ABBREVIATIONS IN APPARATUS CRITICI

This list is based on that of Prof. Karl Maurer of the University of Dallas(http://www.udallas.edu/classics/resources/EditorsSigla.htm), with additions and modificationsby Dr Scott Scullion of Worcester College, Oxford.

Note that when a Latin adj. is neuter—e.g. alia or alterum—it normally agrees with anunderstood (i.e. unexpressed) neuter verba or verbum. 

Note that the final consonant of abbreviated Latin nouns and adjectives is doubledwhen the form is plural, e.g. cod. = codex but codd. = codices, cf. ms. / mss., cett., dett.,edd. vett., ll., recc., rell., sq. / sqq., v. / vv., vett., vv.ll.

]   a single square bracket in the apparatus separates the reading printed in the text from thevariants and conjectures.  For examples, see under ‘e or ex’ and ‘emend.’.

:   a colon in the apparatus separates distinct variants and/or conjectures

~   The ‘swung dash’ is used by some editors (e.g. Barrett, Diggle) to mean ‘but not’, e.g.‘nonne] non A (~Ac)’ = ‘Manuscript A has the incorrect non in the text, but this has beencorrected in that manuscript to nonne’.

A B C (etc.) = the signs (sigla) of the manuscripts cited by the editor, which are usuallydescribed in the preface and identified in a list that precedes the text.  E.g. ‘d° A B : te C’ =‘MSS A and B have d° and MS C has te’.  (‘ : ’ separates the readings). But sometimes a MS(in older editions, any; in recent editions, a rarely used MS, too unimportant to have a siglum) isrepresented not by a siglum but by an abbreviation of its name, e.g. Laur. = (codex)Laur(entianus), or Vat. 226 = (codex) Vaticanus 226.

a b c (etc.) = generally either (a) less important MSS or (b) families of MSS.  (All MSS in a‘family’ tend to have a considerable number of errors in common and so are assumed to bedescended from a common exemplar.) Bold type is sometimes used for sigla indicating familiesof manuscripts. Use of sigla varies considerably, so the only safe procedure is to read carefullythe editor’s preface and list of sigla.

a b g (etc.) = (usually) lost ‘hyparchetypes’ (alias ‘proarchetypes’ or ‘proexemplars’), i.e.conjectured lost MSS from which the best of our extant manuscripts seem to derive. So e.g.perhaps A B D descend from a, F M from b, etc.  (But sometimes—esp. in oldereditions—these Greek letters are also used for manuscript ‘families’, or every now and theneven for extant MSS. One must read the editor’s preface.)

A1 A2 A3 (etc.) = the main copyist’s hand in A, a 2nd hand in A, a 3rd hand in A.  Such a 2ndor 3rd hand is usually that of a corrector, so A2 or A3 is sometimes called Acorr. 

A1 A2 A3  (etc.)  Subscript numbers usually mean not mere correctors but actual copyists whenthere were more than one, e.g. one can discern that A1 copied everything till a certain page, thenA2 took over, and so on.

Af   Bfm (etc.)  Superscript letters sometimes (but not e.g. in Diggle’s Euripides: see next entry)refer to scholia (i.e. ancient notes on the passage: see below, ‘S’), and often they are namedafter the MSS in which they appear in their fullest form.  So e.g. ‘d° codd.: te Af’ might meanthat in this place all the MSS (including A) read d°, but in A, the f scholia (i.e. the ancient notes

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which F has in their fullest form) quote our passage and have te. (But superscript letters oftenhave quite other meanings – one must read the editor's list of sigla carefully.)

