Page:Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Antoninus - Volume 1 - Farquharson 1944.pdf/62

 C. R. Haines, The Communings with Himself of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Loeb, London, 1916. One further manuscript of the X group, Vat. Gr. 2231 (V 6), was described and collated by Weyland, just after Schenkl's text was published, in 1914.

Leopold's text is eclectic, as indeed any text of Marcus must be with our present evidence. He appears to attach more weight to P than Stich or Schenkl were inclined to do. More than once he leaves corrupt places with no indication of their precarious condition. The brief apparatus criticus pays excessive attention to recent emendations, especially by Englishmen; perhaps he wished to pay a compliment to English work. Schenkl has banished most conjectures and many variant readings to a supplement. His preface, apparatus criticus, and supplement give a very full account of the manuscripts and his opinion of their value and interrelation. He divided the chapters, for reference purposes, into a very large number of sections (here he is followed by M. Trannoy). A most valuable index follows. The distinctive feature of Schenkl's text is his determined predilection for A. He follows this manuscript, even where it appears to have been corrupted by familiar causes, easily illustrated from itself. Moreover, he has a strong fancy to construct readings which contaminate P and A, where these authorities differ. The result is a text which differs from Leopold's in at least 180 places, not counting minutiae of orthography. His own conjectures are usually recorded in the apparatus criticus, and he speaks very modestly about them. Neither in his Epictetus nor in his Marcus Antoninus does he show himself a master of conjecture, but scholars will be grateful for the immense labour he gave to these two tasks of his youth and age. liv