PREFACE

The fact that I have been the first to succeed in publishing the complete works of Plato (the famous Greek philosopher, c. 427–347 BC) based on the best surviving manuscripts is due in large part to the most illustrious men of our age who have labored in examining and evaluating these ancient codices (handwritten manuscript books). Two of these men must be named especially for the sake of honor: Immanuel Bekker and Martin Schanz. Bekker indeed laid the foundation for this work, but he was unaware of many manuscripts of the highest quality. Schanz knew of them, but he left his own edition unfinished ¹. Gottfried Stallbaum (a prolific 19th-century German scholar), a most brilliant interpreter of Platonic language, made use of the collations (the line-by-line comparison of different manuscripts) of many others, but these were recorded with insufficient accuracy (see the Preface to Volume IV). The Zurich editors and C. F. Hermann (Karl Friedrich Hermann, known for his work on the chronology of Plato's dialogues) brought almost nothing new to the recension (the process of reconstructing the original text), as they preferred to focus their efforts on emendation (the correction of perceived errors in the text).

When I realized that this was the state of affairs, I set this rule for myself: to rest content with those readings which seemed sufficiently established, but to personally re-examine those which had been omitted by others or were not accurately recorded. Now, therefore, it remains for me to explain which parts of this work are my own and which belong to others—a distinction that I believe will immediately become clear as we examine the best manuscripts in order.

A. — The Paris Manuscript 1807 (one of the most important surviving copies of Plato, dating to the 9th century) was compared by Schanz after Bekker’s work; Schanz published his findings for the Clitophon and the first six books of the Laws. For the Republic, Lewis Campbell (a Scottish classical scholar) had previously compared the texts.

¹ Still missing from that edition are the Statesman, Parmenides, Philebus, Republic, Timaeus, Critias, Minos, Laws VI—XII, Epinomis, Epistles, and the Spurious works. original: "Desunt adhuc Politicus, Parmenides, Philebus, Respublica, Timaeus, Critias, Minos, Legum VI—XII, Epinomis, Epistulae, Spuria."