Servius the Grammarian
{{Short description|Late 4th/early 5th century Roman grammarian}}
{{Moresources|date=October 2021}}
File:Vergilius, Basel 1544.jpg
Servius, distinguished as Servius the Grammarian ({{langx|la|Servius}} or {{lang|la|Seruius Grammaticus}}), was a late fourth-century and early fifth-century grammarian. He earned a contemporary reputation as the most learned man of his generation in Italy; he authored a set of commentaries on the works of Virgil. These works, {{lang|la|In Tria Virgilii Opera Expositio}} ("Exposition on Three Works of Virgil"), {{lang|la|Commentarii in Virgilium}} ("Commentaries on Virgil"), {{lang|la|Commentarii in Vergilii Opera}} ("Commentaries on the Works of Vergil"), or {{lang|la|Vergilii Carmina Commentarii}} ("Commentaries on the Poems of Virgil"), constituted the first incunable to be printed at Florence, by Bernardo Cennini, in 1471.
In the Saturnalia of Macrobius, Servius appears as one of the interlocutors; allusions in that work and a letter from Symmachus to Servius indicate that he was not a convert to Christianity.{{Cite web |title=Macrobius Criticism - Essay - eNotes.com |url=https://www.enotes.com/topics/macrobius/critical-essays/criticism |access-date=2022-09-01 |website=eNotes |language=en}}
Name
The name Servius also appears as Seruius owing to the unity of the Latin letters V and U from antiquity until as late as the 18th century. Many medieval manuscripts of Servius's commentaries give him the praenomen Marius or Maurus and the cognomen Honoratus. The authenticity of these names{{mdash}}shared by Christian saints{{mdash}}is now doubted.Robert A. Kaster, Guardians of Language: The Grammarian and Society in Late Antiquity (Berkeley, 1997), p. 357. Oxford Classical Dictionary, "[https://oxfordre.com/classics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-5866 Servius, grammarian and commentator]". PLRE, vol. 1, p. 827.
Commentary on Virgil
The commentary on Virgil's Aeneid{{mdash}}{{lang|la|In Vergilii Aeneidem Commentarii|italic=unset}}, {{lang|la|In Aeneida|italic=unset}}, {{lang|la|Commentarii in Vergilii Aeneidem|italic=unset}}, {{lang|la|In Vergilii Aeneidos Libros I{{ndash}}III Commentarii|italic=unset}}, or {{lang|la|Ad Aen.|italic=unset}}{{mdash}}survives in two distinct manuscript traditions.The manuscript tradition is examined by Charles E. Murgia, Prolegomena to Servius 5: the manuscripts (University of California Classical Studies 11), University of California Press, 1975.
The first is a comparatively short commentary, attributed to Servius in the superscription in the manuscripts and by other internal evidence. The second class derive from the 10th and 11th centuries, embed the same text in a much expanded commentary. The copious additions are in contrasting style to the original; none of these manuscripts bears Servius' name, and the commentary is known traditionally as Servius auctus or Servius Danielis, from Pierre Daniel who first published it in 1600.{{in lang|it}} I. Biffi and C. Marabelli (eds.), Figure del pensiero medievale. Fondamenti e inizi IV-IX secolo, Jaca Book, 2009, p. 306
"The added matter is undoubtedly ancient, dating from a time but little removed from that of Servius, and is founded to a large extent on historical and antiquarian literature which is now lost. The writer is anonymous and probably a Christian",Encyclopædia Britannica 1911: sub "Servius Maurus Honoratus" although one proposed author, Aelius Donatus, was a Christian.
A third class of manuscripts, written for the most part in Italy, includes the core text with interpolated scholia, which demonstrate the continued usefulness of the Virgilii Opera Expositio.{{cn|date=October 2021}}
Other works
Besides the Virgilian commentary, other works of Servius are extant: a collection of notes on the grammar (Ars grammatica) of Aelius Donatus; a treatise on metrical endings in verse (De finalibus); and a tract on the different poetic meters (De centum metris).
The edition of Georg Thilo and Hermann Hagen (1878–1902), remains the only edition of the whole of Servius' work. Currently in development is the Harvard Servius (Servianorum in Vergilii Carmina Commentariorum: Editionis Harvardianae); of the projected five volumes, two have so far appeared: ii (Aeneid 1–2), 1946, and iii (Aeneid 3–5), 1965.
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
Sources
- Casali, Sergio and Fabio Stok (edd.). Servio: stratificazioni esegetiche e modelli culturali / Servius: exegetical stratifications and cultural models (Bruxelles: Éditions Latomus, 2008) (Collection Latomus, 317). {{ISBN|9782870312582}}.
- Rand, E. K., "Is Donatus's Commentary on Virgil Lost?" Classical Quarterly 10 (1916), 158–164. Donatus's authorship of the supplementary material.
- Savage, John Joseph Hannan, "The Manuscripts of the Commentary of Servius Danielis on Virgil", Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 43 (1932), 77–121. {{JSTOR|310668}}.
- Savage, John Joseph Hannan, "The Manuscripts of Servius's Commentary on Virgil", Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 45 (1934), 157–204. {{JSTOR|310634}}.
External links
- {{Commonscat-inline}}
- {{wikisourcelang-inline|la|Scriptor:Maurus Servius Honoratus|Maurus Servius Honoratus}}
- [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0053 Commentary on the Aeneid of Vergil] at the Perseus Project in Latin.
- [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0091%3Apoem%3Dpr%3Acommline%3D1 Commentary on the Eclogues of Vergil] at the Perseus Project in Latin.
- [http://www.intratext.com/X/LAT0333.htm De Centum Metris at Intratext.com ]
- {{usurped|1=[https://archive.today/20130415003912/http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/serv_cent.html De Centum Metris at Forum Romanorum ]}}
- Servii grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii carmina commentarii, Georius Thilo, Hermannus Hagen (ed.), 3 vol., Lipsiae in aedibus B. G. Teubneri, 1881–1902: [https://archive.org/details/invergiliicarmin01servuoft vol. 1], [https://archive.org/details/invergiliicarmin02servuoft vol. 2], [https://archive.org/details/serviigrammatic01thilgoog vol. 3 part 1], [https://archive.org/details/ServiiGrammaticiAppendixServiana1902/page/n8 vol. 3 part 2].
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Category:4th-century writers in Latin