03-24-2008, 05:19 PM
I'm not sure it is quite that simple There are more than one Tacitus out there, but typically containing parts of his histories. The MS 68.1 (containing chpt 1-6 of the Annales) in the Bib. Laurentziana was written in the 9th century, copied from a 4th or 5th century original, and was kept in the Corvey Abbey of the Cisterciencians, quite lovingly by all accounts (its condition is very decent even today), until it was stolen in 1508 and bought by the Pope. The MS 68.2 in the same library, containing the Annales 11-16, was written in the 11th century at Monte Cassino, and might have been copied from an earlier source or might be a copy of a copy. It can't have been quite as neglected as Boccaccio would have it: the same manuscript was referenced to by the bishop of Pouzzoli in the mid-14th century, for example, only some 20 years before Boccaccio himself aquired it. Some believe Boccaccio's description of the bad storage conditions were exaggerated in order to legitimize a "shady aquisition" 
lol:
Of Tacitus other works, I think the last remaining 9th century copy of the germania - also originally a german monastic manuscript (with later additions of missing sections from the 15th century, based on works that were lost between c1500 and today), managed to stay out of the spotlight until 1902 and then led a tumultous life, nearly ending up in Adolf Hitler's collections!
Similarily with the St.Gall manuscripts, the neglect can't have been as drastic as suggested (naturally enough, or it wouldn't have survived at all): St.Galls high medieval fame was indeed as a centre for the copying and dissemination of classical works, and the Quintilian manuscript Poggio found was returned to St.Gall after it was copied by him - it is currently in Zurich (Centralbibliothek, MS74a) whereas Poggio's own transcription was itself lost. St.Gall, after it recovered from the serious troubles it was in during the mid-15th century for economic reasons (and the incompetent abbot Heinrich's bumblings in both economical and political fields), conducted a complete new inventory of its book collections to determine if any books had been lost during the mismanagement or due to theft - according to Kaczynski, the 9th century collections were more or less intact.
There are also a large number of Quintillian fragments scattered all across the world today, some more complete than the term "fragment" would lead one to believe: the 10th century Codex Laurentianus in Florence was earlier believed to be Poggio's transcription of the St.Gall manuscript, for example.
Overall, considering that even with the italian humanists' rediscoveries of a number of manuscripts and the intense interest in them during the renaissance a number of manuscripts were lost or disappeared from view, the printing press probably must be counted the foremost hero for the survival of any texts until today alongside the "silent copiers" of the works from antiquity to the carolignian/12th century/italian renaissance. Many book-collectors can be cast as villains; keeping germania hidden from 1500 until 1902, when hordes of classicists were looking for it, seems to be an overenthusiastic bibliophilia! But enough with the vilification, long live Gutenberg!
Tacitus reference: Reynolds, Texts and Transmission: A survey of the Latin Classics, Clarendon Press, Oxford (1983)
St.Gall references: Kaczynski, Greek in the Carolingian Age: The St. Gall Manuscripts. Cambridge, MA: Medieval Academy of America, (1988)
I did a search today for a few manuscript numbers and found Roger Pearse's pages on this very subject: http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/manuscripts/index.htm
..and they seem to be as good as anything one can find on the internet on the subject, giving surveys of historeographies and updates on recent research. I believe he has been references on this forum before :-D D .
lol: Of Tacitus other works, I think the last remaining 9th century copy of the germania - also originally a german monastic manuscript (with later additions of missing sections from the 15th century, based on works that were lost between c1500 and today), managed to stay out of the spotlight until 1902 and then led a tumultous life, nearly ending up in Adolf Hitler's collections!
Similarily with the St.Gall manuscripts, the neglect can't have been as drastic as suggested (naturally enough, or it wouldn't have survived at all): St.Galls high medieval fame was indeed as a centre for the copying and dissemination of classical works, and the Quintilian manuscript Poggio found was returned to St.Gall after it was copied by him - it is currently in Zurich (Centralbibliothek, MS74a) whereas Poggio's own transcription was itself lost. St.Gall, after it recovered from the serious troubles it was in during the mid-15th century for economic reasons (and the incompetent abbot Heinrich's bumblings in both economical and political fields), conducted a complete new inventory of its book collections to determine if any books had been lost during the mismanagement or due to theft - according to Kaczynski, the 9th century collections were more or less intact.
There are also a large number of Quintillian fragments scattered all across the world today, some more complete than the term "fragment" would lead one to believe: the 10th century Codex Laurentianus in Florence was earlier believed to be Poggio's transcription of the St.Gall manuscript, for example.
Overall, considering that even with the italian humanists' rediscoveries of a number of manuscripts and the intense interest in them during the renaissance a number of manuscripts were lost or disappeared from view, the printing press probably must be counted the foremost hero for the survival of any texts until today alongside the "silent copiers" of the works from antiquity to the carolignian/12th century/italian renaissance. Many book-collectors can be cast as villains; keeping germania hidden from 1500 until 1902, when hordes of classicists were looking for it, seems to be an overenthusiastic bibliophilia! But enough with the vilification, long live Gutenberg!
Tacitus reference: Reynolds, Texts and Transmission: A survey of the Latin Classics, Clarendon Press, Oxford (1983)
St.Gall references: Kaczynski, Greek in the Carolingian Age: The St. Gall Manuscripts. Cambridge, MA: Medieval Academy of America, (1988)
I did a search today for a few manuscript numbers and found Roger Pearse's pages on this very subject: http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/manuscripts/index.htm
..and they seem to be as good as anything one can find on the internet on the subject, giving surveys of historeographies and updates on recent research. I believe he has been references on this forum before :-D D .
