Sul titolo dei libri nell’antichità. Una nuova interpretazione del framm. 140 (ed. K.-A.) del Lino di Alessi

This paper investigates one of the most important sources concerning the history of book titles in Antiquity, namely the only extant fragment of Alexis’ comedy Linus (Alexis fragment 140, ed. by K.-A.). This fragment in fact contains the most ancient occurren ces of the word ἐπίγραμμα with the meaning of «heading» or «book title». However, it poses many philological and hermeneutic problems which have not been resol ved until now. In fact, scholars have generally considered the first four lines of the fragment as an uninterrupted speech of Linus, the mythical inventor of music and of poetry , to his disciple Heracles. Some years ago William G. Arnott and more re cently S. Douglas Olson instead suggested to interpret the words πάνυ γε of v. 3 as pronoun ced by Heracles. An attentive analysis of the fragment’s content shows that if the first four lines belong entirely to Linus’ speech, the text offers no acceptable meaning. Instead, the division of the text proposed by Arnott and Olson should be regarded as resol ving the syntactical and hermeneutical problems of the first lines. In fact, it restores a clear meaning to the passage: Linus advises his student to take a book and to read it; Heracles replies affirmatively and places himself in front of the books; at this point Linus continues the conversation, advising him to choose calmly on the basis of the ἐπιγράμματα, i.e. on the basis of the book titles. In addition, the new interpretation makes it possible to now understand the exact significance of the words ἀτρέμα τε καὶ σχολῇ (v. 4). These words should not be read in connection with ἀναγνώσει (v. 3), as has been fre quently maintained, but with the words immediately pre ceding; that is, with διασκοπῶν ἀπὸ τῶν ἐπιγραμμάτων (vv. 3-4). Linus is not inviting his student to read calmly and care fully here ; rather, Linus is advising Heracles to choose the book (!) calmly and without haste, by examining the ἐπιγράμματα.