The transition from the Athenian Peripatos of Aristotle to the Alexandrian Museion of Callimachus has often attracted notice. So closely akin was the organization of scholarship in the two centres of learning, so definite was the personal connexion between the two, that it seemed possible to trace an uninterrupted line of succession from the older to the younger school. That Callimachus the scholar worked in the Aristotelian tradition appeared obvious: ‘he might be called a Peripatetic in the same sense as (...) his pupils, but with more justification’ (Wilamowitz,Hellenist. Dicht.i. 214). Regarding Callimachus the poet and literary critic the picture seemed less clear. The non-classical character of his poetry had often been emphasized, and cannot be overlooked. But quite recently an attempt has been made to turn Callimachus into an Aristotelian even by virtue of his literary criticism. The alleged harmony of this development rouses suspicion and calls for inquiry. In the following pages I have tried to collect and discuss what material I could find for the relation of Callimachus to Aristotle and his school. I hope to show that such influences as there were are of a different and more subtle nature, and that this poet, if any, was his own Longinus. (shrink)

If Catullus' poems as we have them faithfully reproduce their order in the original roll or rolls, and if that order reflects a design of the poet's, then the last piece in our manuscripts naturally merits close attention. But even one who has vigorously upheld these hypotheses writes: ‘it is tempting to suppose that the poem is a spurious addition, attached after the publication of the collection; Catullus may indeed have written it, but not wanted to include so illepidus a (...) piece of versification in his published works’ . Nor has the poem attracted much interest in its own right; it seems to be generally considered just another slice of biography, and as such hardly susceptible of a poetic meaning. The remarks which follow try to show that it has one, and perhaps also a significant position. (shrink)

Papyrus Geneva 97 is still believed to be the earliest find of Callimachus' Aitia. In the years 1896 and 1904 Jules Nicole acquired in Egypt for the library in Geneva some pieces of papyri and parchments. One of his acquisitions was the remainder from the top of a double leaf of a vellum codex, containing elegiac lines with marginal comments. The first edition appeared in 1904 with the title ‘Un fragment des Aetia de Callimaque’ presenting scraps of more than forty (...) lines; but neither the first editor nor anyone else succeeded in identifying any of them with any of the well-attested Callimachean fragments. This may not have worried Nicole very much in 1904. But since then thirty papyri have turned up with the text of lost poems and every single piece of them, even the smallest, could be clearly identified as Callimachean by coincidence with a known quotation. For the Geneva parchment there is no evidence up to to-day, and its case remains absolutely unique. (shrink)

If Catullus' poems as we have them faithfully reproduce their order in the original roll or rolls, and if that order reflects a design of the poet's, then the last piece in our manuscripts naturally merits close attention. But even one who has vigorously upheld these hypotheses writes: ‘it is tempting to suppose that the poem is a spurious addition, attached after the publication of the collection; Catullus may indeed have written it, but not wanted to include so illepidus a (...) piece of versification in his published works’. Nor has the poem attracted much interest in its own right; it seems to be generally considered just another slice of biography, and as such hardly susceptible of a poetic meaning. The remarks which follow try to show that it has one, and perhaps also a significant position. (shrink)