Exegetical dialogue through compilation: examples from the h-family of the Iliad scholia

At the very beginning of his critical edition of the scholia vetera to the Iliad, Hartmut Erbse endorsed a general distinction based on a criterion, or preconception, of a qualitative kind: ‘scholia, quae in marginibus codicum Homericorum aetatis Byzantinae inveniuntur, in duo genera divisa sunt, quorum alterum Scholia minora vel Scholia Didymi (D) vocatur (quamquam haec ab illo grammatico neque collecta neque conscripta sunt); alterum liceat Scholia maiora appellare’. The cultural background of the scholia maiora or grammatica, namely the VMK-scholia and the scholia exegetica, had long been understood by scholars as a mark of higher quality than the so-called scholia minora or D-scholia.2 Naturally, this value judgement is in good part a matter of opinion; but we must admit, at a practical level, that the very magnitude of his task obliged Erbse to make a selection, and so he produced an edition of the maiora and excluded the minora. However, the problem addressed in the present paper is not just the appropriateness or justifications of this choice, but rather its implications at a technical, or editorial, level. The question is whether it is possible to produce an edition of one class of scholia without also investigating the manuscript tradition of the other classes.