Reference edition:

Vitae Vergilianae antiquae, recc. G. Brugnoli et F. Stok, Romae 1997 (F. Stok pp. 41-56).

Besides the Vita Vergili, Aelius Donatus’ Praefatio to the Bucolics has also survived.  Unlike Servius, who comments on the works of Vergil in the order “Aeneid-Bucolics-Georgics,” Donatus followed the chronological order “Bucolics-Georgics-Aeneid,” also undertaken by Servius Danielis. In the manuscript tradition this work is for the most part joined to the Vita (as in modern editions, which publish the Vita and Praefatio with sequential and continuous section numbers).  The treatment is articulated according to a scheme that later developed from the tradition of the accessus: titulus, causa, intentio, numerus, and ordo.  The subsequent part is the explanatio, i.e. the actual commentary. The praefatio of Donatus was borrowed and summarized by Servius as the praefatio proper to the Bucolics. [F. Stok; tr. C. L. Caterine].