jakejonesiv

What is the earliest external witness that attributes Annals 15:44 to Tacitus?

Thanks,
Jake Jones

Roger Pearse

I don't recall encountering one in Clarence W. MENDELL, Tacitus: The Man and his Work, Yale University Press/Oxford University Press (1957), but I was only really looking at references earlier than the manuscript (Ms. Biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana Plutei 68.2).

I suspect that it would be in the renaissance. The unusual texts which lurked at Monte Cassino did not circulate in the Middle Ages, but began to do so in the renaissance. The other examples that come to mind are a text of Cyprian's letters of which a copy once at Holkham Hall in Norfolk (before inheritance tax) contained the only copy of a particular letter missing from all the other mss; and the strange Bodleian ms. of Juvenal containing the paragraph labelled 'O' in the editions. Both these 15th century mss have some connection to Monte Cassino.

All the best,

Roger Pearse

jakejonesiv

Roger,

I was hoping to find a witness to Tacitus that stated that Jesus was executed under Pontius Pilate before the manuscript passed into the hands of the Medici. I haven't been able to find one either, but I do not possess your experience in this area.

Thanks very much! Your knowledge of ancient manuscripts is a great resource. And I do take your point that many ancient works are represented by relatively few and late extant manuscripts.

Jake Jones IV