In the Library at Moscow is a codex containing the seventeen books; it was written at the end of the 15th or beginning of the 16th century. The first nine books resemble the Paris Codex, No. 1397; the last eight, the Venetian Codex, No. 640. It came from one of the monasteries of Mount Athos, and was not destroyed, as Groskurd suspects, in the great fire of 1812, but is still to be found in the Library of the Holy Synod, under No. 204 (Matt. ccv.), as I am informed by the Archimandrite Sabba, who dates from the Kremlin, April 4th, 1857.
A codex also is yet to be found in one of the monasteries of Mount Athos. From the accounts of learned travellers (Zacharias, Reise in den Orient, and Fallmerayer, in the Allgem. Zeitg. 5 Jun. 1843), it contains nothing which can supply the deficiencies of those MSS. with which we are acquainted.
Besides the above codices, there exist four epitomes of the Geography of Strabo, of which,
1. The Epitome Palatina, in the Heidelberg Library, is the oldest of all MSS. of this work. It is probably of the beginning of the 10th century, although Dodwell places it between 976 and 996. The codex from which it was copied appears to have been perfect, and contained the whole of the 7th book, which is imperfect in all other codices. It is, however, to be regretted that the author did not confine himself to following the text of Strabo; he has not only indulged in curtailing, transposing, and changing the words and sentences of the original, but has sometimes also added expressions of his own.
2. The Vatican Epitome is of more value than the preceding; the extracts are more copious, the author seldom wanders from the text of Strabo, and in no instance inserts language of his own. The codex which served as the basis for the Epitome contained the 7th book entire, and from this and the Palatine Epitome Kramer collected the fragments of the last part of the 7th book, which appear for the first time in his edition (see vol. i. of the Translation, p. 504). This codex was written in the middle of the 14th century, and has suffered much by time and carelessness; several leaves are lost, and lines of the text at the top and bottom of the pages have been cut off in the binding.
3. The Parisian Epitome, on which no great value is placed by Kramer.
4. The Epitome of Gemistus Pletho, referred to above, is of great value, and held in the highest estimation by all editors.
The first appearance of Strabo’s work in print was a Latin translation by Guarini, of Verona, and Gregorio of Tiferno. Of this, thirteen editions were printed, the first in 1469 or 1471, the twelfth in 1559, and the last in 1652. It is not known from what manuscripts the translation was taken, nor whether they now exist; but, though the translation itself is barbarous, and in many passages erroneous, its fidelity to the original is so apparent, that all editors to the present time have consulted it as a manuscript.
The first edition of the Greek text was printed at Venice by Aldus in 1516, and was taken from so corrupt a manuscript that Coraÿ compares it to the Augean stable. The second edition was a repetition of the Aldine, accompanied by the Latin translation of Guarini, and was published by Hopper and Heresbach, at Bâsle, in 1549. The third edition, by Xylander, in 1570, was also a repetition of the text of Aldus; but a new Latin translation accompanied it. The fourth and fifth editions, which do not essentially differ, were published in 1587 and 1620, by Isaac Casaubon. He collated for his edition four manuscripts, which he obtained from his father-in-law, H. Stephens, and was the first to add a commentary; but it is not known what manuscripts were made use of. The edition of Almeloveen, 1707, being a reprint of Casaubon, with notes, and an edition commenced by Brequigny, Paris, 1763, but not continued beyond the first three books, can scarcely be placed among the number of new editions. Brequigny left a French translation in manuscript and notes in Latin, which were consulted by the French translators.
The seventh edition was that of Thomas Falconer of Chester, and of Brasenose College, published in 2 vols. folio, at Oxford, 1807. For the first time since Casaubon’s last edition, nearly 200 years before, manuscripts were collated for this edition, namely, those of Eton, Moscow, the Escurial, and the Laurentian library; the conjectural emendations of Tyrwhitt, and notes of the editor and others, are added. “It has everything that is valuable in Casaubon’s edition, besides having corrected numberless typographical errors. In the account given of it, the public are as much wronged as we are abused; for no view whatever is laid before them of its nature or its merits.”[18] Thos. Falconer, having prepared the greater part of the work for the press, died in 1792. A little more than the two first books were edited by John Parsons, Bishop of Peterborough, and formerly Master of Balliol College, Oxford; but the whole work was, ultimately, in 1802 given up to Thomas Falconer (nephew of the former), of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, who completed it and wrote the preface. A complete revisal of the text, however, was not attempted.