On the Scholarship of Politian and Its Context

F or an indeterminate period between I513 and 1521 Claude Bellievre, that amiable traveller and amateur of papyri, stayed in Rome. Among the many sights he saw there was the Vatican Library, where he examined the Codex Romanus of Virgil with considerable care: In the inner library of the Vatican1 we saw a very old codex of Maro, which Angelo Poliziano boasts in chapter 77 of his century of Miscellanea that he saw. There he uses many pieces of evidence to prove that one should say 'Vergilius' with an e and not 'Virgilius', though the latter is more commonly used. And amid the other evidence he particularly cites that of that old codex of Maro, in which 'Vergilius' is written throughout with an e. I too, while I was carefully studying this manuscript-which by no means everyone is allowed to handle-noticed something else worth remembering. Now there are some recent writers, who try to write all too eloquently, who maintain that 'Explicit liber primus' is improper Latin.2 We, in order that we may agree with Poliziano and many other good men, who think that this very old codex should be considered very trustworthy, shall also think that 'Explicit liber primus' is proper Latin. For it is written in this same manuscript, at the end of each book, in clear letters, to serve as the numbering of the books. This manuscript is written in capital letters, and the story is illustrated throughout. And if by chance you wish to see the true form of the script, it is this, which I have drawn as accurately as I could.3 * This study has two aims: first, to identify those aspects of Politian's philological method which were most original and which proved most influential in the sixteenth century; second, to put Politian's work into its historical context by comparing his methods with those of his immediate predecessors. Although these problems have already been dealt with by many (particularly Italian) scholars, their critical studies have attracted little attention in England and America, a situation I seek here to remedy, while also testing the conclusions of modern scholars against those primary sources to which I have had access. My paper may therefore also serve as a partial guide to Politian's Miscellaneorum centuria prima of 1489 as well as to other fifteenth-century works. I wish to thank the librarians of Cornell and Princeton Universities, the Pierpont Morgan Library and the Walters Art Gallery; also, among many friends and colleagues who have helped me, A. C. Griffiths, A. D. Momigliano, E. Cochrane, H. J. de Jonge and J. E. G. Zetzel. 1 On the divisions of the Vatican Library, see J. Ruysschaert, Juste Lipse et les Annales de