BMCR 2009.03.34, Markus Muelke, Der Autor und sein Text

Markus Muelke, Der Autor und sein Text. Die Verfaelschung des Originals
im Urteil antiker Autoren. Untersuchungen zur antiken Literatur und
Geschichte Bd. 93.  Berlin/New York:  Walter de Gruyter, 2007.  Pp.
419.  ISBN 9783110202502.  $157.00.

Reviewed by Thomas J. Kraus, Hilpoltstein ([email protected])
Word count:  1429 words
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The book under review is Markus Muelke's (hereafter M.) slightly
revised Ph.D thesis, which he submitted in the summer of 2007 at the
department of history and philosophy of the 'Westfaelische
Wilhelms-Universitaet Muenster' and which he accomplished under the
auspices of Professors Rainer Henke and, above all, Christian Gnilka.
The original title (Falsare haec et corrumpere non timuerunt. Antike
Autoren ueber die Verfaelschung literarischer Werke) was undoubtedly
simplified in order to attract the attention of non-specialists. M.
focuses on the dangers of corruption in texts during their transmission
from generation to generation, i.e., on modifications made without and
against an author's will. Such dangers also arose from the process of
translating a text into another language. Of course, authors themselves
were often eager to keep their texts in their original form and
consequently despised any attempt to distort their literary products.
Frequently they regarded these attempts as attacks on the integrity of
their texts and on their own status as authors. So, it is M.'s main
concern to determine the (most common) practices of deformation,
misrepresentation, and falsification that led to textual corruption. In
order to achieve this aim M. concentrates on the testimony of the
authors concerned and sets a fixed time frame for the texts and authors
he addresses (from Early Greece to the Middle Ages).

The first chapter (on the limited means available for authors to
protect their texts; 11-82) starts with an introduction into the
conditions under which ancient authors produced their works. In
antiquity, authors had little influence on the distribution and the
integrity of their texts.   Authorship was attributed to the explicitly
named author of a text. Nonetheless, the text itself was open to
modification, falsification, and corruption, and the author could not
do much to prevent it. M. is right to refer to the particularities of
ancient book production, and especially to the uniqueness of the
copying process. A copyist might have sensed the singularity of the
copy produced and thus have felt the freedom, sometimes even the right,
to change a 'Vorlage' because of the special responsibility he had for
the unique copy he  produced (13).

Furthermore, there is another side of the coin. A revised edition could
also serve as a means to get rid of corrupt passages in existing
versions of a text, a process welcomed by authors themselves. Sometimes
authors did not have the chance of integrating information  received
after the completion of their work and so favored new editions of their
own texts (cf. Polybius 16.20). Besides, the collection of the works of
a specific author served to guarantee a degree of authenticity and
originality and to preserve the works. M. deals with several examples
(the New Testament Book of Revelation; Irenaeus of Lyon; Artemidor of
Daldis; Jerome; Rufinus; De induratione cordis Pharaonis; Synesius of
Cyrene; Cassius Felix; Gregor of Tours; Alcuin), from which he draws
some significant conclusions: the authors of the passages leave no
doubt that for them deliberate falsifications of texts are detestable
whereas interpolations might be acceptable. Falsifications started
immediately after the composed text was given away. The range of
falsifications differs from one case to another. There are large
interpolations and deletions but also intense ideological
falsifications (for instance, by heretic groups). The examples even
demonstrate a profound knowledge and use of termini technici among
authors (M. focuses on addenda, deletions, and changes by
substitution). These and additional reflections are sound and clearly
phrased. Finally, M. reflects on method and modern approaches to the
issue of falsification and authenticity of (ancient) texts. M.
recommends adherence to the individual quality of language, style and
composition as well as to the individual consistent content of texts as
decisive criteria without which the discussion of authenticity would be
tentative and speculative. Again M. is right in referring to the
present: just as today pirate copies are unacceptable violations of
copyright (and cannot be avoided by copy protection or similar means),
ancient authors regarded any modification of their work as unfair and
unjust, whether it was  malicious or well intentioned.