Ac, A1c, etc. Superscript letters are often used (as in Diggle’s edition of Euripides) to giveinformation about readings compendiously. Practice can vary, and one must consult theprefatory material in the edition. Diggle’s symbols:Ac A after correction by an unspecified handA1c A after correction by the first handA2 A after correction by the second handAs A supra lineam (‘above the line’), by the first handAuv A ut videtur (‘as it seems’)A? A’s reading is probable or possible but not certain(A) A with some inessential variation[A] A is illegible or unavailable<A> A’s reading is based on inference(~Ac) Ac agrees with the other manuscripts against A (i.e. ~ [the ‘swung dash’] = ‘but not’)Am a reading in the margin of AAr a reading written by the rubricator of AAgl a gloss in AAgr a variant in A accompanied by gr(ãfetai) or a similar indication of a variant readingSa scholium in AiSa a reading implied by the scholium in AlSa lemma to the scholium in AgrSa a variant in the scholium in A accompanied by gr(ãfetai) or a similar indication of a

variant readingA+ A’s reading is found in other unspecified manuscripts* an erased or obliterated letter

dative noun or ab + ablative noun abiud(icavit) or abiud(icaverunt) = lit. ‘has judged(these verses/words) away from so-and-so’ that is ‘has judged that these words were notwritten by so-and-so’, e.g. ‘Euripidi ( or ab Euripide) abiud. Page’ = (in effect) ‘Page deniesthat these words are by Euripides’.

a.c. = ante corr. = ante correctionem, ‘before correction’; e.g. ‘d°] te A a.c.’ means: ‘allcopies (including A) have d°, but A has te before correction’.

ad  = ‘at’ or ‘on’. Normally used in citing ancient or modern commentary, e.g. ‘Porphyrio adHor. c. 4.29’ = ‘Porphyrio's commentary on Horace, Ode 4.29, where Porphyrio quotes ourpassage’.

add. = addidit, ‘added’ (tends to mean the same as ‘suppl.’, on which see below).

addub. = addubitavit, ‘has doubted’.

al. = alii, ‘other editors’ or = alibi, ‘elsewhere’.

alii alia = ‘some (conjecture) some (words); others, other (words)’, indicating the existence ofa variety of conjectures other than those mentioned by the editor.

alterum te = ‘the other te’ = ‘the second of the two instances of te in the verse/sentence’. (For an example, see under ‘del.’.  For its opposite see ‘prius’.)

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an / anne...? ‘perhaps’, introducing the editor’s tentative suggestion.

ante = ‘before’ (either in time or in space), e.g. ‘te ante corr.’, ‘te before correction’.

ap. = apud, ‘at’ (or French ‘chez’), effectively = ‘as quoted by’. Usually for the source of afragment quoted by another author, e.g. ‘Menander (fr. 627 Koerte) apud Stob. 4.40.14’ = thefragment of Menander quoted in Stobaeus’ Anthology 4.40.14, which is numbered 627 in thecollection of the fragments of Menander by Koerte, or ‘Didymus ap. Sv’ = Didymus as quotedin the scholion on this passage in manuscript V.

a.r. = ante rasuram, ‘before erasure’.

c. or ca. = circa, ‘about, approximately’. 

cens(uit) / cens(uerunt),  'judged/considered'.

cett. = ceteri codices, ‘the other manuscripts’.

cf. = confer, ‘compare’ (imperative).  ‘Cf.’ is often followed by a reference to a passage inwhich one will find a usage similar to that which the editor posits here.  (In older editions onesometimes sees ‘cp.’ = ‘compare’)

ci. = cj. = conj. (q.v.)

cl. is sometimes used instead of coll. for collato.

cod(d). = codex (codices) = ms./mss. = ‘manuscript(s)’.  E.g. ‘te codd.’ = ‘all (or nearly all)MSS have te’.  Cf. ‘em./emend.’.

coll. = collato loco (pl. collatis locis), lit. ‘with the passage so-and-so (to which reference isgiven) compared’, i.e. ‘comparing passage so-and-so’ (for an example see under ‘def.’), orelse = collato codice (pl. collatis codicibus) = lit. ‘with that MS compared/collated’ (i.e. ‘aftercollating that MS’).

conj. = conicit (coniecit, conieci), ‘conjectures’ (‘conjectured’, ‘I have conjectured’).  So e.g.‘te conj. Wil.’, ‘Wilamowitz conjectured te’, or e.g. ‘te conieci’, ‘I have conjectured te’ (i.e.‘te is my conjecture’).

cont(inuavit) / cont(inuaverunt) (or contin.),  ‘continued to’ e.g. ‘10-12 El. cont. Smith’,‘Smith continued verses 10-12 to Electra’, that is Smith judged that there is not a change ofspeaker at the beginning of verse 10, but that Electra, who has been speaking up to verse 9,speaks verses 10-12 as well.

