Grammatici Latini, VI. Scriptores artis metricae. Marius Victorinus, Maximus Victorinus, Caesius Bassus etc., ex recensione H. Keilii, Hildesheim 1961, 640, 13-641, 6 (reprografischer Nachdruck der Ausgabe Leipzig 1874)

The codex of Sankt-Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek 876 (S) is the unique witness for the texts edited by Keil in the Fragmenta Sangallensia (for a description of the codex and its contents, Holtz 1981, De Paolis 2003, Romanini 2007, CXXXVII-CXXXIX; the manuscript is available through the link http://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/it/list/one/csg/0876). Probably copied at St. Gall at the end of the eighth century or the beginning of the next, this manuscript was the result of the union of more contemporary grammatical collections, or fragments thereof, which occurred in the same St Gall scriptorium in the first years of the ninth century (Holtz 1981, 365). Holtz distinguished four sections of texts there: the first, second, and fourth include all the works of Donatus or writings connected to them, while the third (pp. 129-284) is a collection of more and less ancient texts on prosody and metre, from Mallius Theodorus to Bede. In this third section, which spans pages 137-144, the Fragmenta Sangallensia appear under the title De scansione heroyci versus et specia eorum. The Fragmentum Berolinese de speciebus hexametri heroici is inserted between the two sections de scansione heroici versus and de iambico trimetro, though it is mutilated at the end. In GL VI 634, 10-636, 23 it is edited by Keil based on the Berlin codex, Staatsbibl. Preussicher Kulturbesitz, Dietz B. Sant. 66.

We do not possess information on the author of the fragment, but his source for the first section, which is devoted to acatalectic iambic dimeter, is certainly Aphthonius’ third book, GL VI 137.8-29, while 133.34-134, 17 is the source for the part concerning trochaic acatalectic tetrameter; the title de epodo octosyllabo then truly concerns only the first half of the fragment. The derivation from Aphthonius (whose epodic system appears to depend, in turn, on Terentianus Maurus 2439-57, according to Morelli 1966, 253) is confirmed by the allusion, at the beginning of the fragment, to acephalous iambic trimeter and to catalectic one, treated by Aphthonius, GL VI 135, 30-136, 12, but absent in S. Just as in the preceding chapter de pentametro, the metric theory displays its foundation on derivatio: the fil rouge between the two verses under examination is in fact their derivation from trimeter, the dimeter through detractio (of an iambic meter), the tetrameter through adiectio (of a cretic foot).

Morelli 1966 has shown that the author seems equipped with a good awareness of the technical lexicon of his model, several passages of which he contaminates, and that he displays a certain scrupulosity concerning the anonymous quotations, whose authorship he takes care to clarify (with the phrase apud Horatium for Hor. Ep. 1,4: subire Maecenas tuo), based on personal interpretations. The same contribution of 1966 offers some suggestions for emendations regarding Keil’s edition, and points out that the anonymous writer’s methodology seems similar to that in the preceding chapters de iambico trimetro and de pentametro. [M. Callipo, tr. C. Belanger]