The Turin Manuscript of Oppian' Halieutica

Wesley E./ Thompson

doi:10.1017/S0009838800033693

The Turin Manuscript of Oppian' Halieutica

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009

Wesley E./ Thompson

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Wesley E./ Thompson: Affiliation:
University of California, Davis

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The Turin manuscript containing the first three books of Oppian' Halieutica was almost completely destroyed in the fire of 1904, but a collation of it has recently come to light. In 1811 the noted classical scholar and Orientalist Vittorio Amedeo Peyron collated the manuscript against Schneider' first edition of the poem (Strasbourg, 1776) and also transcribed the scholia. He sent his results to Schneider for use in the preparation of his second edition (Leipzig, 1813), but they apparently arrived too late. Although the original plan of this second edition called for the inclusion of the scholia, Schneider published only a text of the poem and turned over his materials on the scholia to G. H. Schaefer, including no doubt Peyron' collation of the Turin manuscript. Schaefer never did manage to produce his edition of the scholia and in some unknown way Peyron' collation and some of the other material came on to the open market in 1969.

Type: Research Article
Information: The Classical Quarterly , Volume 21 , Issue 2 , December 1971 , pp. 509 - 513

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009838800033693 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Classical Association 1971

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^{page 509 note 1} Codices manuscripti Bibliothecae Regii taurinensis athenaei, rec. Pasinus, Josephus (Turin, 1749)Google Scholar: ‘CODEX CCXXXV b. VI. 16. Chartaceus, foliis constans 56. saeculi XVI. rudiori scriptus charactere, tres priores complectitur OPPIANI libros de piscatione, cum brevibus in margine scholiis, atque inter lineas explanationibus. Pauca praemittuntur de OPPIANI genere. Fol. 46 Sunt THEOGNIDIS sententiae, deficientes tamen. Fol. 53. PHOCYLIDIS poema admonitorium.’ The correct numbering is b. VI. 15 and in the revised system C. VII. 1. The Director of the Biblioteca Nazionale, Professor Stelio Bassi, informs me by letter, ‘del manoscritto C. VII. 1 si é salvata dall‘incendio del 1904 un'unica carta, ora restaurata.’

^{page 509 note 2} For the work of Peyron cf. Sandys, J. E., A History of Classical Scholarship, iii. 241 f.Google Scholar and The British Museum General Catalogue of Printed Books.

^{page 509 note 3} Schneider' second edition includes the Cynegetica as well as the Halìeutica. The titlepage proclaims, ‘Accedunt versiones latinae metrica et prosaica, plurima anecdota et index graecitatis’, but aside from the Greek text of both poems the volume includes only a metrical version of the Cynegetica, to which Schaefer appends a few paragraphs by way of explanation. On p. 98 he says, ‘Praeterea Weigelius altero volumine, quod, meae curae, non nolente Schneidero, traditum, mox publicavit, versionem utriusque carminis prosaicam, eamque accommodatam novae recensioni, plurima quantivis pretii Anecdota ad Oppianum illustrandum et emendandum, Indicemque Graecitatis plenum complectetur. Anecdota debet partim ipsius Schneideri, partim Peyroni eximiae raraeque liberalitati: eiusdem Peyroni, qui eum donavit (omnem enim operae mercedem vir egregius magnifice respuit) Euripideis Collationibus Codicum Taurinensium.’ (The Euripides of Matthiae was printed at Leipzig, beginning in 1813.)

