Tuesday, December 04, 2018
Copying Out Vergil
Peter Levi (1931-2000), "In Memory of Turcius Rufus Apronicus Asterius, Consul 494," Viriditas (London: Anvil Press Poetry, 2001), p. 48:
See e.g.:
Newer› ‹Older
In 500 ADNot Rufus, but Rufius, and not Apronicus, but Apronianus.
Germans settled like flies
on southern Italy,
vigorous with blue eyes.
They ate at new tables
made of one long plank,
like horses in their stables
or like soldiers in ranks
they lived on sausages,
their rubbish was pig-bones,
they dumped all at their ease
by front doors and hearth stones:
they feasted happily
inside the Roman farms,
and sang in ecstasy
of ancestors and arms.
Meanwhile with patient skill
an old consul took care
to copy out Virgil
as fine as his white hair.
See e.g.:
- R.S. Conway, "The Value of the Medicean Codex of Vergil," Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 15.2 (July, 1931) 336-357 (at 338-341)
- Giulia Ammannati, "Ancora sulla sottoscrizione del console Asterio e sulla datazione del Virgilio Mediceo," Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici 58 (2007) 227-239
Labels: typographical and other errors
