Page:Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Antoninus - Volume 1 - Farquharson 1944.pdf/34

 many puerile mistakes which reproduced the original faithfully? Of the Gesner press very little has been written, so that its reputation is not known.

A curious problem, of little importance for the criticism of our text, has lately been suggested by H. Schenkl. He argues that the manuscript of the Meditations, in distinction from that of Marinus' Proclus, did not come from the Palatine library, but was procured by Toxites from a source unknown, perhaps even copied by himself from the original, thus introducing a further stage in the manuscript tradition. Yet the Latin title-page to the Meditations bears the words: e bibliotheca illustrissimi principis Ottonis Henrici; and, as if to make assurance doubly sure, there are on the reverse to the Latin title of the Proclus the words 'The Printer to the Reader. Forasmuch as Marinus' Life of Proclus was contained in the same codex with the books of M. Antoninus, I thought I too ought to include it, especially as this work of Marinus is not a big one and has not, so far as I know, been previously published; in its argument too it is not far removed from the books of Antoninus.' This agrees with what both Conrad Gesner and Xylander believed. Again Xylander in his second dedication gives as one reason for including the Meditations that it originally came from a library other treasures from which he is now printing for the first time with the permission of Prince Otto Heinrich's successor.

Nothing would appear more certain than that the two books were in a single volume, brought to Gesner at Zürich by Toxites from Heidelberg. Schenkl, however, xxvi