The manuscript tradition of Demosthenes\u27 oration 54, “Contra Cononem”

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine and collate the twenty-seven extant manuscripts which contain Demosthenes\u27 oration 54 Contra Cononem ; to establish for these codices a stemma describing their interrelationships; and finally to produce a new critical edition of this oration. A full collation for the entire text of or. 54 in all twenty-seven mss. was made for this study either from microfilm reproductions or in person. All the mss. separate into three families, with the primary mss. SAF representing the heads of each divergent line of transmission. For or. 54, the F family bears a closer resemblance to the text of S than to that of A, but cannot be shown to derive from S. In Chapter One I discuss codex Monacensis gr. 485 (A), which is the source for eighteen recentiores, and thus the head of the largest family of surviving mss. for or. 54. Fifteen mss. can be further subdivided into three main subfamilies of A, numbering four, three, and eight mss. In addition to these codices, A is the principal source for two mss., ViVl, which have suffered from contamination of the F branch. In Chapter Two I discuss codex Marcianus gr. 416 (F), which is the head of the second largest family of extant mss. after A. Codex F is the source for codex Monacensis gr. 85 (B), which is a copy of F, and two other manuscripts, Vaticanus gr. 69 (Vc) and Marcianus gr. 420 ( Mm) that derive from a lost exemplar. In Chapter Three I examine codex Parisinus gr. 2934 (S), which has no surviving descendant mss. which contain or. 54. Although universally accepted as having the greatest authority for the corpus Demosthenicum, for the text of or. 54 S does not always bear the correct reading. In the appendices I present the interrelationships of the younger mss. in the form of a stemma, and a critical edition of the Against Conon, with accompanying apparatus testimoniorum and apparatus criticus