EXCURSUS II 



THE TEXT OF THE RERUM RUSTICARUM 



There is not much to be said concerning- the tex: of 

 these books, which rests in the last resort upon the 

 authority of one manuscript only, which has long ago 

 disappeared. In 1794 Schneider pointed out that all ex- 

 isting manuscripts were derived directly or indirectly 

 from it, and this fact has been abundantly proved in 

 modern times by the great German scholar Keil. This 

 manuscript — the Marcian — which Pietro Vittorio calls 

 " liber antiquissimus et fidelissimus," was in his time in 

 the library of St. Mark at Florence, and was much used 

 by him in the preparation of his edition of Cato and 

 Varro, published in 1541. Its most important readings 

 — where they diverge from the printed editions and 

 other manuscripts to which he had access — are given, 

 and are occasionally discussed in the *' Explicationes 

 suarum in Catonem, Varronem, Columellam castiga- 

 tionum," which appeared in 1542. Before Vittorio, 

 Angelo Politian had in 1482 collated this manuscript 

 with the Jenson edition (editio princeps 1472, made 

 under the auspices of Georgius Merula) and had entered 

 in his copy of the latter all readings of the Marcian 

 MS., which differed from the printed edition. 

 Of remaining manuscripts the most important are the 

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