indirect tradition of Virgil’s "Georgica" and its editorial reception

Abstract

The indirect tradition of Virgil’s Georgica still poses many problems to the editors of this text, whose solution, at least in practical terms, requires an analysis of the passages as a whole, which should lead to a more systematic study of parallelisms and to a more coherent ecdotic praxis. After presenting a summary of the ancient and medieval transmission of this virgilian poem, with particular attention to the problems of its very rich indirect tradition, our paper tries to show the disparity of ecdotic criteria even in very recent times. We pose the question of whether the application of these criteria could be more rigid, always to the extent possible, both with regard to literary questions (as for example the very controversial use of archaisms by Virgil) and merely orthographic conventions or preferences.