Reviews
Scribes and Scholars: A Guide to the Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature by L.D. Reynolds
kyokroon's review
1.0
Probably interesting if you're trying to research something specific, but in general I thought it was quite boring and the information felt superfluous quite often. On top of that it reads quite slowly and is quite condescending especially about the eastern part of the Greeks and Roman Empire.
djasson's review
4.0
Reynolds & Wilson’s Scribes and Scholars was such a great read, though its true value to me will be as a reference work that I will no doubt turn to again and again. I read the 3rd edition, which a large number of reviewers said was the best in that it immensely improved upon the earlier editions and that the 4th edition didn’t add that much more to the work.
There were many things that caught my attention. One was the Egyptians “borrowing” a definitive Athenian copy of Attic tragedies for the Alexandrian library. They chose to keep it, forfeiting a deposit of 15 talents of gold (p. 7). They wanted to build up their library and figured it was worth the cost in order to obtain such a fine copy. Another uber-cool item is the value of ancient dictionaries. They are useful not just for definitions of words at the time, but also for the quotes they provide from sources that are no longer extant (p. 33). The discussion of Homer was, of course, extremely intriguing for me, such as the publication of the Venetus A marginal scholia by Jean-Baptiste Gaspard d'Ansse de Viloison in 1788 and F. A. Wolf’s Prolegomena ad Homerum in 1795, which helped start the scholarly discussion of the Homeric Question (p. 198).
Speaking of ancient works, while much was lost, it was still possible in Italy circa 500 CE to obtain copies of most Latin authors. “As late as the sixth century Johannes Lydus at Constantinople had more complete texts than we have of Seneca's Natural Questions and Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars; in Africa Fulgentius was able to cite passages of Petronius that have not come down to us; and in what is now Portugal, Martin, bishop of Braga, was able to plagiarize a lost work of Seneca that could barely have survived him” (p. 81).
When it came to Greek, much of the language was lost when the Western empire collapsed, but it continued in the East. Amazingly, Aristotle was being translated from Arabic into Latin in Spain in the 12th century (p. 120). Only after the collapse of the Eastern empire and the emigration of scholars from those lands into the West did Greek knowledge gain a foothold again. The return of Greek and textual analysis let scholars discuss and resolve various religious questions, e.g. addressing an issue with the Vulgate bible (p. 152).
There were many good sections on early and important printers and presses. I enjoyed the part on the Aldus Manitius’s Aldine press and its impact on the production and dissemination of Greek and Latin texts. It was very cool to hear that Erasmus stayed with Aldus for several months where he had access to so many Greek manuscripts. Erasmus was able to incorporate many of these into an expanded version of his Adagia (p. 159). Erasmus also helped set the established pronunciation of Classical Greek in his time (p. 159). Publishing in the Netherlands focused on two people: Christopher Plantin in the south and Louis Elzevir in the North (p. 178-179). The presses were centered in two intellectual capitals, Louvain in the south and Leiden in the north. Plantin produced many famous works, including his Polyglot Bible (1568-73) and Horace (1566). Elzevir helped further scholar studies with his small-format (duodecimo) series of classical authors that Louis’ sons put out. These small formats were affordable and portable, very useful for students.
Reynolds & Wilson highlight good Dutch scholarship, including Wilhelm Canter (p. 179), Justus Lipsius (p. 180-181), and G. J. Vossius (p. 182). The two most important editors of Latin authors in the 17th century were J. F. Gronovius for prose and Nicolaus Heinsius for poetry (p. 183). Gronovius put out very good editions of Livy, Pliny the Elder, both Senecas, Tacitus and Gellius, while Heinsius produced excellent editions of Ovid, Vergil, Valerius Flaccus, Claudia and Prudentius.
To conclude, this is a great read, but it is scholarly and dense, so it works best as a reference. I’m glad to have read it through and made some notes so that I can come back to the sections I need quickly in the future.
There were many things that caught my attention. One was the Egyptians “borrowing” a definitive Athenian copy of Attic tragedies for the Alexandrian library. They chose to keep it, forfeiting a deposit of 15 talents of gold (p. 7). They wanted to build up their library and figured it was worth the cost in order to obtain such a fine copy. Another uber-cool item is the value of ancient dictionaries. They are useful not just for definitions of words at the time, but also for the quotes they provide from sources that are no longer extant (p. 33). The discussion of Homer was, of course, extremely intriguing for me, such as the publication of the Venetus A marginal scholia by Jean-Baptiste Gaspard d'Ansse de Viloison in 1788 and F. A. Wolf’s Prolegomena ad Homerum in 1795, which helped start the scholarly discussion of the Homeric Question (p. 198).
Speaking of ancient works, while much was lost, it was still possible in Italy circa 500 CE to obtain copies of most Latin authors. “As late as the sixth century Johannes Lydus at Constantinople had more complete texts than we have of Seneca's Natural Questions and Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars; in Africa Fulgentius was able to cite passages of Petronius that have not come down to us; and in what is now Portugal, Martin, bishop of Braga, was able to plagiarize a lost work of Seneca that could barely have survived him” (p. 81).
When it came to Greek, much of the language was lost when the Western empire collapsed, but it continued in the East. Amazingly, Aristotle was being translated from Arabic into Latin in Spain in the 12th century (p. 120). Only after the collapse of the Eastern empire and the emigration of scholars from those lands into the West did Greek knowledge gain a foothold again. The return of Greek and textual analysis let scholars discuss and resolve various religious questions, e.g. addressing an issue with the Vulgate bible (p. 152).
There were many good sections on early and important printers and presses. I enjoyed the part on the Aldus Manitius’s Aldine press and its impact on the production and dissemination of Greek and Latin texts. It was very cool to hear that Erasmus stayed with Aldus for several months where he had access to so many Greek manuscripts. Erasmus was able to incorporate many of these into an expanded version of his Adagia (p. 159). Erasmus also helped set the established pronunciation of Classical Greek in his time (p. 159). Publishing in the Netherlands focused on two people: Christopher Plantin in the south and Louis Elzevir in the North (p. 178-179). The presses were centered in two intellectual capitals, Louvain in the south and Leiden in the north. Plantin produced many famous works, including his Polyglot Bible (1568-73) and Horace (1566). Elzevir helped further scholar studies with his small-format (duodecimo) series of classical authors that Louis’ sons put out. These small formats were affordable and portable, very useful for students.
Reynolds & Wilson highlight good Dutch scholarship, including Wilhelm Canter (p. 179), Justus Lipsius (p. 180-181), and G. J. Vossius (p. 182). The two most important editors of Latin authors in the 17th century were J. F. Gronovius for prose and Nicolaus Heinsius for poetry (p. 183). Gronovius put out very good editions of Livy, Pliny the Elder, both Senecas, Tacitus and Gellius, while Heinsius produced excellent editions of Ovid, Vergil, Valerius Flaccus, Claudia and Prudentius.
To conclude, this is a great read, but it is scholarly and dense, so it works best as a reference. I’m glad to have read it through and made some notes so that I can come back to the sections I need quickly in the future.
More...