It also supplies a final confirmation of the value of Class I; indeed,
_B_ and _F_, the manuscripts of this class, appear to have descended
from the very manuscript of which _{Pi}_ was a part. We see still more
clearly than before that _BF_ can be used elsewhere in the _Letters_ as
a test of Aldus, and we also note that these manuscripts contain errors
not in the Parisinus. This is a highly important factor for forming a
true estimate of Aldus and one that we could not deduce from a fragment
of Book X, which _BF_ do not contain.
[Sidenote: _Conclusion_]
I conclude, then, that the Morgan fragment is a piece of the Parisinus,
and that we may compare with Aldus's text the very words which he
studied out, carefully collated, and treated with a decent respect. On
the basis of the new information furnished us by the fragment, I shall
endeavor, at some future time, to confirm my present judgement of Aldus
by testing him in the entire text of Pliny's _Letters_. Further, despite
Merrill's researches and his brilliant analysis, I am not convinced that
the last word has been spoken on the nature of the transcript made for
Budaeus and incorporated in the Bodleian volume. I will not, however,
venture on this broad field until Professor Merrill, who has the first
right to speak, is enabled to give to the world his long-expected
edition. Meanwhile, if my view is right, we owe to the acquisition of
the ancient fragment by the Pierpont Morgan Library a new confidence in
the integrity of Aldus, a clearer understanding of the history of the
_Letters_ in the early Middle Ages, and a surer method of editing their
text.
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