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Errors arising from contractions

Besides the other possibilities of error arising from the use of contractions, the contraction-stroke may on occasion have been mistaken for a stroke of deletion. At any rate this is Keller's explanation of corruptions in MSS. of Horace like cesserat for concesserat, written ccesserat, with line above the first c (C. i. 28. 13); genio for ingenio (īgenio) (C. i. 27. 16); visus for invisus (īuisus) (C. iii. 27. 71). And the “apex,” the accent-stroke placed above a vowel to indicate length, especially in monosyllables such as o (e.g. Asin. 540 B), prae, se, te, nos etc., but also in the adverbs illo (e.g. Amph. 197, 203, Capt. 359, Curc. 340 B), illa etc., was occasionally mistaken for the contraction-sign: e.g. furtis est for furti se in Poen. 737; mendato for me dato in Poen. 159; unam for una adv. in Amph. 600.

An Introduction to Latin Textual Emendation Based on the Text of Plautus. W. M. Lindsay. Anne Mahoney. edited for Perseus. London. Macmillan. 1896.

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