Reference edition:

[Maximi Victorini] Commentarium de ratione metrorum, con cinque trattati inediti sulla prosodia delle sillabe finali. Introduction, critical text, translation and commentary, D. Corazza, Weidmann, Hildesheim 2011 (Collectanea Grammatica Latina 10).

The Ars Victorini grammatici (GL VI 187-205), the Ars Palaemonis de metrica institutione (GL VI 206-15), the De ratione metrorum (GL VI 216 – 228) and the De finalibus (GL VI 229 – 240. 10) have been established as a corpus since the first printed editions, and especially since the grammatical collections published by Sicardus in Basel in 1527; Keil attributed them to one Maximus Victorinus, who is otherwise unknown. In fact, examination of the manuscript tradition has revealed that the Ars Victorini grammatici (GL VI 187-205) and the Ars Palaemonis de metrica institutione (GL VI 206-15) are completely independent. On the other hand, the work entitled Commentarium de ratione metrorum comprises a composite corpus, but that is fundamentally homogeneous; this corpus includes also those sections that, until now, had been considered autonomous and appeared under the title De finalibus. This section, which includes all eight parts of speech, in fact has two traditions: the first is probably a continuation of an earlier tradition, and presents the supplementary materials and included among the works of Donatus and his commentators, which are often adespota and/or anepigraphic; the second applies the analysis of de finalibus to the eight parts of speech, and includes additional material (Keil’s De ratione metrorum, but also the linking section and De caesuris finale) to form a corpus of a prosodic-metric nature. Both traditions contain common materials which reveal a point of intersection, initially for a single branch in which the Commentarium is assembled. The first section of the composite treatise, corresponding to the section De ratione metrorum (GL VI 216. 1 – 228. 5), presents itself as a collection that is the outcome of the integration and juxtaposition of prosodic-grammatical arguments, organised into two sections. The first section (I-VIII) contains a wide range of prosodical concepts, with many examples; the second section (IX-X 3) contains the teaching de finalibus, arranged into just two parts of speech: nouns (IX, including participles and adverbs) and verbs (X 1-3); it concludes with a brief summary (X 4) of the basic rules in recognising the prosody of syllables according to their position in the structure of the dictio. The passage between the first and second sections of the Commentarium de ratione metrorum, one of the compiler’s linking interventions (X 5), illustrates the overall purpose of both of the artigraphic (grammatical) sections within a pedagogical course focused on the elements of rhetorical learning. The second part of the Commentarium de ratione metrorum (corresponding to Keil’s De finalibus, GL VI 229 – 240. 10) is composed of a more detailed and complete de finalibus, which is not limited to the eight parts of speech. This section constitutes the material that predates the Commentarium, but it is now fournished with introductory and concluding materials outlining an educational path. [D. Corazza, tr. C. Belanger]