Poetarum comicorum Romanorum fragmenta – The fragments of the Roman comic poets. Critical edition, digital edition, and studies

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Marcus Deufert
• Subject Area: Greek and Latin Philology
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 443889390

The aim of the project is to collect the remnants of all Roman comedies that have no manuscript tradition, being preserved only through quotations and paraphrases. The fragments are extracted in their entirety directly from the quoting authors, and are thus edited critically and independently of the previously authoritative collection by Otto Ribbeck (1855, 3rd edition 1898). They will be provided in two editions: in a printed editio minor (to be published in Bibliotheca Teubneriana), which as a critical synthesis offers the currently best possible text of all fragments securely attested for the genre of Roman comedy, and in a digital edition conceived as editio maior, which comprehensively documents the critical and exegetical engagement with the fragments and -- going beyond the securely attested material -- also presents fragments hypothetically assigned to comedy by Ribbeck and other scholars. The editio minor, reduced to what is certain, offers for the first time ever a reliable starting point for all further research on the genre of Roman comedy. The digital edition makes available all the material previously assigned to comedy, but for the first time arranges it according to objective criteria and, by properly separating what is certainly attested from what is hypothetically assigned, presents it to the wider research community in a methodologically appropriate form as an interactive database, in which users can search, filter and sort the material to suit their research interests. It thus serves as a model for the conception of further digital partial collections of fragments of Roman poetry and at the same time has the potential to be expanded into a complete edition of fragments of Roman poetry. The editions will be accompanied by two monographs, which will supplement them, as well as stimulate further critical work. The first monograph is a prolegomena volume, which describes the two editions in their respective conceptions and reconstructs the ancient transmission and reception of the lost Roman comedians, systematically examining the quoting authors according to their citation practices and interests. The second is a commentary volume with exegetical and critical remarks on difficult fragments; it also includes reflections on the plots of individual comedies. The editorial project conducts fundamental research. It makes available an otherwise lost source for old Latin, for the Romans’ private life in the age of the Republic, and for the (not yet written) history of Roman comedy (and thus ultimately of European comedy) for the first time in a reliable and scholarly manner. Historical, literary, and linguistic studies will benefit from the project and its new editions.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants