Repertory of Conjectures on Horace

Repertory of Conjectures on Horace is a searchable database that allows scholars to find information about ca. 7500 conjectures proposed in printed works from around 1500 up to the present.

The database consists of two files: Repertory of Conjectures and Bibliography.

Repertory of Conjectures on Horace is a result of the research project 'A New Horace' based at the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas, University of Oslo, Norway.

Search the database


Acknowledgements

Repertory of Conjectures on Horace is a result of the research project ‘A New Horace’ financed by The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation (Svenska Riksbankens Jubileumsfond). Grants have also been received from the Faculty of Humanities, University of Oslo. The work has been carried out at the University of Oslo.

Head of project: Professor Monika Asztalos.

The compilers of the Repertory are considered Authors: Professor Monika Asztalos, Victoria Gejrot, Gunn Haaland, Professor Egil Kraggerud, Marianne Ophaug Wehus, Erik Sjaastad, Per Erik Solberg, Dr. Tor Ivar Østmoe.

Michał Kosek, Tekstlab, University of Oslo, has provided assistance in preparing the database for publication online.
 

More about Repertory of Conjectures on Horace

The works by the Roman poet Horace (65-8 BC) have been part of the literary canon for two millennia; still, there is no consensus among scholars about their exact wording. The poet’s original is lost, and what remains from the 1500 years or so before printing was invented is ca. 250 manuscripts, all of which are handwritten copies of other extant or lost handwritten copies, the oldest dating from the 9th century. Scribes have introduced errors in the text and sometimes replaced what they found in the manuscripts they were copying with expressions that made more sense to them. As a result, the texts of any two manuscripts will differ in a large number of places.

It is the work of classical philologists to try to determine which manuscript readings represent the original. If, in a given passage, they question the authenticity of all manuscript readings, they may propose a conjecture – that is to say, a reading not present in any manuscript – on the hypothesis that it represents what Horace actually wrote. Today classical philologists are faced with a great difficulty: Thanks to the work of earlier scholars we have a good idea of the readings found in the best manuscripts (some of which are undoubtedly conjectures), but it is all but impossible to track down all conjectures that have been proposed in printed works. The Repertory of Conjectures on Horace has been designed in order to remedy this situation.

The Repertory of Conjectures on Horace is a searchable database that allows scholars to find information about ca. 7500 conjectures proposed in printed works from around 1500 up to the present. Each conjecture is presented in its own entry where the user will find references to publications in which scholars have proposed the conjecture as their own or attributed it to someone else or discussed it. It is also possible to search the database for types of conjecture, e.g. Substitution of word(s) and Deletion of line(s). By means of links users of the Repertory are sent to a Bibliography listing publications marked either ‘Checked’ (more than 1900) or ‘Not checked’ (ca. 1600). The latter have been entered in the Bibliography on the assumption that they may contain relevant material. The Repertory of conjectures on Horace is work in progress that can be updated at any point of time.

The Repertory of conjectures on Horace is the first searchable repertory of conjectures on any classical author designed to provide the information described above and published online.

Published Jan. 22, 2014 12:58 PM - Last modified Jan. 26, 2021 1:41 PM