READING HORACE FROM THE MARGINS EXPLORATIONS IN THE MARGINAL COMMENTARY OF LEIDEN, MS. VLO 6 Iris Denis 12-02-2019 Radboud University Nijmegen Thesis MA Literary Studies (Research) Supervisor: Prof. dr. Marc van der Poel Second Reader: Dr. Hans Kienhorst Front cover: digital image of Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek ms. VLO 6, f. 1r. All images in this thesis are used with permission of the Special Collections department of Leiden University Library, for which I am much obliged. 2 Index Abstract ....................................................................................................................................................................... 5 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................................. 6 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................... 7 Terminology ................................................................................................................................................................. 10 Comments on Commentaries ................................................................................................................................ 11 Historical Commentaries on Horace .................................................................................................................. 13 Medieval Commentaries .......................................................................................................................................................... 14 Humanist Traditions .................................................................................................................................................................. 16 1 Material Contexts of VLO 6 ......................................................................................................................20 Binding ............................................................................................................................................................................ 20 Quires .............................................................................................................................................................................. 21 Layout, Ruling and Text ........................................................................................................................................... 25 Initials............................................................................................................................................................................................... 26 Display Script ................................................................................................................................................................................ 27 The Afterlife of VLO 6 ............................................................................................................................................... 28 Conclusions and Contexts ....................................................................................................................................... 29 A Professional Product ............................................................................................................................................................. 30 Books and Readers ..................................................................................................................................................................... 31 2 The Marginal Commentary ......................................................................................................................34 Previous Scholarship: Suringar and Geelius ................................................................................................... 34 Revisiting VLO 6 .......................................................................................................................................................................... 37 The Commentary and its Scribe(s) ..................................................................................................................... 38 Layered Hands .............................................................................................................................................................................. 38 Times and Circumstances........................................................................................................................................................ 42 Sources ........................................................................................................................................................................... 43 Sequence ........................................................................................................................................................................ 46 Content and Categories ............................................................................................................................................ 48 Vocabulary and Grammar ....................................................................................................................................................... 49 Geography, History and Trivia .............................................................................................................................................. 51 Mythology ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 54 Rhetoric ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 56 Interpretative Scholia................................................................................................................................................................ 57 Poetic Scholia and Parallels .................................................................................................................................................... 60 Final Remarks: A Patchwork Commentary ..................................................................................................... 61 Production and User Layers ................................................................................................................................................... 61 Dictation? ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 62 Education ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 64 3 3 Analysing the Scholia .................................................................................................................................67 Segmentation ............................................................................................................................................................... 67 Selective Reading ........................................................................................................................................................................ 68 Marginal Signs .............................................................................................................................................................................. 71 Tralaticiousness .......................................................................................................................................................... 72 Dialogues with Predecessors ................................................................................................................................................. 73 Traditions in Transition ........................................................................................................................................................... 79 Parallels .......................................................................................................................................................................... 82 A Network of References ......................................................................................................................................................... 82 The Commentator on Authors ............................................................................................................................................... 87 Final Remarks .............................................................................................................................................................. 90 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................................92 Outcomes ....................................................................................................................................................................... 92 Methodological Reflection ...................................................................................................................................... 95 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................................98