Cruquianus or Commentator Cruquianus was an anonymous writer of
ancient Rome known primarily as a
scholiast on the
Roman lyric poet Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...
.
Works
The true name of this writer is not known. He is identified as "Commentator Cruquianus" because his annotations were brought forth in an edition of Horace assembled by 16th-century Flemish scholar
Jacob Cruucke— who used the Latin
pen name
A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen na ...
"Jacobus Cruquius"
—from four manuscripts of Horace in the library of the monastery of
St. Peter's Abbey, Ghent
Saint Peter's Abbey ( nl, Sint-Pietersabdij) is a former Benedictine abbey in Ghent, Belgium, now a museum and exhibition centre.
Saint Peter's was founded in the late 7th century by Amandus, a missionary sent by the Frankish kings to Christianiz ...
, or "Mont Blandin". These were the so-called "Blandinian manuscripts". All four manuscripts were later destroyed in a fire at the monastery in 1566, leaving Cruquius's edition the sole surviving record of this commentator.
Cruquius published several separate volumes, and then one complete edition in 1578. He attributed to a single "Commentator Cruquianus" the anonymous annotations that he believed too good to be those of the other Horace scholiasts,
Pomponius Porphyrion and
Helenius Acron
Helenius Acron (or Acro) was a Roman commentator and grammarian, probably of the 3rd century AD, but whose precise date is not known.
Helenius Acron is known to have written on Terence ('' Adelphi'' and ''Eunuchus'' at least) and Horace. These c ...
, about whom Cruquius had a very low opinion. After Cruquius's death these commentaries were published as a separate, standalone work, in 1611.
The editions of Cruquius contain material that scholars consider unequivocally ancient, so it is believed Commentator Cruquianus significantly predates the 16th century.
Debate
Some scholars believe "Commentator Cruquianus" to be many scholiasts, not a single source.
The value of the annotations themselves are debated as well; some critics rate them highly, while some believe that the scholiasts (Commentator Cruquianus among them) preserve little that isn't already present in the common manuscripts of Horace, and what they do preserve has been described as "fanciful guess-work"
and "worthless", though some take a more sanguine view that the Commentator Cruquianus's works are useful if taken with "great reserve and caution".
Further reading
*
External links
Digital edition of 1579 reprint of the Cruquianus commentaries(Latin)
Notes
{{Authority control
Grammarians of Latin
Post–Silver Age Latin writers
Horace