459 Una forcatella di Spine NOTES CHIEFLY ON THE "ARS POETICA" OF HORACE BY A. O. PRICKARD WINCHESTER : PRINTED BY WARREN AND SON, LTD., HIGH STREET - 1922. Latin Loth. 3-28-28 16751 Maggiore aperta molte volte impruna con una forcatella di sue spine l'uom della villa, quando l'uva imbruna. I HAVE borrowed the title which I venture to prefix 66 The "Ars Poetica" of Horace THE external facts relating to this favourite, but elusive, poem, are briefly these: Quintilian quotes passages from it twice, calling it, in the introductory letter to his publisher Trypho, the "Ars Poetica," and, in 8, 3, 60, the "Liber de arte poetica." The former title would imply, according to the Ciceronian use of "ars," a manual, or primer, of poetic art. The latter, which is generally adopted as the heading in Manuscripts, conforms to Greek usage, as in the περὶ ῥητορικῆς or the περὶ ποιητικῆς of Aristotle. With the former we may compare the artis amatoriae libri tres of Ovid. 66 The usual place of the A.P. in Manuscripts is between the Fourth Book of the Odes and the Epodes. In V (the " oldest Blandinian ") it followed the Epodes. Probably the lyrical poems with the A.P. formed a Volume I, convenient for use in schools or classes. Several existing MSS. contain the A.P. alone. It was placed at the end of the whole works by H. Stephens and Lambinus (1561), and first entitled "Epistola Tertia Libri Secundi" by Cruquius (1578). This arrangement, which has been followed by some modern editors, is an unfortunate one, because it begs a difficult question as to the date of its composition, or first publication. Many scholars, as Henry Nettleship (following Michaelis), and Wilkins, argue for a comparatively early date, between the Second Book of Satires and the First Book of Epistles (say between B.C. 25 and B.C. 19). The data are thoroughly examined by Nettleship |