MSS.

§ 1. Twelve of the mss., other than L, to which reference is made in the critical notes, have been described in former volumes (Oed. Tyr., Introd., pp. liii ff., 2nd ed.: Oed. Col., p. xlix, 2nd ed.: Phil., p. xlv): viz., the Parisian A, B, K, T: the Florentine Lc, L2, R: the Venetian V, V2, V3: the Roman Vat.: and the London Harl. The last-named was collated by Porson with the text of the Trachiniae in the ed. of Sophocles by Thomas Johnson (an. 1708); the collation is given in Porson's Adversaria, p. 177. There remains only a Venetian ms., cod. 617 in the Library of St Mark, cited at verse 23, from the collation of Vladimir Subkoff in his edition of the Trachiniae (Moscow, 1879), for θακῶν. It is described by him as ‘chartaceus, saec. xiv et xv’; and he designates it by the letter E. Besides E, Subkoff used eleven other mss., viz. L, and ten of the twelve named above, the two exceptions being V and V3. Our L2 is designated by him as M: Lc, as N: V2, as V: Vat., as v.: Harl., as h. As a contribution to an intricate and obscure subject, it is interesting to notice the view as to the relationships of his twelve mss. to which he was led as the result of work on this play.