Meditations — Marcus Aurelius
p. 30life ; n and he cites the book under several words in his Dictionary, giving the emperor's name, but not the title of the work. There are also passages cited by Suidas from Antoninus without mention of the emperor's name. The true title of the work is unknown.
Xylander, who published the first edition of this book (Zurich, 1558, 8vo, with a Lath) version), used a manuscript which contained the twelve books, but it is not known where the manuscript is now. The only other complete manuscript which is known to exist is in the Vatican library, but it has no title and no inscriptions of the several books : the eleventh only has the inscription MdpKov avroKparopo^ marked with an asterisk.
The other Vatican manuscripts aud the three Florentine contain only excerpts from the emperor's book. All the titles of the excerpts nearly agree with that which Xylander prefixed to his edition, MdpKov *Avtu)vlvov AvTOKparopos twv ds eavrov /fy3A.tu l(3. This title has been used by all subsequent editors. We cannot tell whether Antoninus divided his work into books or somebody else did it.
If the inscriptions at the end of the first and second books are genuine, he may have made the division himself. It is plain that the emperor wrote down his thoughts or reflections as the occasions arose ; and since they were intended for his own use, it is no improbable conjecture that he left a complete
MARCUS AUItELIUS p. 31copy behind him written with his own hand ; for it is not likely that so diligent a man would use the labor of a transcriber for such a purpose, and expose his most secret thoughts to any other eye. He may have also intended the book for his son Com modus, who however had no taste for his IV ther's philosophy.
Some careful hand preserved the precious volume ; and a work by Antoninus is mentioned by other late writers besides Suidas. Many critics have labored on the text of Antoninus. The most complete edition is that by Thomas Gataker, 1652, 4to. The second edition of Gataker was superintended by George Stanhope, 1697, 4to. There is also an edition of 1704.
Gataker made and suggested many good corrections, and he also made a new Latin version, which is not a very good specimen of Latin, but it generally expresses the sense of the original, and often better than some of the more recent translations. He added in the margin opposite to each paragraph references to the other parallel passages; and he wrote a commentary, one of the most complete that has been written on any ancient author.
This commentary contains the editor's exposition of the more difficult passages, and quotations from all the Greek and Roman writers for the illustration of the text. It is a wonderful monument of learning and labor, and certainly no Englishman has yet done anyp. 32thing like it. At the end of his preface the editor says that he wrote it at Rotherhithe near London in a severe winter, when he was in the seventy-eighth year of his age, 1651, — a time when Milton, Selden, and other great, men of the Commonwealth time were living; and the great French scholar Saumaise (Salmasius), with whom Gataker corresponded and received help from him for his edition of Antoninus.
The Greek text has also been edited by J. M. Schultz, Leipzig, 1802, 8vo ; and by the learned Greek Adamantinus Corais, Paris, 1816, 8vo. The text of Schultz was republished by Tauchnitz, 1821. There are English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish translations of M. Antoninus, and there may be others. I have not seen all the English translations. There is one by Jeremy Collier, 1702, 8vo, a most coarse and vulgar copy of the original.
The latest French translation by Alexis Pierron in the collection of Charpentier is better that Dacier's, which has been honored with an Italian version (Udine, 1772). There is an Italian version (1675) which I have not seen. It is by a cardinal.
" A man illustrious in the church, the Cardinal Francis Baibeiini the elder, nephew of Pope Urban VIII., occupied the last years of his life in translating into his native language ^ne thoughts of the Roman emperor, in order to diffuse among the faithful the fertilizing
30 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. life ; n and he cites the book under several words in his Dictionary, giving the emperor's name, but not the title of the work. There are also passages cited by Suidas from Antoninus without mention of the emperor's name. The true title of the work is unknown.
Xylander, who published the first edition of this book (Zurich, 1558, 8vo, with a Lath) version), used a manuscript which contained the twelve books, but it is not known where the manuscript is now. The only other complete manuscript which is known to exist is in the Vatican library, but it has no title and no inscriptions of the several books : the eleventh only has the inscription MdpKov avroKparopo^ marked with an asterisk.
The other Vatican manuscripts aud the three Florentine contain only excerpts from the emperor's book. All the titles of the excerpts nearly agree with that which Xylander prefixed to his edition, MdpKov *Avtu)vlvov AvTOKparopos twv ds eavrov /fy3A.tu l(3. This title has been used by all subsequent editors. We cannot tell whether Antoninus divided his work into books or somebody else did it.
If the inscriptions at the end of the first and second books are genuine, he may have made the division himself. It is plain that the emperor wrote down his thoughts or reflections as the occasions arose ; and since they were intended for his own use, it is no improbable conjecture that he left a complete
MARCUS AUItELIUS ANTONINUS. 31 copy behind him written with his own hand ; for it is not likely that so diligent a man would use the labor of a transcriber for such a purpose, and expose his most secret thoughts to any other eye. He may have also intended the book for his son Com modus, who however had no taste for his IV ther's philosophy.
Some careful hand preserved the precious volume ; and a work by Antoninus is mentioned by other late writers besides Suidas. Many critics have labored on the text of Antoninus. The most complete edition is that by Thomas Gataker, 1652, 4to. The second edition of Gataker was superintended by George Stanhope, 1697, 4to. There is also an edition of 1704.
Gataker made and suggested many good corrections, and he also made a new Latin version, which is not a very good specimen of Latin, but it generally expresses the sense of the original, and often better than some of the more recent translations. He added in the margin opposite to each paragraph references to the other parallel passages; and he wrote a commentary, one of the most complete that has been written on any ancient author.
This commentary contains the editor's exposition of the more difficult passages, and quotations from all the Greek and Roman writers for the illustration of the text. It is a wonderful monument of learning and labor, and certainly no Englishman has yet done any- 32 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. thing like it. At the end of his preface the editor says that he wrote it at Rotherhithe near London in a severe winter, when he was in the seventy-eighth year of his age, 1651, — a time when Milton, Selden, and other great, men of the Commonwealth time were living; and the great French scholar Saumaise (Salmasius), with whom Gataker corresponded and received help from him for his edition of Antoninus.
The Greek text has also been edited by J. M. Schultz, Leipzig, 1802, 8vo ; and by the learned Greek Adamantinus Corais, Paris, 1816, 8vo. The text of Schultz was republished by Tauchnitz, 1821. There are English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish translations of M. Antoninus, and there may be others. I have not seen all the English translations. There is one by Jeremy Collier, 1702, 8vo, a most coarse and vulgar copy of the original.
The latest French translation by Alexis Pierron in the collection of Charpentier is better that Dacier's, which has been honored with an Italian version (Udine, 1772). There is an Italian version (1675) which I have not seen. It is by a cardinal.
" A man illustrious in the church, the Cardinal Francis Baibeiini the elder, nephew of Pope Urban VIII., occupied the last years of his life in translating into his native language ^ne thoughts of the Roman emperor, in order to diffuse among the faithful the fertilizing
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