Laudator Temporis Acti

Egil Kraggerud, Critica: Textual Issues in Horace, Ennius, Vergil and Other Authors (Abingdon: Routledge, 2020), p. 15, with note on p. 27:

Only in the case of a small handful of ancient authors⁷ have there been serious undertakings in more recent times to collect the whole output of conjectures. A full survey of conjectures from the start of the printing era until the present day, however, is an indispensable prerequisite for any critical editing of a classical text, no less so than a complete catalogue is necessary to the user of a library. That few scholars have so far given priority to the matter should not be normative for future priorities among scholars. The drawbacks and calamities following in the wake of ignorance are, of course, difficult to measure like any contra-factual evaluation. To cut the argument short, however: easily available complete information in this regard would be a particular boon to editors and commentators alike, and I am equally sure that time-saving repertories of conjectures would have much to offer philologists in general as well.

7 Aeschylus: R.D. Dawe, Repertory of Conjectures on A., Leiden: Pindar, 1965; D.E. Gerber, Emendations in Pindar 1513–1972, Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1976. — Sophocles: L. van Paassen (not printed, but gratefully consulted by editors of Sophocles: R.D. Dawe and H. Lloyd-Jones – N.G. Wilson. — Catullus: D. Kiss, An Online Repertory of Conjectures, Catullus Online. — Propertius): W. R. Smyth, Thesaurus criticus ad Sexti Propertii textum, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970; Seneca: M. Billerbeck – M. Somazzi, Repertorium der Konjekturen in den Seneca-Tragödien [Mnemosyne. Suppl. 316], Leiden: Brill 2009.

In the note, make the following corrections:

• For "Leiden: Pindar, 1965;" read "Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1965; Pindar —"
• For "Propertius):" read "Propertius:"