This paper discusses the main features of R. Porson’s editorial work on Aeschylus, through the analysis of the two critical editions of the poet which can be attributed to him (the anonymous in folio printed by the editor Foulis in 1795 and the octavo London edition dated 1806/1796) and of the unpublished contributions collected after his death by C. J. Blomfield, J. C. Monk and T. Kidd. A glance to the Agamemnon shows that while the analogic principles formulated in Porson’s Preface to Euripides’ Hecuba (1797) were already adopted in his 1795 Aeschylus, only a very small fraction of the great contribution to the knowledge of tragic metre presented in the Supplementum of the second Hecuba (1802) and in the Euripidean editions of 1798-1801 may be traced in the Aeschylean edition of 1806/1796 (the work on it was probably abandoned after 1800). Nonetheless, Porson introduced relevant novelties in the lyrical sections (some of his colometric suggestions are still adopted in modern editions), proposed many interesting conjectures and inaugurated an approach based on the serious study of precedent editions. The study of some emendations allows to appreciate Porson’s conservative attitude: he always try to save as much as possibile of the transmitted letters, and transposition is favoured, in order to solve the problems without altering the transmitted words.

Riflessioni sull'Eschilo di Porson

MEDDA, ENRICO
2009-01-01

Abstract

This paper discusses the main features of R. Porson’s editorial work on Aeschylus, through the analysis of the two critical editions of the poet which can be attributed to him (the anonymous in folio printed by the editor Foulis in 1795 and the octavo London edition dated 1806/1796) and of the unpublished contributions collected after his death by C. J. Blomfield, J. C. Monk and T. Kidd. A glance to the Agamemnon shows that while the analogic principles formulated in Porson’s Preface to Euripides’ Hecuba (1797) were already adopted in his 1795 Aeschylus, only a very small fraction of the great contribution to the knowledge of tragic metre presented in the Supplementum of the second Hecuba (1802) and in the Euripidean editions of 1798-1801 may be traced in the Aeschylean edition of 1806/1796 (the work on it was probably abandoned after 1800). Nonetheless, Porson introduced relevant novelties in the lyrical sections (some of his colometric suggestions are still adopted in modern editions), proposed many interesting conjectures and inaugurated an approach based on the serious study of precedent editions. The study of some emendations allows to appreciate Porson’s conservative attitude: he always try to save as much as possibile of the transmitted letters, and transposition is favoured, in order to solve the problems without altering the transmitted words.
2009
Medda, Enrico
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11568/133302
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