Sunday, May 19, 2024
Authenticity
E.J. Kenney, "Two Disputed Passages in the Heroides,"
Classical Quarterly 29.2 (1979) 394-431 (at 395):
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In questions of authenticity only negative proofs are as a rule convincing. It is often possible to show that a work or a passage displays so many incorrect, absurd, or anomalous features that, even when due allowance is made for textual corruption, it is unreasonable, on a balance of probabilities, to attribute it to its reputed author. It is rarely possible to prove authenticity with anything like even this limited degree of cogency. The most that it is usually realistic to expect is what I have called a verdict of nihil obstat: a conclusion that, on balance, a disputed work or passage contains nothing fundamentally inconsistent with its reputed authorship.
