Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Antigone

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In this play, as in the others, the editor has used the Autotype

The Laurentian MS (L).

Facsimile of L (published by the London Hellenic Society in 1885); and, with its aid, has endeavoured to render the report of that manuscript as complete and exact as possible. In some instances, where discrepancies existed between previous collations, the facsimile has served to resolve the doubt; in a few other cases, it has availed to correct errors which had obtained general currency: the critical notes on 311, 375, 770, 1098, 1280 will supply examples.

The MSS., besides L, to which reference is made, are:—A (13th

Other MSS.

cent.), E (ascribed to 13th cent., but perhaps of the 14th), T (15th cent.), V (late 13th or early 14th), V2 (probably 14th), with the following 14th century MSS.,—V3, V4, Vat., Vat.b, L2, R. Some account of these has been given in the Introduction to the Oedipus Tyrannus; cp. also the Introd. to the Oed. Col. p. xlix. A few references are also made to an Augsburg MS. (Aug. b, 14th cent.), to Dresd. a (cod. 183, 14th cent.), and to M4 (Milan, Ambrosian Library, cod. C. 24 sup., 15th cent.). The symbol ‘r’ is occasionally used in the critical notes to denote ‘one or more of the MSS. other than L’. The advantages of such a symbol are twofold: (1) the note can often be made shorter and simpler; (2) the paramount importance of L is thus more clearly marked, and, so far, the relative values of the documents are presented to the reader in a truer perspective. But this symbol has been employed only in those cases where no reason existed for a more particular statement.