Priscian (fl. 6th century) - photo 1
Priscian (fl. 6th century) - photo 2

Priscian (fl. 6th century)

Lot 22
12.12.2022 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 1 638
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 869415
Lot 22 | Priscian (fl. 6th century)
Estimate value
£ 2 500 – 3 500
Priscian (fl. 6th century)
A bifolium from the Institutiones Grammaticae, in Latin and partially transliterated Greek [France, 12th century].
A 12th-century witness to one of the most influential European works on grammar.

219 x 150mm (the leaf). 29 lines written in a small, neat, French Romanesque hand, ruled space: 190 x 100mm., the text of the bifolium not consecutive, beginning in Book II. 9-12 ‘L quacun[m]que consonante sequente pot[est] antecedente[m] terminare silla[ba]m’ and ending on the verso ‘habere non potest’ and then continuing on the recto in Book II.26-34, ‘quant[us], quot, quot[us], cum in lectione gravi accentu [...]’ and ending on the verso ‘Abavis q[uo]q[ue] mat[er]nis Athalantiades Mercurius [...]’, initials in red, some marginal annotations in near-contemporary hands (dampstain affecting c.9 lines of text, but still legible, contemporary annotations a little cropped, some worming, final verso faded from use as a binding fragment).

Provenance:
Colker MS 238; acquired in 1974 from Pregliasco.

Priscian’s most famous work, the Institutiones Grammaticae, surviving today in some 1000 copies, is a systematic exposition of Latin grammar based on the works of Herodian and Apollonius: it had a profound influence on the teaching of Latin and indeed of grammar in the West. But it was also important because in order to illustrate grammatical points, it also quotes - in addition to the great Latin authors of Classical Antiquity - the work of authors who would otherwise have been lost, including Ennius, Pacuvius, Accius, Lucilius, Cato and Varro. The Institutionesare divided into eighteen books, of which the first sixteen deal with sounds, word-formation and inflexions; the final two with syntax. The present fragment is from Book II and deals primarily with word formations and patronyms.
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