PE in Florence - received 3rd June. Mss. of Suidas - various thanks and requests. Sophoclean scholion contains an important reading in Isocrates - important ms. of Isocrates in Laurentian library. On mss. of John Damascene and Apollonius Rhodius (PE interlinear notes). A German Baron Schellershem has acquired some mss. from the Badia, but makes them freely available. Salviati family - what has happened to their mss.? Austrian restrictions on export of mss. - PE should be careful if he returns via Venice or Milan. If PE returns via Geneva, a query re a ms. of Theocritean scholia, which may contain some verses of Sositheus. Various gossip.
on PE's difficulties with libraries in Paris. Sarcasm re Herculaneum 'cinders' - more good likely to come from royal and conventual libraries in Naples than from them. Developing technology of lithography excellent for accurate and cheap reproductions. Dobree's Porson's Aristophanica. Hermann, now that Porson is dead, fears an Emsleian school will attract German students. PE on the point od leaving England again. Changes at Ch Ch due to appointment of Goodenough as HM of Westminster.
Will send printing corrections of an edition by PE, but admits carelessness in such matters. Comments on virtues, faults and relationships between some 16th century editions of Eur. Coldness of Bodleian, Porson as book collector.
Luke-warm on question of reprinting Tyrwhitt's minor works - many of his conjectures have found their way into other editions, though it is true that many have not. On his own edition of Minor Poets. On PE's Heracleidae - criticises Wyttenbach. On Samuel Musgrave's collations - not at the Clarendon or in the Bodleian - perhaps in the margins of a book in his library (sold at auction in 1780). Loss of a Euripides ms. in Paris.
2nd volume of Poetae Minores in the Press. Asks for PE's comments on the 1st volume, to be included before the index. Lord Spencer has given him a duplicate copy of Theocritus (?) printed by Calliergus. Respect for Museum Criticum, but no time or wish to write for it. Valpy at the Classical Journal ignored TG's wishes concerning a piece of his, 'though the Journal itself is improving. Neither publication concerned to using best editions.
PE in Florence. Medicean ms. of Suidas not much help - longer passages omitted or curtailed - asks for collation of Alpha only - then he can make a final judgement. Asks after mss. of Stobaeus. Reasons for some palaeographical errors. Has G's letter to Niebuhr arrived? Some doubts re Bekker. Sale of duplicates of Burney's books from British Museum. Death of Bishop of Peterborough, and various academic gossip.
PE in Naples. Thanks for letters from London, Paris and Rome. PE's nephew admitted to Oriel (university crowded, and many applications notwithstanding). PE's transcript of the Suidas ms. very useful. PE failed to find a Suidas in the Vatican, but G is not convinced - he would have asked (Cardinal) Mai, but his promotion (chief librarian of the Vatican) makes it unlikely that he would accept. Wyttenbach dead - his papers on Plutarch had been sent to Oxford last summer, but needs much work. Possible purchase by the university of some mss. Request from President of Magdalen that PE collates a ms. if he passes through Milan. Oxford news, inc. fire at Magdalen Hall and proclamation of George IV.
PE in Florence (intending to return in autumn). Mss. of Stobaeus. Niebuhr has (illicitly?) improved and reprinted a palimpsest publication of Mai. Visit of Bekker and Brandis to Oxford - working on Aristotle, and thwarted by Mai in Milan and by del Furia in the Laurentian (Florence). Praise of Bekker's collations. Blomfield unlikely to continue with Aeschylus after his appointment to the living of (St Botolph's) Bishopsgate.
Three-quarter length, seated, facing right; he wears red and white music gown, over black suit and hat; he sits on a green chair. There is a candle and a book in the right background.
