitive of the noun.