Aelius Donatus
Fourth century Roman grammarian and teacher of rhetoric
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Biography
He is known to have once taught Jerome, an early Christian Church father who is most known for his translation of the Bible into Latin, known as the Latin Vulgate. Newer revisions of the Vulgate are still in common use by the Catholic Church.
While Aelius Donatus authored both commentaries and a biography of Virgil, he should not be confused with Tiberius Claudius Donatus, also the author of a commentary (Interpretationes) on the Aeneid, who lived about 50 years later.
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Donatus auctus
During the Renaissance, Donatus's Vita Vergili is often collected in anthologies of ancient literature. The humanists had interpolated other materials into the Vita Vergili to add details and fill in gaps, and these interpolations are collectively called Donatus auctus ["the augmented Donatus"]. Donatus auctus was added some time around 1426–37, between the first and second redactions of the De scriptoribus illustribus latinae linguae ["On Famous Writers of the Latin Language"] of Sicco Polenton, and it became the standard account of Virgil's life up until the 18th century.
The text and translation is found in Ziolkowski and Putnam (2008: II.A.37, 345–69), with italics for the Donatus auctus and non-italics for Vita Vergili.
See for an evolutionary tree for all the versions of Vita Vergili.
This Vita depicted Vergil as a wise scholar and expert in science, while disregarding the anecdotes portraying Vergil as a magician, which were added during the medieval period in other Vitae.
Donatus auctus contains one oft-quoted poem "sic vos non vobis", which was recorded in Codex Salmasianus. See section 251, 252 in I.1 of Latin Anthology (B. G. Teubner, 1982). The version recorded in Codex Salmasianus contained just two lines; it was expanded into 5 lines in Donatus auctus.
Editions
- Keil, Heinrich & Mommsen, Theodor (1864). Grammatici latini vol. IV / Probi Donati Servii / qui feruntur de arte grammatica libri / ex recensione Heinrici Keilii / notarum laterculi ex recensione Theodori Mommseni. Lipsia: B. G. Teubnerus.
- Chase, Wayland Johnson (1926). The Ars minor of Donatus : for one thousand years the leading textbook of grammar translated from the Latin, with introductory sketch. Madison: University of Wisconsin.
- Holtz, Louis (1981). Donat et la tradition de l’enseignement grammatical: Étude sur l’Ars Donati et sa diffusion (IVe-IXe siècle) et édition critique [Donatus and the tradition of grammatical teaching: A study of the Ars Donati and its dissemination (4th-9th centuries) and a critical edition]. Paris: Centre national de la recherche scientifique.
- Schönberger, Axel (2008). Die Ars minor des Aelius Donatus. Lateinischer Text und kommentierte deutsche Übersetzung einer antiken Elementargrammatik aus dem 4. Jahrhundert nach Christus [The Ars minor of Aelius Donatus. Latin text and annotated German translation of an ancient elementary grammar from the 4th century AD]. Bibliotheca Romanica et Latina, volume 6. Frankfurt: Valentia, ISBN 978-3-936132-31-1.
- Schönberger, Axel (2009). Die Ars maior des Aelius Donatus. Lateinischer Text und kommentierte deutsche Übersetzung einer antiken Lateingrammatik des 4. Jahrhunderts für den fortgeschrittenen Anfängerunterricht [The Ars maior of Aelius Donatus. Latin text and annotated German translation of an ancient Latin grammar of the 4th century for advanced beginner lessons]. Bibliotheca Romanica et Latina, volume 7. Frankfurt: Valentia, ISBN 978-3-936132-32-8.