Laudator Temporis Acti

Augustine, Sermons 221.1 (tr. Edmund Hill, with his note):

This night, of course, is understood to belong to the day that follows it, which we call the Lord's; and obviously he had to rise again at night, because by his resurrection he also lighted up our darkness; nor was it for nothing that a short while ago³ we were singing to him, You will light my lamp, Lord; my God, you will light up my darkness (Ps 18:28).

3. Paulo ante, in the course of the vigil. But some texts read tanto ante, "so long before," referring back to the time of the psalmist. This looks very like a copyist's correction; I somehow don't think Augustine was capable of uttering the ugly and slightly ridiculous sound of tanto ante.

Nox quippe ista ad consequentem diem, quem dominicum habemus, intellegitur pertinere. Et utique nocte resurgere debuit, quia sua resurrectione et tenebras nostras illuminavit: neque enim ei frustra paulo ante cantatum est: Tu inluminabis lucernam meam domine: deus meus, inluminabis tenebras meas.

paulo ante seems to be printed in D.C. Lambot, ed., Sancti Aurelii Augustini Hipponensis Episcopi Sermones Selecti Duodeviginti (Utrecht: Spectrum, 1950 = Stromata Patristica et Mediaevalia, 1), p. 77 (non vidi).

tanto ante is printed in G. Morin, ed., Sancti Aureli Augustini Tractatus, sive, Sermones inediti: ex codice Guelferbytano 4096 (Kempten: Kösel, 1917), p. 19, and Suzanne Poque, ed., Augustin d'Hippone, Sermons pour la Pâque (Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 1966 = Sources Chrétiennes, 116), p. 212, and Pío de Luis, ed., San Agustín, Sermones 184-272B (Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1983), p. 230.

The only manuscript, Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel, Cod. Guelf. 12 Weiss, clearly reads tanto ante (fol. 41v): If Cicero was "capable of uttering the ugly and slightly ridiculous sound of tanto ante," as Hill put it, then surely Augustine was, too. See, e.g., the following Ciceronian examples.

On the Orator 1.7.26 (tr. James M. May and Jakob Wisse):

And in this conversation, Cotta used to tell me, these three former consuls discussed developments they found deplorable in such inspired fashion, that no evil subsequently fell upon our community that they had not seen hanging over it, even at that time.

quo quidem sermone multa divinitus a tribus illis consularibus Cotta deplorata et commemorata narrabat, ut nihil incidisset postea civitati mali, quod non impendere illi tanto ante vidissent.

Against Catiline 3.7.17 (tr. C. Macdonald):

He would not have decided upon the Saturnalia for us and would not have proclaimed the day of ruin and destruction for the Republic so far ahead.

non ille nobis Saturnalia constituisset neque tanto ante exitii ac fati diem rei publicae denuntiavisset.

Philippics 2.33.83 (tr. Walter C.A. Ker):

So the flaw interposed which on the Kalends of January you had already foreseen, and so long before predicted.

id igitur obvenit vitium, quod tu iam Kalendis Ianuariis futurum esse provideras et tanto ante praedixeras.

Letters to Atticus 13.46.3 (tr. E.O. Winstedt):

It is surely most out of place for Plotius the perfumer to send his own special messengers with full particulars to Balbus so long in advance, while Vestorius does not send me news even by my messengers.

quid minus probandum quam Plotium unguentarium per suos pueros omnia tanto ante Balbo, illum mi ne per meos quidem?