Studien zu Varro 'De poetis'.

Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur in Mainz / Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden, 1962. 124p. Sewn. Personal notes loosely inserted. A few pencil markings in margins. Series: Abhandlungen der Geistes- und sozialwissenschaftlichen Klasse, Jahrgang 1962, Nr.10. 'The work in the main consists of four essays. In the first Dahlmann enumerates the topics normally found in the introductory section (...) of a treatise. (...) Varro, Dahlmann argues, was the person who introduced to rome the form and technique of Peripatetic-Alexandrian literary biography, and would be expected to adopt this arrangement in his own 'De poetis'. This at any rate provides the subject for the second essay. (...) In the third essay, which is most interesting, Dahlmann, (...) sifts the evidence supplied in the passage (XVII.21. 43 and 45 -ND), and assesses its validity. At the same time he determines how much of it is Varronian in origin. (...) In the fourth essay Dahlmann discusses the use in general of epitaphs in both Greek and Roman literary biography. (...) In general Dahlmann has produced an interesting collection of studies, and one that should be of service to historians of the Roman poets.It should be added that in his identification of Varronian material his assumptions are cautious and his reasoning sound.' (W.K. SMITH in The Classical Review (New Series), 1964, 221-22). From the library of Prof. Carl Deroux.