cont. = contulit, ‘compared’.

corr. = correctio, ‘correction’ or = corr(exit) / corr(exerunt), ‘corrected’, e.g. ‘d¢ ] tecodd., corr. Wil.’, ‘the mss. have te, which Wilamowitz corrected to d¢’.

damn(avit) / damn(averunt), ‘condemned’ = ‘judged corrupt’.

deest or pl. desunt, ‘(this word) is missing’ (‘[these words] are missing’).  E.g. ‘te deest L’,‘te is missing in L’. (Compare ‘om.’.  ‘Om.’ is normally used when the modern editor feels

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certain that the omission was made in error, ‘deest’ when he feels less certain of this. Deest anddesunt are used especially for inscriptions and papyri; see e.g. under ‘ll.’.)  Deest sometimesindicates that the evidence of a papyrus is unavailable for this letter/word/passage (because thepapyrus is damaged or its reading is for some other reason illegible).

def. = defendit, ‘defends’, or (perfect) ‘has defended’.  E.g. ‘te def. Hude coll. 7.21.3’, ‘Hudedefends te here, comparing its use at 7.21.3 with its use here’.  

del. = delevit, ‘deleted’, or delevi, ‘I have deleted’, e.g. ‘alterum te del. Wil.’, ‘Wilamowitzdeleted the second te’.

dett. = deteriores (codices), ‘inferior MSS’.

dist. = distinxit, ‘has punctuated’.  Often refers to a full stop, e.g. ‘post te dist. Hude’, ‘Hudepunctuates with a full stop after te’.

dub. = a form of dubius, -a, -um, ‘doubtful’, or dubitanter, ‘doubtfully’.

e or ex, ‘from’ or ‘on the basis of’.  E.g. ‘˜µvw Ãn] ıµo€vw Leutsch e schol.’, ‘The MSShave ˜µvw Ãn.  Leutsch, unlike us, emends this to ıµo€vw on the basis of the scholium here’(i.e. because the scholium has, or implies, that reading here), or e.g. ‘-brÒnta ] –br°nta conj.Snell e Pae. 12.9’, ‘Snell conjectures that -brÒnta, given by the MSS, is a corruption of thevery rare form –br°nta, which occurs at Paean 12, line 9’.

edd. = editores, ‘editors’.  edd. vett. = editores veteres, ‘old (usually 15th- or 16th-century)editors (or editions)’.  So e.g. ‘alterum te del. edd.vett.’, ‘earlier editors deleted the secondte’.  (These ‘edd. vett.’ are sometimes cited because they may have used good MSS now lost.)

ed. pr. = editio princeps, ‘first printed edition’ of the work.

em. = emend. = emendavit (emendat), ‘emended’ (‘emends’).  Used when all the MSS areplainly wrong (see ‘codd.’), e.g. in his text an editor prints te and in his apparatus says: ‘te]d° codd. (emend. Wil.)’, ‘the best MSS have d°; the te which I print is an emendation,probably correct, by Wilamowitz’.

exp. = expunxit, ‘has deleted’.

fere,  ‘almost’ or ‘in general’.

fin. or ad fin. or sub fin., ‘at/towards the end’ (of the line, of the passage, of the page, etc.)

fort. or fors. = fortasse or forsan, ‘perhaps, conceivably’—i.e. the editor stresses that he isguessing.

fr. (or sometimes F) = fragmentum, ‘fragment’ (frr. = fragmenta, ‘fragments’).

gl. = glossa, ‘gloss’.

gr. or gr. = grãfetai (pl. grãfontai), (lit.) ‘is written’ (‘are written’), term for variantreadings which are labelled as such in the MS itself, usually by this same abbreviation.  So e.g.‘d°] te gr. A2’ means that next to d°, the second hand in A (e.g. a corrector) has written ‘gr.

