C, on the other hand, contains many readings found in none of the other nine MSS., except only in the corrections made in D by a second hand. Thus in Chapter VIII for the reading sed consacerdos found in the other MSS. CD* have quam consacerdos; in Chapter IX for Quae cum audissent . . . comperta, CD* have quae vir beatus comperta; at the end of Chapter XV while the other MSS. vary between vivat, vivit |29 and vitat, CD* alone agree on victitat; in Chapter XIX CD* read quanto magis instead of nedum or necdum found in the other MSS. However C also contains variant readings which are found in other MSS. and which seem to indicate that C belongs to a different family than AB. MSS. E and F agree sometimes with AB and sometimes with C. As their readings are found in AB or C they may be disregarded as not outstanding representatives of either group. The final choice, therefore, as to the best available source for the original text among these ten MSS. lies between AB and C. A is more free from errors than any of the other nine MSS. and is also one of the earliest. Moreover since C contains many readings not found in the other MSS. it cannot be regarded as a pure text, for if it were, it is highly improbable that none of the other nine MSS., except only D*, should contain any trace whatsoever of these readings, many of which differ radically from the readings in the other MSS. The reading of CD* in Chapter XIX cited above is probably an alteration to the Vulgate reading. Such alterations are not infrequent in C and are a further illustration of the liberties which the writer of C took with the text. For these reasons the MSS. AB, of which A is the better representative, seem to furnish a text which resembles the archetype more closely than any of the other MSS. CDEFGHJK. Accordingly A has been adopted as the main basis of the text and followed rather closely. Its variant readings are fully noted in the apparatus criticus.
A partial list of MSS. of the Vita, as complete as could be made from available sources, is herewith given. |30
List of Manuscripts
PLACE OF DEPOSIT
CATALOGUE NUMBER
FOLIOS OF TEXT
DATE
Austria-Hungary
Heiligenkreuz: Monastery,
13
168v-176v
XII
Lilienfeld: Monastery.
60
177v-185
XIII
Melk: Monastery.
M6
333-345
XV
Vienna: Hofbibl.
474
226-255v (256-265v Ind)
XI
Vienna: Hofbibl.