Aristotle on Comedy: Towards a reconstruction of Poetics II.

Duckworth,1984. VIII,294p. Cloth wrps. The Tractatus Coislinianus, preserved on a manuscript of the early tenth century is one of a series of treatises, mostly of uncertain authority and pedigree, dealing with ancient Greek comedy. (...) several scholars have discussed its value and sources without agreeing on any final conclusions, no commentary on the text itself has appeared (...) until now (...). Richard Janko provides here clear photographs of the original manuscript, a corrected text with full critical apparatus and parallels drawn from related treatises, an English translation, a fully detailed commentary, and a group of scholarly essays on the manuscript sources of this and other treatises and on the origins, authenticity and authorship of the Tractatus. J. concludes that the Tractatus is a sixth-century epitome of the lost book of the Poetics (...). On the basis of his arguments and all the available evidence J. even adds a hypothetical reconstruction of the lost second book of the Poetics. This is a brilliant tour de force, but of questionable validity. (...) The most valuable section of J.'s book is probably the exhaustive commentary on the Tractatus. (W. GEOFFREY ARNOTT in The Classical Review (New Series), 1985, pp.304-06). From the library of the late Prof. W. Geoffrey Arnott.