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te’ (or ‘te grãfetai’), meaning that he has seen that variant reading in another MS.  (Whenthe variant is not thus labelled in the MS itself, the apparatus has not  ‘gr.’ but  ‘v.l.’, forwhich see below.)  Often the nature of these additions is discussed in the modern editor’spreface.

h.v. = hunc versum, ‘this verse’.

iam,  ‘already’, usually with the name of a scholar whose emendation is very nearly the sameas, or has the same essential virtues as, but was later somewhat improved (e.g. orthographically)by, the emendation of a later scholar (cf. praeeunte below)

i.m. = in margine (see ‘marg.’)

indic(avit)  indic(averunt), ‘indicated’, especially of a lacuna, e.g ‘post h. v. lac. indic.Smith’, ‘Smith indicated a lacuna after this verse’.

inf. = infra, ‘below’ or = inferior, ‘inferior, lower, later’.

init. or ad init. = initium or ad initium, ‘near the beginning’ (of the line, of the passage, of thepage, etc.)

ins. = inseruit, ‘inserted’.

inscr. = inscriptio, ‘inscription’, or = inscriptum (or -a), ‘written into’ / ‘inscribed’.

interl. = inter lineas, ‘this word is interlinear’, i.e. written between the lines.

i.r. = in rasura (see ‘ras.’).

i.t. = in textu, ‘in the text’, in the text itself.

lac. = lacuna, ‘lacuna’, i.e. a gap in the transmitted text, that is a place where the text astransmitted runs on continuously but the editor or emendator considers that a passage (e.g. aline or more of verse) which the author wrote has been lost in the process of transmission.Editors may simply indicate the existence of a suspected lacuna or may attempt to restore themissing passage, generally exempli gratia, by conjecture.

lect. = lectio, ‘reading’, i.e. (usually) the word(s) that a MS has in this place.

lit. or in lit. = in litura, ‘on top of an erasure’ or ‘a blot’ (see ‘ras.’).

ll. = litt. = litterae, ‘letters’.  E.g. ‘desunt ca. 15 ll.’, ‘about 15 letters are missing’.

loc. = locus or loco or locum, ‘passage’ (in a work), e.g. ad locum, ‘on the (specified) passage’or loc. coll., (lit.) ‘with the (specified) passage compared’ (see ‘coll.’).

loc. cit. = loco citato, ‘in the passage cited’.

malim = ‘I would prefer’, expressing the editor’s at least somewhat tentative preference.

m. = manus, ‘hand’, i.e. copyist.

marg. or mg. = margen, ‘margin’.  E.g. ‘te in mg.’, ‘te (is written) in the margin’.

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m.r. = manus recentior, ‘a more recent hand = copyist’.

ms(s) = manuscript(s) (no difference between this and ‘codd.’).

mut. = mutavit, ‘has changed’.

nonnulli = nonnulli editores, ‘some editors’.

nota,  ‘indication of speaker’, in dramatic texts, e.g. ‘Chor. trib. A: nulla nota B’ = ‘manuscriptA marks this line as the Chorus's but manuscript B does not contain an indication of speaker’.

numeri, ‘meter’.

olim, ‘once’, of a suggestion later withdrawn, or regarded as superceded, by its author.

om. = omittit or omisit, ‘omits’ or ‘omitted’.  E.g. ‘te om. A’ = ‘te is missing in A’ (lit. ‘Aomits te’—but probably not deliberately). 

P. (PP.) = P (pl. PP)  = Pap. (pl. Papp.)  = papyrus.  E.g. ‘te P. Berol.’, ‘the Berlin papyrushas te here’, or e.g. ‘te P.Oxy. 1356’ = Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1356 has te,  or ‘te Pcorr’,‘in the papyrus te was written by the corrector’.  (Good libraries have editions of all the papyri,and if a reading is important it is worthwhile to look these up.  A papyrus is an ancient copy ofthe text, usually 3rd c. B.C. to 3rd c. A.D., and its modern edition usually has a commentary, inwhich the editor may give you his impression of what that copy is worth generally and perhapsalso offer his own opinion about the reading in question.)

