In minutiis veritatem indagare. Editare gli scolî all’Odissea

The examination of the edition by F. Pontani (2007-), with particular attention to the fourth fascicle and the eighth book, arouses admiration for the editor’s doctrine, but brings out a dilemma that is not easy to solve: in the case of problematic scholia, is it preferable to use the cruces (see Erbse in his edition of the scholia to the Iliad), or to correct, as P. often does, in a completely conjectural way? His apparatus does not always clarify the reasons that led to the emendation. The comments transmitted by T are, for example, often senseless; they almost always regain a logical sense, thanks to the conjectural interventions of P. and others, but we do not know whether this corresponds to the intentions of those who formulated them, perhaps already in a conjectural way.