Page:Frontinus - The stratagems, and, the aqueducts of Rome (Bennet et al 1925).djvu/38

Rh in the two parts of  xii, 2, and  vii. 42, as they stood, and by the use of slight emendations, restored the order and consistency of the arrangement as it stands to-day.

As early as 1425 Poggio Bracciolini had learned that at Monte Cassino there was a copy of the De Aquis of Frontinus, but it was not until he visited the monastery in 1429 that the manuscript, C, was actually found. It was carried off to Rome, copied and returned to Monte Cassino, where it still remains. It is an original manuscript in the sense that at the time of its discovery no other manuscript of the work was known, nor has any since come to light, excepting those derived from copies made by Poggio at that time.

Eight of these copies are described by Bücheler in his preface, only two of them being of any significance. According to the judgment of Poleni, in which Bücheler concurs, these two were written a little after the middle of the fifteenth century. The codex Urbinus, or Vaticanus 1345, agrees closely with the original at Monte Cassino; the codex Vaticanus 4498, which contains many errors and seems to have come from an inferior copy, was used by Pomponius Laetus and Sulpicius in bringing out their first edition in 1484–1492. Jocundus may have had access to the original copy, since he agrees with it in certain readings not found in earlier editions. Poleni used a copy of C made by Gattola and both Vatican manuscripts. Bücheler xxxii