Selections From Tibullus And Propertius

ets there is none which presents difficulties so great. The comparative value of the existing MSS. of Propertius, and their mutual relation to each other, have not even yet been settled beyond dispute. Of these the first to be mentioned is M" or Codex Neapolitamis. The superiority of this famous MS. had been established by Lachmann1, and accepted as an article of faith by succeeding editors, including Professor A. Palmer, who published his admirable critical edition of the text in 1880; but it has been called in question by L. Mueller, and more recently by A. Baehrens, whose elaborate critical edition (1880) is founded upon a theory which assigns to this MS. only a subordinate position in the constitution of the text. In 1884, however, there appeared a French work on Propertius by M. Frederic Plessis?a work which in its grasp, lucidity, and critical acumen does honour to French scholarship?which controverts the conclusions of Baehrens, and, upon evidence which will probably be accepted by future editors as conclusive, pronounces the Neapolitanus to be beyond all question the oldest, and incomparably the most authoritative, of the MSS. of our poet. In this he agrees with Professor Palmer, 1 Who, however, places it only second in importance, after the Groninganus. who has himself carefully examined the MS. in question. This MS. is now in the ducal library at Wolfenbiittel: it is called Neapolitanus (or N. throughout this edition) because it was inspected at...