Of course, everyone knows that Virgil didn't write the neat, printed editions of his work that we see today. But I wonder if most students are aware of the amazing path by which his words survive to the present day. Philology--the study of ancient texts--is far too broad a subject to cover in a simple post. But you may be interested in the quality of ancient manuscripts, if only to appreciate how much work went into giving you the neat text you're expected to translate for class by next Friday...
Virgil's work--arguably the most popular Latin literature--survives in numerous manuscripts, but the three most important are the Romanus, the Vaticanus, and the Augusteus, the last one so named because it was once thought to have been written during the reign of Augustus. That's not true, but all three manuscripts are still pretty old: From the 400-500 AD range.
Sample images from these manuscripts are online; check out the following links and see if you can read Virgil in the oldest known form. I've included the references to book/line numbers so you can check them against modern printed editions in case you get stuck:
Romanus sample ( Aeneid I.1-18 )
Vaticanus sample ( Aeneid VIII.5-9 )
Augusteus sample ( Georgics I.141-52 )
The Romanus and Vaticanus are "illuminated" manuscripts (they include pictures and specially-decorated initial letters in the text), unusual for non-religious texts and unprecedented in manuscripts of this age. If you'd like to see more of the pictures, Pennsylvania University's Vergil Project has a number of images. It's somewhat sobering to think someone drew those pictures to illustrate scenes from the Aeneid some 1600 years ago.
Hope you find the links interesting...
Virgil's work--arguably the most popular Latin literature--survives in numerous manuscripts, but the three most important are the Romanus, the Vaticanus, and the Augusteus, the last one so named because it was once thought to have been written during the reign of Augustus. That's not true, but all three manuscripts are still pretty old: From the 400-500 AD range.
Sample images from these manuscripts are online; check out the following links and see if you can read Virgil in the oldest known form. I've included the references to book/line numbers so you can check them against modern printed editions in case you get stuck:
Romanus sample ( Aeneid I.1-18 )
Vaticanus sample ( Aeneid VIII.5-9 )
Augusteus sample ( Georgics I.141-52 )
The Romanus and Vaticanus are "illuminated" manuscripts (they include pictures and specially-decorated initial letters in the text), unusual for non-religious texts and unprecedented in manuscripts of this age. If you'd like to see more of the pictures, Pennsylvania University's Vergil Project has a number of images. It's somewhat sobering to think someone drew those pictures to illustrate scenes from the Aeneid some 1600 years ago.
Hope you find the links interesting...