the corpus, épinal, erfurt and leyden glossaries, viii - World eBook ...

52 THE CORPUS, EPINAL, ERFURT AND LEYDEN GLOSSARIES
Aff. and Erf.^ it usually agrees with the EE Glossary. We may]
'
therefore make a kind of 'stemma codicum' in which Aff. and
Erf.^ represent one setting of this material common to all four
glossaries, while Corp. and EE represent another (e.g. compareJ
Corp. B 225 and C. G. L. v 349, 15 with C. G. L. v 271, 62 and
IV 489, 29). The four (or more often three, since EE made so
small use of the material) not merely correct each the other's
corruptions of the text, but can also be used for the reconstruction
of the two archetype collections, the 'duae glossae' men-
tioned in the title-heading of Erf-. Indeed this last MS. unaided
presents us with a small portion
of the BR-section of the 'second
glossary,' as is shewn in Class. Quart, xi 190: "From four glosses
(272, 10; 272, 17; 272, 19; 279, 22)
type
like this:
Brumalia [suos bracatos habet.
Brumaria: rosina pluvia.
Bracata Gallia: Gallia quae incolas
Comata Gallia: quae comatos habet.
we can reconstruct an arche-
Brumalia, the suprascript correction of the miswriting 'Bru-
maria,' was followed by the overflow of the gloss Bracata Gallia
(misspelt -lea; c£ C. G. L. iv 594, 16). The overflow was not
detected by the compiler of the St Gall Glossary (C. G. L. iv 210,
49 Bracata: galeata) and (the archetype of) Leyden 67 E (C.
G. L.
V 692, 47 Bracata: Galliaque incola situs est). Both try con-
jectural 'emendation.'"
But in all these reconstructions we must remember that our
'stemma codicum' is not like the 'stemma codicum' of a text of
Virgil or Horace. Our glossaries
were not full and conscientious
transcriptions of the archetype and never pretended to be. They
are extract glossaries. Each compiler selects, at his own caprice, i
some items of the mass that lies before him and passes over
others. So no argument 'ex silentio' is possible. And the items
selected are often re-cast at the compiler's caprice. The compiler
of Er£2 writes himself down with Dogberry by adding to the
item Excidit (scil. animo): oblitus est (292, 52; perhaps a split
from the Virgil item 291, 29 Exciderant animo: de animo re^
cesserant) this concoction of his own brain (292, 53) Excidi:
'