- Festus grammaticus, Sextus Pompeius Festus
était un grammairien latin de la fin du
IIe siècle ap. J.-C. Il avait
composé, sous le titre de De
Significatione Verborum, une sorte de
dictionnaire précieux pour la
connaissance des antiquités romaines, de
la langue latine et de la mythologie.
-
- Cet ouvrage est une sorte
d'abrégé traité De Verborum
Significatu de Verrius Flaccus, qui n'est pas
parvenu jusqu'à nous. Il est d'ailleurs
à noter que l'ouvrage de Festus ne nous
est lui-même parvenu que partiellement (sa
deuxième moitié), et de
surcroît très mutilé et fut
lui-même abrégé par Paul
Diacre.
-
- Il ne reste, outre l'abrégé de
Paul Diacre, que des fragments de Festus
lui-même, trouvés dans les
manuscrits de Pomponius Laetus et publiés
à Rome par F. Orsinus (Fulvio Orsini),
1581.
-
- Le tout a été
réimprimé par :
- • André Dacier, Paris,
1681, ad usum Delphini (voir
ci-dessous)
- • Lindemann, Leipzig, 1832 ;
- • Egger, Paris, 1838 ;
- • Karl Otfried Müller, Leipzig,
1839.
-
- Il a été traduit en
français, par Auguste
Savagner, 1846, dans la collection
Panckoucke.
-
 -
 -
- De verborum significatione: "Augustus locus
sanctus ab avium gestu . .."
-
- Bresciae: Boninus de boninis, 18 June, 1483
Sextus Pompeius Festus was a grammarian of the
2nd century A.D., who wrote this abridgement
('epitome') of the now lost encyclopedic
dictionary of his contemporary Marcus Verrius
Flaccus which survives only in fragments and in
occasional citations by other authors. Verrius
Flaccus, a freedman and celebrated grammarian
who flourished in the reign of Augustus .
-
- Festus gives the etymology as well as the
meaning of every word; and his work throws
considerable light on the language, mythology
and antiquities of ancient Rome . He made a few
alterations, and inserted some critical remarks
of his own . He also omitted such ancient Latin
words as had long been obsolete; these he
discussed in a separate work now lost, entitled
Priscorum verborum cum exemplis.
-
- Our primary remaining source of this
important Latin dictionary is Festus'
abridgement, of which there is only one
surviving manuscript (mutilated, and consisting
of only the letters M-V), and an 8th-century
abridgment of Festus by Paul the Deacon. The
printed editions from the 15th century,
therefore, are of the utmost importance in the
history of the transmission of the text. Vancil
lists 10: (201-210), beginning with the first
edition of Milan, 1471.
-
- This edition by Boninus de Bonini is the
last edition printed in the 15th century, and
apparently the last edition before the
rediscovery of the mutilated manuscript was
printed in 1559. Goff locates two copies
(Hartford Theological Seminary and Newberry
Library). RLIN & OCLC both locate one copy
(Emory University), catalogued with the
inaccurate remark that "this is the second and
only remaining portion of the abridgement by
Festus of the lost treatise, De verborum
significatione of M. Verrius Flaccus, edited and
with notes by Fulvio Orsini" - a remark which
applies to the 1559 printing, edited by Orsini,
from the mutilated manuscript now in Naples. The
incunable editions represent the entire
alphabet. In this edition, the text of the full
alphabet runs through verso H2, ending with
"Festi Popmpeii diligenter emendati liber
finit".
-
- "For modern readers, there is a critical
text, published in the early part of the
twentieth century; but no translation or
commentary is available and the text itself
needs modern re-assessment. Many individual
entries from the dictionary have been much
debated and play a major role in our
understanding of the republican period; but
there has been no collection of this
bibliography and little attempt to look at the
dictionary itself or at the information it
provides as a coherent whole."
-
- And modern editors have also remarked: "The
text, even in its present mutilated state, is an
important source for scholars of Roman history.
It is a treasury of historical, grammatical,
legal and antiquarian learning, providing
sometimes unique evidence for the culture,
language, political, social and religious
institutions, deities, laws, lost monuments, and
topographical traditions of ancient Italy."
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