The reception of Suetonius, De vita Caesarum in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: the manuscript evidence

The introduction will emphasize that my concern is with the transmission and reception of the text. As such, I carefully set aside all questions of the quality off various manuscripts as far as their usefulness in recreating the original, that is the problem of an edition. I also set aside the questions of content and authorship. I am not interested in who Suetonius was, how accurate was his work, or what were his sources. I am interested in anyone who has asked these questions, if they have, and why they asked them. I am also interested in how they used the text: for literary references, epigrams, moral exegesis, a study of the Roman empire. Also, how changes to text make it more useful to them. Thus, where those wishing to prepare an edition may set aside a manuscript as hopelessly conflated or filled with later accretions, this very manuscript can be very useful to me.Stephanie Tibbetts intended to do a larger project on the reception of Suetonius’ De vita Caesarum. The part most nearly completed was the catalog of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts. She travelled to numerous libraries in Europe and North America. Wherever she was unable to see a copy, I have attempted to flesh out her notes from online facsimiles and secondary sources. Other copies were identified in the course of my work on the catalog. These will not be the last found, especially when one adds those manuscripts containing excerpts from the text or fragments of damaged copies. -Thomas M. Izbicki, Swarthmore, February 9, 201