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Mons Virgilii and the Mantuan Terrain1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Bruno Nardi
Affiliation:
Mantova

Extract

After reading the article by Professor R. S. Conway, ‘Vergil, Probus and Pietole Again,’ I should like to make certain observations on the points that concern me.

The first refers to the Mons Virgilii. Professor Conway, who is evidently satisfied with the edition of the Vita Probiana published by Sabbadini, and with the notes Sabbadini has added to it, speaks in particular of the testimony of Bremio: ‘Locum appellant incolae Montem Virgilii,’ etc. I do not propose to discuss here the accuracy or the critical acumen of Sabbadini as shown in the preparation of this mediocre edition, nor to repeat what I have already said on this subject; but I cannot refrain from noting that the reading of milia passuum XXX certainly takes us outside of what can be conjectured to have been the ager Mantuanus, whether in the direction of Brescia or in that of Verona. That Egnatius corrected this error in his text is a purely arbitrary conjecture on the part of Sabbadini, who has not perceived that the Venetian edition, on careful examination, shows a much greater fidelity to the uetustas of the Codex of Bobbio than VPM and the Roman edition of Bussi. In proof of this it will be sufficient to cite the fate that befell the lacunae, which Egnatius respected, and the strange inversion of the phrase bellum, ueteranis post mutinense which would make the most humble schoolmaster smile, but which on the contrary pleased Sabbadini! Again, his estimate of the value of the Vatican Codex, is undermined by the observations of Monsignor Giovanni Mercati, who not only affirms that the Cod.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1934

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References

page 31 note 2 C.Q., 1932, XXVI, pp. 209214Google Scholar.

page 31 note 3 Historia, 1932, VI, 1Google Scholar.

page 31 note 4 Atti e Memorie della Reale Accademia Virgiliana di Mantova, 1931, N.S., vol. XXII, pp. 211218Google Scholar.

page 31 note 5 Rendiconti delta Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia, vol. VIII, 1932, p. 27Google Scholar.

page 31 note 6 Ibid., p. 25.

page 31 note 7 De luco Vergilii in agro pletulensi sacrando, reprinted from Classici e Neolatini, VI (1910), 2–3, Aosta, p. 9.

page 31 note 8 Cf. Torelli, P., Reg. Mantov. I, p. 43Google Scholar.

page 31 note 9 So MS. Ambrosiano D, Inf., fol. 60r.

page 32 note 1 Cited in The Youth of Virgil (translated by MrsRand, E. K., Cambridge, Mass., 1930), p. 121Google Scholar.

page 32 note 2 Cited in The Youth of Virgil, p. 122.

page 32 note 3 Vita di Dante, XVIII.

page 32 note 4 Cf. Atti e Memoria of the R. Accademia of Mantova, N.S., vol. XXII, 1931, pp. 201211Google Scholar.

page 32 note 5 Archivio Gonzaga, Busta 249.

page 32 note 6 Osped., 48, fol. 220V.

page 33 note 1 I have found concerning the Mons Virgilii many other documents about which I shall speak in a study dealing with the mediaeval topography of Pietole. This will appear in the next volume of theAtti e Memorie of the R. Accademia Virgiliana in Mantova (N.S. Vol. XXIII). See also my article La tradizione virgiliana di Pietole nel medio evo, in the volume Virgilio nil medio evo (Studi Medievali, V).

page 33 note 2 Tht Youth of Virgil, pp. 110–111.

page 34 note 1 Livy XXIV 10, 7.

page 34 note 2 V 1, 6.

page 34 note 3 V 1, 5.

page 34 note 4 V 1, 1.