Sulla grafia delle moderne edizioni di Catullo

The present paper aims at studying Catullus’s orthography in the twentiethcentury editions and the consequences produced by its accidental variety implied by the use of late, unreliable and arbitrary manuscripts. It is proved that such contradictions last throughout the middle of 1900, until Mynors, together with the wrong interpretation of ‘graphic archaism’. Mynors decides to put an end to such chaotic variety and gets rid of all the orthographic abnormal forms, making Catullus’s orthography comply with the current one, apart from few slight cautious exceptions. In agreement with Mynors are the latest editors Eisenhut and Thomson.