The Classical Review (Volume 5)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1891 edition. Excerpt: ...gleichfalls von Petrarca gefunden worden' (Teuffel's Gesch. der rbm. Lii. Fuii/le Auflaae, p. 360), and on page 359 'Die Hs. in welcher Petrarca diese Briefe (i. e. the letters to Brutus, to Quintus, to Octavian aud to Atticus) fand ist wieder verloren gegangen.' The reason for this oversight on the part of the editor can perhaps be understood from the fact that in the lists of commentators and editors which we find upon pages 8 and 134 the names of Siipfle, Hofmann, Frey, and even Tyrrell do not appear. The editor's statement on page 10, 'Had our author dreamed that the letters to his intimate friends would become public property, many of them would never have becu written, ' can scarcely lie. harmonized with Cicero's own remark upon the same point, ad Alt. xvi. 5: "), 'mearum epistolarum nulla est avvaywyi sed habet Tiro instar septuaginta. Equidem sunt a te quaedam sumendae. F.as ego oportet pcrspiciam, corrigam; turn denique cdentur.' As the editor remarks in bis preface that ' in the first part of the Notes somewhat frequent assistance is given in passages that may seem difficult, in order that the student may be encouraged in becoming acquainted with epistolary Latin' one naturally expects to find some of the characteristics of epistolary Latin as distinguished from more formal Latin remarked upon, but a fairly conscientious examination of the notes fails to reveal any references to the peculiarities of epistolary Latin even in passages where it is required, as innrf. Fam. v. 12, in which letters diminutives, compounds of sub (subrusticus for example) and colloquial arrangements of words are passed over with equal indifference. The notes like the letters lack an index. We had hoped that American scholarship had passed beyond the...