I'd like to ask some - mostly historical - questions about Cicero's "Letters to his friends".
(I've been reading these: https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator:"Williams,+William+Glynn" )
1. I was surprised that he uses parenthesis a lot for comments, because I thought that this was a modern (16th century and later) invention. Were those in the original text as well? Who used them first?
2. It's a bit frustrating that with a few exceptions one can read only the letters written by Cicero. Are the responses available somewhere? Or Marcus Tullius Tiro published only Cicero's responses? I would mostly be interested in the letters of the younger Scribonius Curio, and of Caelius Rufus.
3. How did the texts survive until Francesco Petrarca collected them? They must have been copied in every 100 years or so. Isn't it possible that some of them are fakes?
4. If the letters had been copied in every 100 years, then they were copied around 13 times until they reached Petrarca. Shouldn't they be full of changes/typos?
5. Which is the oldest text (artifact) containing a copy of one of his writings?
Thanks for the answers!
(I've been reading these: https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator:"Williams,+William+Glynn" )
1. I was surprised that he uses parenthesis a lot for comments, because I thought that this was a modern (16th century and later) invention. Were those in the original text as well? Who used them first?
2. It's a bit frustrating that with a few exceptions one can read only the letters written by Cicero. Are the responses available somewhere? Or Marcus Tullius Tiro published only Cicero's responses? I would mostly be interested in the letters of the younger Scribonius Curio, and of Caelius Rufus.
3. How did the texts survive until Francesco Petrarca collected them? They must have been copied in every 100 years or so. Isn't it possible that some of them are fakes?
4. If the letters had been copied in every 100 years, then they were copied around 13 times until they reached Petrarca. Shouldn't they be full of changes/typos?
5. Which is the oldest text (artifact) containing a copy of one of his writings?
Thanks for the answers!