Maurus Servius Honoratus was a pagan Grammairien of the end of the IV {{E}} century after J. - C., famous among its contemporaries as the man more educated of his generation in Italy; he is the author of a book of comments on Virgile, In sorted Virgilii Opera Expositio , which was the first printed manuscript with Florence, by Bernardo Cennini, 1471.
Macrobe does of him one of the interlocutors of its Saturnales . The allusions contained in this work and a letter of Symmaque with Servius show that it was pagan.
The comment on Virgile survived in two distinct handwritten traditions. In the first form, it is a relatively short comment, allotted to Servius by the heading of the manuscripts; this attribution is corroborated by other reasons. A second group of manuscripts, all derivatives of the tenth and eleventh century, present the same text, but wrapped of a comment much wider. The copiers additions contrast with the style of the original; none of these manuscripts bears the name of Servius. “The added matters are undoubtedly old time, not very distant from that of Servius, and are founded on the whole on works of history and antiquities which are now lost. The author is anonymous and probably Christian. ” A third group of manuscripts, written for the majority in Italy, gives the text-core with Scolie S interpolated, which show that the Virgilii Opera Expositio was of a permanent use.
The authentic comment of Servius Maurus Honoratus is actually the only complete edition of a classic author who was written before the fall of the Roman Empire of Occident. The realization in is very in conformity with the principles of a modern edition, and is founded inter alia on a full literature criticizes virgilienne, whose good portion is known only by the fragments and the facts preserved in this comment. The notes on the text of Virgile, although they seldom make, or never make, authority against the existing manuscripts, which go up at the time of Servius or even higher, provide however invaluable information on the old recensions and old criticisms textual of Virgile. In the grammatical interpretation of the language of its author, Servius does not rise above rigid and twisted subtleties of its time; and its etymologies of course violate all the sound laws and semantic modern with the profit of creative vagrancies.
One must put at the credit of Servius particularly not to have given in the allegorical method of exposure of the texts, which prevailed at its time. For the historian and that which studies the ancient things, the durable value of its work holds so that it preserves facts relating to the history, the religion, antiquities and the language of Rome which, without it, could be lost. A considerable part of work of Varron and other old scholars survived in its pages.
Other works
In addition to the comment on Virgile, there exist other works of Servius: a collection of notes on the grammar ( Ars grammatica ) of Aelius Donatus; a treaty on the metric one of the ends of worms ( Of finalibus ); and an opuscule on the various poetic meters ( Of centum metris ).The edition of Georg Thilo and Hermann Hagen (1878 - 1902), remains the only complete edition of the work of Servius. Servius of Harvard east currently in the course of edition ( Servianorum in Vergili Dyed with carmine Commentariorum Editio Harvardiana ).
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