Strange Symbols in Metrical Appendices of Loeb of Plautus

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horus92
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Strange Symbols in Metrical Appendices of Loeb of Plautus

Post by horus92 »

Hi all!

I've been reading a lot of Plautus lately, but some of the symbols in the metrical appendix don't make sense to me. There is no explanation anywhere in the book about them.

Some of them are easy enough, like tr7 (with the 7 superscript) is trochaic septenarii, ia6 (6 superscript) is iambic senarii, etc.

But there are some like vr, with the r superscript (aulularia 415-446). Or tr sy22metr (22metr being superscript). Or crc + crc (with the c's superscript in both cases). It's clear enough that in the latter two cases tr = trochee and cr = cretic but what's up with the "sy22metr" stuff? And what the heck is "vr"?

What's going on here? What do these symbols mean? The scansion of Plautus is tricky enough without these ambiguous symbols thrown in!

horus92
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Re: Strange Symbols in Metrical Appendices of Loeb of Plautu

Post by horus92 »

I went down to the local university's library today and managed to figure it out. Found an old book called Cantica that scanned all of the songs in Plautus and in the front there was a guide to the symbols. Here they are:

adon - adonius
ar - aristophanius
ash (h superscript) - hemiasclepiadeus
bac (c superscript) - bacchiacum colon
cr (r superscript) - colon reizianum
crc (c superscript) - creticum colon
diph - diphilius
gl - glyconicus
iac (c superscript) - iambi continui qui dicuntur
ion - ionicus
ith - ithyphallicus
pros - prosodicus
sy - systema
vr (r superscript) - versus reizianus
wil - wilamowitzianus

sy##metr (##metr) = number of metra

adrianus
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Re: Strange Symbols in Metrical Appendices of Loeb of Plautu

Post by adrianus »

Good result!
Bonam investigationem!
I'm writing in Latin hoping for correction, and not because I'm confident in how I express myself. Latinè scribo ut ab omnibus corrigar, non quod confidenter me exprimam.

horus92
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Re: Strange Symbols in Metrical Appendices of Loeb of Plautu

Post by horus92 »

Still not sure what "prosodicus" refers to, anybody know?

edit: unless it refers to the "hiatus prosodicus", and not to an actual verse-type.

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