Angelo Mai - Works

Works

It is on his skill as a reader of palimpsests that Mai's fame chiefly rests. To the period of his residence at Milan belong:

  • fragments of Cicero's judicial orations Pro Scauro, Pro Tullio, Pro Flacco, and his In Clodium et Curionem, De aere alieno Milonis, and De rege Alexandrino (1814)
  • M. Corn. Frontonis opera inedita, cum epistolis item ineditis, Antonini Pii, Marci Aurelii, Lucii Veri et Appiani (1815; new ed., 1823, with more than 100 additional letters found in the Vatican library)
  • portions of eight speeches of Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
  • fragments of Plautus
  • the oration of Isaeus' De hereditate Cleonymi
  • the last nine books of the Antiquities of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and a number of other works.
  • Cicero's De Re Publica, published as M Tullii Ciceronis de republica quae supersunt, Rome, 1822
  • Scriptorum veterum nova collectio, e Vaticanis codicibus edita in 1825-1838
  • Classici scriptores e Vaticanis codicibus editi in 1828-1838
  • Spicilegium Romanum in 1839-1844 (Tomus III, Tomus IX)
  • Patrum nova bibliotheca in 1845-1853

His edition of the celebrated Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209, completed in 1838, but not published (ostensibly the ground of inaccuracies) till four years after his death (1858), is the least satisfactory of his labours and was superseded by the edition of Vercellone and Cozza (1868), which itself leaves much to be desired.

Although Mai was not as successful in textual criticism as in the decipherment of manuscripts, he will always be remembered as a laborious and persevering pioneer, by whose efforts many ancient writings have been rescued from oblivion.

Read more about this topic:  Angelo Mai

Famous quotes containing the word works:

    “The discovery of Pennsylvania’s coal and iron was the deathblow to Allaire. The works were moved to Pennsylvania so hurriedly that for years pianos and the larger pieces of furniture stood in the deserted houses.”
    —For the State of New Jersey, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)

    “Do not worry about the incarnation of ideas. If you are a poet, your works will contain them without your knowledge—they will be both moral and national if you follow your inspiration freely.”
    —Vissarion Belinsky (1810–1848)

    “To receive applause for works which do not demand all our powers hinders our advance towards a perfecting of our spirit. It usually means that thereafter we stand still.”
    —G.C. (Georg Christoph)