71 New Ovid Manuscripts discovered?

[Viggen]

...too good to be true?

 

EXPERTS from Huelva University have discovered 71 unknown manuscripts of Roman poet Ovid (43BC-17AD). The manuscripts, most of them codices and fragments which were not known to even exist, have been found in different libraries around the world and most of them belong to Ovid

[Viggen]

...if you know spanish, here the article from El Mundo with much more information

 

http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2011/04/27/andalucia/1303920961.html

[Ursus]

The article wasn't clear .... are these completely new works of Ovid that have been discovered, or just a collection of existing works that have been discovered?

 

If it is the former that is certainly an exciting discovery.

[GhostOfClayton]

Sadly, my Spanish extends no further than "OfClayton le da besos mejor de su esposo", but this is very exciting stuff. I suppose it depends on how you interpret 'versions or interpretations', though. More detailed information will, hopefully, be forthcoming.

[Ludovicus]

...if you know spanish, here the article from El Mundo with much more information

 

http://www.elmundo.e...1303920961.html

 

"Se trata de c

Edited May 5, 2011 by Ludovicus

[Melvadius]

The Euro weekly article mentions the fact that most of 71 manuscripts are 'codices and fragments' of his best known work Metamorphoses and are 'versions or interpretations of the work which date from ancient times to the modern age'. They effectively bring the known total of fragments or codices to 538 although I suspect by no means are all of them complete.

 

Wikipedia does provide some context to this discovery:

 

The poem retained its popularity throughout Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and is represented by an extremely high number of surviving manuscripts (more than 400); the earliest of these are three fragmentary copies containing portions of Books 1-3, dating to the ninth century.

 

Collaborative editorial effort has been investigating the various manuscripts of Metamorphoses, some forty-five complete texts or substantial fragments,[9] all deriving from a Gallic archetype.[10] The result of several centuries of critical reading is that the poet's meaning is firmly established on the basis of the manuscript tradition or restored by conjecture where the tradition is deficient. There are two modern critical editions: William S. Anderson's, first published in 1977 in the Teubner series, and R. J. Tarrant's, published in 2004 by the Oxford Clarendon Press.

 

The real test will be how clear and how old the 'oldest' fragments are and if by being older versions they will provide any alternative readings to some of the 'standardised' versions of the poem which may have been based on more recent but uncertain readings or mistranslations of the previously 'oldest' versions.

[Metella]

I'm so impatient - I would want to know immediately about any new bits; and any bits that did not match current translations. Why can't the scholars just pump this out in a user friendly version ! ?

 

I'll miss it all if they just stick to peer reviewed academic articles.

[caldrail]

Oh great. More Confessions Of A Roman.