The second chapter concerns the status of texts--whether they were
treated as "open literature and works in progress" and how their
authors regarded them  (83-94). The chapter is strikingly short, so
that there is an obvious unbalance with the much longer chapters of the
book. Although sometimes texts were seen as "open" and "in progress"
even after their <greek>e)/kdosis</greek>, authors even asked their
first critics in letters about their opinion, their points of
criticism, and occasionally their contribution to improve the work
(87). Authors, however, did not see their texts as "open" even when,
after the <greek>e)/kdosis</greek>, a text was published (and
distributed).

Chapter three deals with falsifying epitomai and florilegia (95-108).
Of course, as M. states, they cannot all be judged by the same
criteria, because they are  individual in length and quality, to
mention only two categories, . Even ancient authors knew about the
dangers resulting from the rivalry between attractive epitomai and
florilegia and the original composition for their own works: the first
two might even have displaced the last. Nonetheless, authors accepted
those short versions of their works that resulted from the intention to
provide readers/listeners with a swift and precise overview and/or
summary (108).

In chapter four (109-201), M. tackles a significant problem:
translations and the role of translators.  The title of the chapter
('the translator as falsifier or new author') seems to ignore  the fact
that many translators served as interpreters of the master copy they
translated. Of course, the different syntagmata and paradigmata of
languages even force translators to search for adequate means of
transporting the sense and message of the original text into the target
language. M. writes about the 'appreciation of literal translations',
which have always had their place next to free  (literary)
translations, and discusses the well known example  of Jerome's Bible
translation. In addition, M. deals with falsifications  occurring
before the translation process itself, refers to translators who might
be regarded as 'new authors' (e.g., the contemporary discussion about
Jerome and Rufinus) and the problem of (new) titles of translations.
Here, the translation (process) of the Greek Septuagint could have
provided a very illustrative example, although testimonia about
translation practices and the authenticity of the original are few.
Above all, the Book of Psalms shows a multitude of strategies:
translators tried to be literal, to interpret, to modify or correct
(according to their views), or almost to write anew what they had found
in Hebrew.

Chapter five is dedicated to comprehensive revisions of complete works
(202-260). M. differentiates between the revisions made by the authors
themselves and posthumous editions of previously unpublished texts on
the one hand and unauthorized falsifications on the other. The sample
cases again illustrate very well the various ways of falsifying a given
text (corpus). M. refers to critical editions of scholarly works,
usually revealed by late-antique subscriptiones: Hippocrates,
Aristotle, Theophrast, Zenon, oracles (Porphyry), and others.

The final chapter is short and readers might be disappointed with it:
after 260 pages only 5 pages for conclusions and the prospects for
future research? But for those who have read the book carefully (and
enjoyed doing so) and may have devoured and utilized the pack of
precise details and cautious conclusions, a special summary and
conclusion section would be superfluous. In addition, M. provides his
readers with specific primary sources accompanied by critical remarks
in an individual addendum for every chapter (266-288) so that the book
itself can serve as a reference tool for first-hand testimony about the
authors' attitudes towards their texts and potential falsifications.
This impression is underlined by the comprehensive bibliography
(295-374) and the exact and helpful indices (references to texts and
authors and to names and subjects; 397-419). Another service M. offers
to his readers is that he translates some selected texts into German
(289-294).

M. does an admirable job by serving both purposes, remaining concise
and methodologically accurate on the one hand and writing in a very
readable and interesting style on the other. Consequently, for the
scholar, the advanced student, and the learned non-specialist alike it
is a pleasure to read the book as a whole (as usual, well produced and
supplied with a high quality binding by Walter de Gruyter publishers);
and it is to be hoped that what M. did--to let the authors themselves
'talk' about their texts and modifications of them--will serve as a
model for others, too, so that primary sources will be perceived in
their contexts and estimated for what they really are: invaluable
testimonies of and indispensable witnesses to times long gone.