A Virgilian mystery. Sort of.

Deses · Post by **Deses** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 3:33 pm

R. Thomas in his commentary on the Georgics has this reference in the bibliography under 'Other works':

Brown, E, (1963). Numeri Vergilianae. Studies in Eclogues and Georgics. Coll. Latomus 63. Brussels.

D.P. Fowler mentions the same book in the OCD article on acrostics:
E. Brown, Numeri Vergilianae (1963)

I am holding the said book right now and the title of it is:

Numeri Vergiliani. Studies in "Eclogues" and "Georgics" (Brussels 1963).

In case you have missed it, it's Vergiliani instead of Vergilianae.

Can anyone explain to me why this adjective correctly (in my opinion) agreeing with 'numeri' all of a sudden assumes a feminine ending when referred to by two great Latinists, well known to anybody who's anybody?

P.S. It is immaterial why I am reading this book, as well as its merits or the lack thereof.

Alatius · Post by **Alatius** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 5:21 pm

Huh, that's peculiar. A shot in the dark from me would be that it is simply a momentary distraction, perhaps influenced by the common sortes vergilianae. Or maybe the manuscript was dictated, and there was a confusion based on the pronunciation (vergiliani, when pronounced in the traditional English pronunciation would sound similar to vergilianae in restored classical). On the other hand, you have found more than one occurance... Nah, I don't know.

Post by **thesaurus** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 9:45 pm

This is just a guess, but in the publishing process things like bibliographies don't necessarily get close editing attention. I've done some of this work and it isn't unheard of for errors to slip through, especially when you have long lists of citations.

Deses · Post by **Deses** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 3:23 pm

thesaurus wrote:This is just a guess, but in the publishing process things like bibliographies don't necessarily get close editing attention. I've done some of this work and it isn't unheard of for errors to slip through, especially when you have long lists of citations.

Sadly, few things get enough editing attention these days. What's peculiar in this case, we are not just talking about some obscure academic publications.

I also like the sortes Vergilianae guess...