P1, P2, P3, etc. Compendious sigla for papyri, corresponding to a list preceding the text inwhich the individual papyri are identified and dated.

p.c. = post correctionem, ‘after correction’ (see ‘a.c.’).

pler. = plerique, ‘very many or most’ (editors or MSS).

plur. = plures, ‘most’ (editors or MSS).

possis, ‘you could’, that is ‘you could consider’ / ‘one might suggest’ / ‘would be possible’,of a tentative conjecture.

post, ‘after’.

pot. qu. = potius quam, ‘(is) more likely than’, ‘rather than’, e.g. (re a papyrus reading) ‘n[pot. qu. l[’ = ‘the letter before the text breaks off is more probably a nu than a lambda’. 

p.r. = post rasuram, ‘after an erasure’.

praeeunte / praemonente, so-and-so ‘leading the way / preceding’, or ‘with prior warning /guidance from’ so-and-so, indicating that one scholar’s textual suggestion relied importantly onsome prior observation, suggestion, warning, or objection by another scholar.

prius (or prior), ‘the earlier’ (of the two); e.g. ‘prius te’, ‘the first te’ (for its opposite, see‘alterum’).

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pro, ‘instead of’, ‘in place of’, e.g. ‘d° pro te A’, ‘A has d° instead of te’.

prob. = (ad)probavit, ‘has agreed’, ‘has approved’ (or = the present participle probante,‘agreeing’), e.g. ‘te coni. Hude prob. Wil.’, ‘Hude conjectured te, Wilamowitz agreed’ (orabl. ‘with Wil. agreeing’).

quo servato... , ‘retaining which, ...’, introducing a reading to be adopted or a suggestion to beconsidered elsewhere in the passage if one retains the specified reading in the present passage.

ras. = in ras. = in rasura, ‘on (or ‘on top of’, ‘over’) an erasure’, e.g. ‘te in ras. A’, ‘A haste (written) over an erasure’.

recc. = recentiores, lit. ‘later (MSS)’.  For Latin MSS this usually means 15th- or 16th-centuryItalian, for Greek it means late Byzantine.  The recc. are usually derivative (all copied fromcopies of the capital MSS), yet sometimes they alone preserve some ancient readings, whichthey got by collation (i.e. they took readings from good ancient MSS now lost).

recte, ‘rightly’.  Usually used when the editor is citing someone else’s suggestion, which heconsiders correct.

rell., reliqui, ‘the other’ (MSS), ‘the remaining’ (MSS).

s. = saec. = saeculum or saeculi or saeculo, ‘century’.

sc. = scil. = scilicet, ‘no doubt, certainly’.

schol. (pl. scholl.) = scholium (scholia), or (sometimes) ‘scholiast’.  (See below under S). 

scripsi, ‘I have written’, e.g. ‘te scripsi: d° codd.’, ‘te is my emendation; the MSS have d°’.

secl. = seclusit, ‘has bracketed as corrupt’. (This only corresponds to square brackets aroundthe relevant passage when the editor of the text accepts the seclusion; he may merely report withsecl. a seclusion suggested by another scholar which he does not himself accept.)

sim. = similia, ‘similar’ (words); see ‘vel sim.’.

s.l. = supra lineam, ‘above the line’ (in effect, means the same as ‘s.s.’).

sq. = sequens (sqq. = pl. sequentia), ‘following’, e.g. ‘10 sq.’, ‘verses 10 and 11’; ‘10 sqq.’,‘verse 10 and two or more verses following it’.

s.s. = sscr. = suprascr. = suprascriptum (pl. suprascripta), ‘this word (or these words)written above the line’.

stat(uit) stat(uerunt), ‘fixed / set up / ordained’, usually of a lacuna, cf. indic. above.

subscr. = subscriptum (pl. subscripta), ‘this word (or these words) written below the line’.

sup. = supra, ‘above’, or superior.

suppl. = supplevit (or supplet), ‘filled out with’ or ‘completed with’, in effect = ‘supplied’. 

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E.g. in my text I print in angular brackets a word that the MSS omitted, e.g. ‘<te>’, and myapparatus says ‘te  suppl. Wil.’, ‘Wilamowitz supplied te’.

suprascr., see ‘s.s.’.

susp(icatus est), ‘suspected’ or ‘doubted’ the authenticity of a reading or passage.

s.v. = sub voce, ‘under the word or heading’, e.g ‘te Suda s.v. ÉArx°laow’, i.e. the Suda (atenth-century Byzantine encyclopedia) has te where it quotes this passage in its entry‘Archelaos’.

