Editions of the sibylline oracles

The first published por- tion of the Sibyllines was the famous acrostic, "Incovs Xpioros, Osod vios, Swryp, Which was printed by Aldus. The first ed. was due to Xystus Betuleus (Sixtus Birken) at Basel in 1545. It con- tained the first eight books. The second (Lat.) ed. was issued from the same printing-house (John Oporinus) in the following year. The third (Gr.-Lat.) appeared at Basel in 1555, The fourth ed.

(that of Opsopeus = Koch) appeared at Paris in 1599, three years after the death of the editor. In 1817 the collection was expanded by Cardinal Mai’s discovery of the Books xi.-xiv., which were printed first in his Scriptorwm vet. nova collectio, vol. iii. pt. 3. Of more modern edd. the ones in common use are those of Friedlieb (Leipzig, 1852), Alexandre (Paris, 1860), and Rzach.

Of these, the last, published at Prague in 1891, by far the best for the text; it contains no excursus, but has a brief critical preface, and a most valuable appenes exhibiting the dependence of the Sibyllines on Homer, Hesiod, the Orphic hymns, etc. With the text of Rzach and the excursus of Alexandre, the student can find out almost all that is known of the Sibyllines. It is necessary to add a final caution with regard to the quotation of the books.

There is a fluctuation in their numbering on the part of the editors, due to the imperfection of the series. The last four books, for example, are numbered ix, x. xi. and xii. by Friedlieb. [Since the writing of the foregoing article, Geffcken’s tract, entitled Komposition und Entsteh- ungszeit der Oracula Sibyllina, has appeared, to which the student is referred for the latest view of the subject. ] J. RENDEL HARRIS.