Subject: RE: Erasmus: Addition

From: "Mr. Helge Evensen" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 26 Jun 1997 03:08:31 -0700

[addition to previous message]

I wrote:

>The notes he gathered on his travels might not have influenced Codex 2
>or the other codices he sent to the printer much. For if these MSS were
>essentially in agreement with those he found in his travels, what need
>would there be for introducing many new readings into their texts??

And:

>[Erasmus] needed not introduce *many* variants if the great
>majority of the MSS he found throughout Europe was in substantial
>agreement with those he used (and approved of) at the time of printing.
>The notes he may have gathered on his travels did not make their way
>into
>Codex 2 or the other MSS he sent to the printer, in those instances
>where the notes *agreed* with these MSS.

To add a point which was not clearly stated in my previous post:

The changes he *did* introduce into Codex 2 (and the other MSS) may, in
fact, have been based primarily on the MSS he studied in connection with
his Latin translation. If that is the case, it is not even necessary to
assume that he gathered notes on his travels or his visits to libraries,
but only that he gathered information from the Greek MSS he worked with
when preparing his Latin text. He certainly must have had the time and
opportunity to do so, whether he actually did it or not.

It is unlikely that all the changes that were later attested by
MS discoveries and research, should have been introduced by Erasmus
*without* any MS attestation.
*Some* of them, of course, *might* have been editorial on the part of
Erasmus. But I believe that the likelihood goes in the direction of he
having been in possession of MS evidence for most of the changes he
introduced.

-- 
- Mr. Helge Evensen