S (pl. SS) = scholium (pl. scholia), i.e. Hellenistic or Byzantine note(s) on this passage. Many of these notes originated in ancient commentaries, which were published separately fromthe text and resembled modern commentaries. In the early middle ages, these ceased to becopied (so that hardly any survive, except in a few papyrus fragments), but many remarks takenfrom them were written in the margins of the texts themselves. Hence modern editors alwaysscrutinize the scholia, because some quote or reflect the text as it was in ancient times, perhapsin a purer state. 

Sabc = the scholion/scholia on this passage in manuscripts A, B, C.

tent. = tentavit, (lit.) ‘attempted, tried’.  ‘tent.’ marks a conjecture that could be right, but isvery uncertain.

trai(ecit) trai(ecerunt), ‘transferred’ a passage to another, specified location in the text.

transp. & transt. = transposuit & transtulit, ‘transposed’ (i.e. changed the word order or lineorder).

trib(uit) trib(uerunt), ‘attributed / ascribed / assigned’ to an author, interpolator vel sim., orto a character in a drama.

tum, ‘then’, usually introducing a reading that should be adopted (or considered) as aconsequence of the adoption of a reading mentioned previously.

v. (pl. vv.) = versus, ‘verse(s)’. 

vel, ‘or’.

vel sim. = vel simile, pl. uel similia (or -es), ‘or some similar word(s)’; ‘or some similarconjecture(s)’ (usually applied to conjectures that are dubious or exempli gratia).

vett. = veteres (codices | editores | editiones), ‘old (MSS | editors | editions)’.  (See ‘edd.’.)

v. or vd. = vide, ‘see’ (imperative), indicating a passage or a scholarly discussion that should beconsulted or compared.

vid. = videtur, ‘seems’, usually in the form ‘ut vid.’, ‘as it seems, apparently’.

v.l. (pl. vv. ll.) = varia lectio (variae lectiones), ‘variant reading(s)’ in the MSS.  Usually theyare rather unimpressive variants that look like mere conjectures, perhaps ancient, perhapsmediaeval or renaissance.  (There is a difference between this and ‘gr.’ on which see ‘gr.’).

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vit. = vita, ‘life’, referring to an ancient biography; e.g. ‘vit. Thuc. 3’ referring to the thirdsection of the ancient life of Thucydides.

vox (pl. voces), ‘word(s)’.  (In classical Latin, this is the normal word for ‘word’.)

vulg. = vulgo, ‘commonly’.  Often refers to the corrupt and much contaminated ‘vulgate’ textof the renaissance.

X sometimes = S.

SIGNS IN THE TEXT ITSELF

†   An obelus (pl. obeli) means that the word(s) is or are plainly corrrupt, but the editor cannotsee how to emend them. If only one word is corrupt there is only one obelus, which precedesthe word; if two or more words are corrupt, two obeli enclose them.  (Such at least is therule—but that rule is often broken, especially in older editions, which sometimes ‘dagger’several words using only one obelus.)  To ‘dagger’ words in this way is to ‘obelize’ them.

[...]  Square brackets, or in recent editions wavy brackets or ‘braces’—{...}—enclose wordsetc. that the editor thinks should be deleted (see ‘del.’).

<...> Angular or ‘elbow’ brackets enclose words etc. that are not in the manuscripts but that theeditor thinks should be added (see ‘suppl.’).

[...]    Square brackets in a papyrus text, or in an inscription, enclose places where wordshave been lost through physical damage.  If this happens in mid-line, editors use ‘[...]’.  If onlythe end of the line is missing, they use a single bracket ‘[...’.   If the line’s beginning ismissing, they use ‘...]’.  Within the brackets, each dot sometimes represents one missing letter.

[[...]] Double brackets enclose letters or words that were deleted by the copyist himself.

(...) Round brackets are sometimes used to supplement words abbreviated by the originalcopyist of a papyrus or inscription, e.g. in an inscription: ‘trib(unus) mil(itum) leg(ionis) III’.

A dot under a letter (used for papyrus texts, inscriptions) means that  an ‘a’, for example,seems to be an ‘a’, but the traces are very faint and it could conceivably be some other letter.