History Forum / General / Ancient History / October 2003

The first six books survive in a single manuscript composed
c. 850 AD that is now in the Biblioteca Laurenziana in
Florence.

Books 11-16 survive in a different manuscript which is
probably written later (c. 11th century).  That is also
in Florence.

No.  Book.

--Peter Metcalfe

Not clear exactly what is meant. The manuscripts on which our text of
the Annals depends are (as listed by Fisher in his Oxford Text):
Medicean, 9th century
Second Medicean, 11th century
19 manuscripts of the 15th century
For books 1-16, four printed editions of the 16th century
For books 11-16, two printed editions of the 15th century.

None of these are scrolls. Papyrus scrolls were replaced by parchment
codices (books made up like ours, written on prepared sheepskin). This
change took place between the second and fourth centuries AD and it
meant recopying every book that was to be preserved. We have no full
appreciation of what that meant for the preservation of literature
that happened not to be popular at the time.

On the other hand, parchment is far more durable than papyrus, which
is a fragile material. So the question of preservation cuts both ways.
We still have complete (or relatively complete) parchments from the
5th century; of papyrus, only fragments from the dustbins of Egypt,
with some blackened ones from the ruins of Herculaneum.

Because nothing like an autograph is ever available, it has been
necessary to develop a science of recovering the original text from
variants found in later manuscripts. This works (within limits) and we
can say a whole lot about the ancient texts with reasonable certainty.

I have some notes on the manuscripts at

  <http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/tacitus/index.htm>

Tacitus' works were originally issued on rolls.  These were then
copied, and doubtless recopied as time went by.  His works went out of
fashion, in common with other works of the period, and came back in
the 4th century.

However a technology change was happening slowly; the modern book form
('codex') had been invented.  By the end of the 4th century, books of
all kinds were being copied from the perishable papyrus roll into the
more durable, larger codices on parchment.  As a codex could hold
several rolls -- ca. 5 or 10 -- the books tended to survive in pentads
or decades.  The nice modern new book then tended to become the source
of all subsequent copies. This could be awkward -- if a roll was not
to hand when this happened, that book might be lost forever.

Sulpicius Severus knows portions of Tacitus no longer extant, in the
5th century.  When the Western empire collapsed, vast amounts of
literature was lost with it.  After all, to be important in the new
barbarian societies, it was not necessary to be able to read (indeed
Lupus of Ferrieres complains in the 9th century of the attitude that
learning was for pansies).

The Annals existed in the 9th century, when learning revived, in two
bits, both in Germany.  One part was a manuscript -- probably only 1
-- of Annals 1-6.  Another also existed, containing Annals 11-16.

The first of these has survived and come down to us.  We don't know of
any medieval copies of it.  It found its way to the abbey of Corvey in
Saxony, and was forgotten.  In 1508 it was stolen; came to Italy and
was sold to Pope Leo X, and a printed edition made from it.  It's now
in the Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana in Florence.

The second migrated over the alps in the middle ages, when a German
abbot was appointed at Monte Cassino.  It was copied there between
1038-1055.  The original is lost; the copy remained at Monte Cassino
until the Renaissance.  It was 'acquired' under dubious circumstances
by Boccacio, and then passed in a somewhat dodgy way to Niccolo
Niccoli.  After his death, it passed into the hands of Lorenzo di
Medici, 'the Magnificent', and became generally known.  A fair number
of manuscript copies of this were made, and it was printed early.  The
books of Lorenzo form the core of the Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana.

These two mss form the basis of our knowledge of the text of Tacitus'
Annales.  I have a monochrome bit map of a page from the second
online.  I did go to the Laurentian library when I was in Florence and
asked if they had any slides of the mss to offer (I thought they might
be selling them as the Bodleian does, to tourists); sadly the answer
was no.  A monochrome printed facsimile does exist according to the
catalogues, but I have not seen this.

All the best,

Roger Pearse