Apuleius, Fragmentary Works

Apuleius, Fragmentary Works Synopsis

This edition of Apuleius's fragmentary works includes 62 items which, based on the most up-to-date scholarship, can be attributed with reasonable certainty to the 'lost Apuleius'. In most cases, identifying the ipsissima verba of the author is difficult or impossible, and even the methodological validity of such an attempt remains open to debate. Following established precedents, no distinction is drawn between testimonia and fragmenta; instead, a single consecutive numbering system is adopted for the various reliquiae.

These are drawn from sources in Latin and Greek, as well as in Syriac, Arabic, and Armenian. Passages known from oriental languages are presented here in a Latin back-translation, specially prepared for this edition. Each entry includes a pre-apparatus (wherever applicable) and a selective but meticulous apparatus criticus.

For certain Greek and Latin sources still lacking a reliable modern edition, the principal relevant manuscripts have been reexamined. This edition is further enriched by 161 purported 'new fragments' of Apuleius embedded in Niccolò Perotti's Cornu Copiae, a hitherto scarcely accessible set of dubious items which merit greater scholarly attention. An extensive praefatio (in Latin) surveys all the works either lost or falsely attributed to Apuleius, while also detailing the principles and methods underlying this edition.