Order and structure in the Letters of Philostratus

Morrison, A. D. (2023) Order and structure in the Letters of Philostratus. In: Marquis, É. (ed.) Epistolary Fiction in Ancient Greek Literature. Series: Philologus. Supplemente (19). De Gruyter: Berlin ; Boston, pp. 63-76. ISBN 9783110996241 (doi: 10.1515/9783110983739-005)

Abstract

The textual transmission of Philostratus’ Letters is complex (Rosenmeyer 2001, 322 n. 2; Gallé Cejudo 2010, 43-47): no single MS preserves all the letters, so that our collection of 73 letters is constructed from distinct MS families and some independent MSS (see Benner/Fobes 1949, 394-408, building on the edition of Kayser 1844). The number of letters and the order in which the letters are presented in these different MSS are radically different. Following on from the ground-breaking study of Gibson 2012 on letter-collections (and their ordering principles) in Latin, and my own recent study of the order and arrangement of Alciphron’s letters (Morrison 2018), I examine the principles of order and arrangement within these different MS groups and the effect on the reader of (e.g.) the arrangement and placing of pairs of letters, the juxtaposition of particular letters and the arrangement of larger groups of letters, in order to compare the arrangements in different MSS and different MS groups. The time is propitious for such a re-evaluation, since we can now take advantage of the work of Raïos (1992/1997) on the MS tradition of the letters, which remedies some of the deficiencies of Kayser (1844). In particular, I continue and expand the preliminary investigation of Benner/Fobes (1949, 399-401) and Rosenmeyer (2001, 322-324) into the significance of the different groups and orders into which the letters are put in different MS families, in order to begin to reconstruct some of the ordering principles which underlay the arrangement of Greek letter collections.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Morrison, Professor Andrew
• Authors: Morrison, A. D.
• Subjects: P Language and Literature > PA Classical philology
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > Classics
• Publisher: De Gruyter
• ISBN: 9783110996241
• Published Online: 27 April 2023