Is this a genuine text or a modern pastiche?

May 28, 2013 11:08 AM

I recently ran across this text on a Virgil-centered site: The Secret History of Virgil by Alexander Neckam said to be based on a History by Gaius Asinius Pollio From a Manuscript in Old Royal Library in the British Museum Edited and Translated By Joannes Opsopoeus Brettanus (c) 1996. Is this an actual 12th-13th c. text based on an actual 1st c. BCE source, or a modern-day confection of the "found manuscript" variety? The copyright, of course, is odd, but I thought it might've been claimed by the site hosting the text. There was a brief discussion of it here, but no conclusions were drawn. Thanks.
posted by the sobsister to Writing & Language (4 answers total)

The British Library catalogue lists no MSS by Alexander Neckam (sometimes spelled Nequam in older books). I suspect it's a pastiche. Many of the legends that it relates about Vergil are attested in medieval sources.
posted by brianogilvie at 11:59 AM on May 28, 2013

Neckham was a real person who wrote about virgil.

But 'John Opsopoeus', seems to be a bit of an odd character.
posted by empath at 12:00 PM on May 28, 2013

Best answer: Asinius Pollio's Histories is one of the famous lost books of the classical world, so I presume this is a modern confection, though Alexander Neckam's De Naturis Rerum is the source for some of the medieval legends of Virgil the magician. Neckam refers to Virgil as 'philosophus' in his commentary on the Song of Songs, and there is a copy of this in the Royal Library (BL Royal MS 4.D.XI), which may be what gave the author the idea of attributing the whole thing to a 'manuscript in the Old Royal Library'.
posted by verstegan at 3:34 PM on May 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

D'oh! I forgot that the MSS catalogue isn't integrated with the general catalogue. There are a number of Neckam MSS in the British Library, including not only the one verstegan mentions, but several others from the royal library: Royal MS 8 E IX (De laudibus divinae sapientiae), Royal MS 12 G XI (De naturis rerum), Royal MS 12 F XIV (De naturis rerum), Royal MS 5 C V (Corrogationes Promethei), Royal MS 7 F I (Speculum speculationum), Royal MS 8 E VII (Miscellanies attributed to Neckam), Royal MS 2 D VIII (Isagoge in artes), and a few others with works attributed to Neckam. Apologies for my earlier, erroneous answer.

The MS catalogue is at: http://searcharchives.bl.uk
General catalogue at: http://catalogue.bl.uk
posted by brianogilvie at 7:33 PM on May 28, 2013