^{page 509 note 4} The material was purchased by the Library of the University of California at Davis. I am indebted to the Librarian, Professor Richard Blanchard, for permission to publish the results of my study of the material. Included in the purchase was a collection 01 scholia to the Halieutica drawn from a manuscript in Copenhagen and dated 1817 and a second contribution from Peyron to Schneider, consisting of excerpts from a Turin manuscript (C. V. 31) containing a Vita Oppiani and scholia to the Halieutica. Peyron concludes with the following remarks:

Plura exscribere non vacat. Tu, optime Schneidere, vide quid statuas. Hoccene Scholiasta editionem tuam ditare vis, aut prorsus a Scholiis abhorres? Si tibi lubet, et si Typographo non piget aliquot addere folia, id mihi significes velim. Seligam enim ea Scholia quae Oppiano aliquam lucem affundere possint, eaque, quantum per multas quibus distineor occupationes licebit, emendata ad te mittam. Tamen neque mihi iniucundam, neque Scholiastae inutilem operam navaveris, si a me exscripta attentius pensaveris, atque aliquot Scholia deleveris, statui enim potius in eis exscribendis abundare, quam charta et atramento parcere.

Si per easdem occupationes licebit atque tibi gratum acceptumque sit nonnulla addam de Paraphrasi Cynegeticorum Eutecnii sive alterius, etc., cuius a nomine inscribebatur ea apud Arnoldum Paraxylum. Incipit prorsus ut in Codice Laurentiano; vid. Schneiderum in Praefat. pag. XVII. sq. Hanc enim Paraphrasim manuscriptam possidet Bibliotheca nostra. Vale, vir optime de Oppiano meriture

Peyron

The Flemish scholar Arnoldus Arlenius, known also as Peraxylus or Paraxylus (for his career cf. Graux, Charles, Essai sur les origines dufindsgrecdel 'Escurial,pp. 185–9Google Scholar),produced several editiones principes (Josephus, Lycophron, the editio Hervagiana of Polybius) and also served as librarian to Don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza while the latter was in Venice as the ambassador of Emperor Charles V (1538–46). Arlenius was a friend of Conrad Gesner, who reports (in the Bibliotheca Universalis, s.v. Eutecnii), ‘Eutecnii sophistae paraphrasim graecam in Alexipharmaca et Theriaca Nicandri, et in quaedam Oppiani, videlicet De piscatione et venatione libros, vidi Venetiis (apud Arnoldum Paraxylum Arlenium, in aedibus illu-stris viri Diegi Hurtadi Caesarei legati) in uno volumine, adscripto ubique, si bene memini, Eutecnii nomine: praeterquam in paraphrasi eiusdem Oppiani poematis De aucupio, quam propediem (Deo volente) inde nactus descriptam in lucem dabo, dubius interim an Eutecnio authori attribuenda sit.’ When Otto Tüselmann finally produced the editio princeps of the entire Paraphrasis in 1900 {Die Paraphrase des Euteknios zu Oppians Kynegetika), he made use of three codices, Laurentianus 31. 3 and two descendants, but not the Turin manuscript.

^{page 510 note 1} Anyone who wishes a Xerox copy of the collation should write to me.

^{page 510 note 2} Überlieferungsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen zu den Halieutika des Oppian, especially pp. 51– 5.

^{page 510 note 3} He says in Neue Jahrb. f. Phil. u. Paed. cxlvii (1893), 41OGoogle Scholar that he collated 1. I through 1. 322 of the Turin manuscript and he gives his results in Raccolta di scritti in onore di Felice Ramorino, p. 442.

^{page 511 note 1} In each instance the manuscripts p₂¹ and j¹ agree with h against t, and Fajen is correct in concluding that these two are derived from h.

^{page 511 note 2} Raccolta di scritti in onore di Felice Ramorino, p. 442.

^{page 512 note 1} U. Cats Bussemaker, Scholia et Paraphrases in Nicandrum et Oppianum; the scholia in the first four books of h are published by Vari in the Egyetemes Philologiai Kozlony, xxxiii (1909), 17–32Google Scholar.

^{page 512 note 2} The following scholia appear in t but not in Vari' publication of those in h: I. 136 I. 172 I. 617 I. 776 2. 288 3. 48 In addition t preserves the text of one scholium where h is now damaged; on I. 390 where Vari prints t has