Priscian’s Ars is generally considered the apogee of Latin grammar. Yet he himself claims to have followed in every respect the authority of Apollonius Dyscolus (Ars 13.24.7; al.). For a proper assessment of Priscian’s place in the history of linguistic thought, it is thus indispensable to clarify the relation between his and Apollonius’ œuvre. Focusing on books 12 and 13, I first present a list of all Apollonian passages translated or paraphrased by Priscian, and discuss one of these in more detail (Ars 13.15.9–28). I then analyze the order of Priscian’s exposition, and compare it with the structure of his Greek model. Finally I give two examples—the notions of figure and of reflexivity—to illustrate how, and why, their theories differ from one another. Thence I conclude that the currently fashionable view of Priscian as a foundational thinker, almost entirely detached from the Greek tradition, is mistaken, and that, on the contrary, he can only be understood against the backdrop of Apollonian grammar.

Scholars spell and accentuate Comanus’ name in a variety of ways. I show, first, that direct witnesses leave no doubt that the correct spelling is K O M A N O C; and, secondly, that according to Herodian—the ancient authority on orthoepy—the word should be pronounced as proparoxytone. The latter argument is based on a new reading of the palimpsest Vindob. Hist. gr. 10.

You may download the paper from Publications.

Bekker, I., De Apollonii Alexandrini libris syntaxeos, diss. Halle, 1806

and for some time now I thought I should verify the reference since I wasn’t able to find the book in any library.

August Emanuel Bekker, as he called himself at that time, was indeed made doctor in 1806, a few days before he turned 21. His son Ernst Immanuel Bekker writes in ‘Erinnerungen an meinen Vater’ (Preussische Jahrbücher 29 (1872), p. 559; cf. the entry in the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie):

Im Frühling 06 wurde das Doktorexamen cum laude bestanden, die Dissertation “de Apollonii Alexandrini libris syntaxeos” ist nicht gedruckt. Der Promotion am 10. Mai folgte im Juli die Anstellung als Inspektor des filologischen Seminars, mit hundert Talern Gehalt.

The Universitätsarchiv contains only the Dissertationsurkunde, but not the dissertation itself. This isn’t surprising, of course, given that the work had not been printed. Unfortunately, however, the dissertation could not to be found either at the Abteilung Sondersammlungen of the ULB Sachsen-Anhalt. This might well have to do with Napoleon’s closure of the university from October 1806 until May 1808. In all likelihood, then, Bekker’s primitiae are lost.

(Many thanks to Claudia Frank and Dr Marita von Cieminski from the Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt for their friendly assistance.)

UPDATE: As the commentator below correctly noted, Philosophy Talk has embraced DRM, which means that RealPlayer refuses to record the file. Total Recorder still works fine, of course.

UPDATE (2008-03-03): An even better, yet also pricier tool is WM Recorder 12. For YouTube and such, however, I now mostly use the free Orbit.

• Directeur de thèse: M. Jonathan Barnes (Paris IV Sorbonne)
• Président du jury: M. Alain de Libera (Université de Genève)
• Jury: MM. David Blank (UCLA), Michael Frede (University of Oxford) et Jean Lallot (ENS, Paris)