Towards a New Edition of Ovid’s Ibis

Abstract

I show that the standard edition of Ovid’s Ibis , La Penna 1957, needs to be updated. Based on a fresh examination of the oldest manuscripts, my article demonstrates that La Penna’s tripartite stemma is untenable. A new bipartite stemma is proposed and justified, which results in a reappraisal of variants. I likewise show that a late humanist manuscript may preserve extra-stemmatic readings; these readings must be carefully considered. I also discuss some disputed passages, emendations, and interpolations, arguing for a more skeptical approach to the text. This article represents the necessary philological spadework for a broader project to reintegrate the Ibis into Ovid’s poetic corpus.