Earliest Extant MSS of Classical Authors. The following list, taken in part from information in F. W. Hall, A Companionto Classical Texts (Oxford, 1913) gives some sense of the lateness of our earliest manuscripts of selected classical authors. It should not be inferred that these are necessarily the ‘best’ texts. In many cases the ‘preferred’ manuscripts are even later.
AESCHYLUS (525-456 B.C.): 11th century
ANTIPHON (d. 411 B.C.): 14th century
ARATUS (c. 310-245 B.C.): 11th century
ARCHIMEDES (c. 287-212 B.C.): 15th/16th century
ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C.):
- Logic: 10th/11th century
- Psychology & Metaphysics: lOth/llth century
- Ethics and Politics: 10th century
- Rhetoric and Poetics: 10th/11th century
- Natural philosophy: 10th/11th century
JULIUS CAESAR (100-44 B.C.): 9th century
CICERO (106-43 B.C.): 15th century (8)
DEMOSTHENES (383-322 B.C.): 13th/14th century
DIOGENES LAERTIUS (early 3rd century A.D.): 12th century
EUCLID (fl. c. 300 B.C.): 9th century
EURIPIDES (c. 480-406 B.C.): 12th century
HERODOTUS (c. 480-425 B.C.): 10th century
HESIOD (700? B.C.)
- Papyri: 4th/5th century
- Parchment: 12th century
HOMER:
- Papyri: 3rd century B.C.
- Codices: 10th /11th century (A.D.)
LUCRETIUS (d. c. 55 B.C.): 9th century
MANILUS (fl. c. 15 A.D.): 11th century
MENANDER (342-291 B.C.): fragments only survive of his comedies.
OVID (43 B.C. – c. 18 A.D.): 10th century
PAUSANIAS (fl. c. 150 A.D.): 15th century
PINDAR (522-442 B.C.): 13th century
PLATO (427-347 B.C.): 9th century
PTOLEMY (fl. c. 150 A.D.):
- Almagest: 9th century
- Handy Tables: 9th century
SEXTUS EMPIRICUS (c. 190 A.D.): 11th century
SOPHOCLES (496-406 B.C.): 11th century
STRABO (c. 64 B.C. – 19 A.D.): 12th century
SUIDAS (c. 976 A.D.): 13th century
TACITUS (fl. 100 A.D.):
THUCYDIDES (c. 460-400 B.C.): 10th century
VIRGIL (70-19 B.C.): 2nd/3rd century
VITRUVIUS (lst century B.C.): 9th century
DIOPHANTUS (Ist century A.D.): 13th century
BIBLE:
OT (Hebrew, Aramaic) 6th-9th century A.D. and Dead Sea texts
NT (Greek) 3rd (?) century A.D.