Page:Juvenal and Persius by G. G. Ramsay.djvu/78

 by that MS. which is not absolutely impossible. In the case of Juvenal, Professor Housman proposes to arrest the current by which the text of each succeeding edition of Juvenal stands closer to that of P, and produces much solid evidence to show that, in many cases, the readings of P, even when possible both in Latinity and in sense, will not stand criticism, and that the readings of other MSS. are to be preferred to them.

The Pithoeanus is by no means a very ancient MS. It dates from the end of the ninth century, having been first used by P. Pithoeus in the year 1585. It was lost for a long time, but was rediscovered in the middle of the nineteenth century and first published by Otto Jahn in his edition of 1851. It contains many corrections by later hands, designated by the letter p; these corrections are mostly of little value, being derived from one or other of the host of interpolated MSS. known generally under the title of ω. Professor Housman goes so far as to assert that p should be quoted for one purpose and for one purpose only, to enable us to judge what the reading of P was not.

Shortly put, the description of the MSS. of Juvenal given by Professor Housman is as follows;—

The great merit of P is that it has escaped, almost entirely, the deluge of interpolation which has flooded the great majority of Juvenalian MSS., but it is not itself entirely free from corruption. One lxxiv