Consentius
Publius Consentiuswas a 5th-centuryLatingrammarianand the author of two treatises, which are perhaps the fragments of a complete grammar:Ars de duabus partibus orationis, nomine et verbo,on the noun and the verb, which was much used during theCarolingianperiod, andArs de barbarismis et metaplasmis,onbarbarismsandmetaplasm.The latter refers to a third essay,De structurarum ratione,on the structure of sentences, which, if ever published, no longer exists.[1]
Nomine et verbowas published by Johann Sichard atBaselin 1528 and subsequently, in a much more complete form, in the collection of Helias van Putschen, who had access to manuscripts that he used to rectify many deficiencies, large and small.[2][3]De barbarismiswas discovered by Andreas Wilhelm Cramer in aRegensburgmanuscript now atMunich,and it was published atBerlinbyPhilipp Karl Buttmannin 1817.[1][4][5]
Consentius is believed to have lived atConstantinoplein the middle of the fifth century, and may have been the poet Consentius, his son, or his grandson. The poet and his grandson were praised bySidonius Apollinaris,[6][7]but the son may be the best candidate for the grammarian. According toJohann Albert Fabricius,in some manuscripts the grammarian is styled not onlyvir clarissimus,the ordinary appellation of learned men at that period, but alsoquintus consularis quinque civitatem,indicating that he had achieved high office and imperial favor.[8]Consentius the son rose to high honor underValentinian III,who named himComes Palatiiand dispatched him upon an important mission toTheodosius II.[1]
Some of Consentius' ideas are surprisingly modern. He explicitly differentiatessignifiéand signifiant, the word itself and the thing signified by it. He explainsgrammatical genderby saying that masculine or feminine gender wasascribed,either randomly or by some consensus (seu licenter seu decenter), to some entities which lack natural gender.
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^abcDictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology,William Smith,editor.
- ^Sichard, Johann, ed. (1528).Disciplinarum liberalium orbis, ex P. Consentio et magno aurelio Cassiodoro.Basil: Johann Bebel. pp. 3–24.
- ^Putschen, Helias van (1605).Grammaticae latinae auctores antiqui(in Latin). Hanover: Claude de Marne; and the heirs of Jean Aubry. cols. 2018–2074.
- ^Consentius (1817). Buttmann, Philipp Carl (ed.).Ars Consentii V.C. de Barbarismis et Metaplasmis.Berlin: Dümmler.
- ^Mari, Tommaso (2016). "A new manuscript of Consentius' De barbarismis et metaplasmis".The Classical Quarterly.66(1): 370–375.
- ^Sidonius Apollinaris (1887). "Carmina 23. Ad Consentium". In Lütjohann, Christian (ed.).Epistulae et carmina.Berlin: Weidmann. pp. 250–261.
- ^Sidonius Apollinaris (1915). "Book 8, letter 4. To his friend Consentius". In Dalton, O. M. (ed.).The Letters of Sidonius.Oxford: Clarendon Press. vol. 2, pp. 142–144.
- ^Fabricius, Johann Albert (1773–1774). Ernesti, Johann August (ed.).Bibliotheca latina.Liepzig: Weidmanns Erben und Reich. vol. 3, p. 411.
References
[edit]This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Smith, William,ed. (1870). "Consentius".Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.
- Consentius (1857). "Nomine et verbo". In Keil, Heinrich (ed.).Grammatici latini.Leipzig: B. G. Teubner. vol. 5, pp. 339-385.
- Consentius (1857). "De barbarismis et metaplasmis". In Keil, Heinrich (ed.).Grammatici latini.Leipzig: B. G. Teubner. vol. 5, pp. 386-404.
- Consentius (2016). Mari, Tommaso (ed.).Consentius' De barbarismis et metaplasmis: Critical edition, translation, and commentary(doctoral dissertation). Oxford: University of Oxford.
- Fögen, Thorsten (1997)."Der Grammatiker Consentius".Glotta.74(3/4): 164–192.JSTOR40267058.At JSTOR.
External links
[edit]- Corpus Grammaticorum Latinorum:complete texts and full bibliography.