This book provides an introduction, the Latin text of the final book of Valerius' Argonautica with facing Italian translation and a large commentary, followed by bibliography and indexes.
The short introduction, presented in two sections, ‘La struttura narrativa del libro VIII’ and ‘Il libro VIII e il sistema ideologico del poema’, is well balanced: P. does not waste space repeating well-known information about Valerius' life or the structure of his poem, but she focuses on two important themes concerning the last book of Valerius' Argonautica: the narrative structure of the book with respect to its incompleteness and the related debate concerning its supposed end, and the ideological structure of the poem. The approach in treating these themes is reliable, although P. is overly-concerned with the point of view of other scholars: long quotations from Valerian scholarship can be found on almost every page, even when they are not strictly necessary to understand the thread of the speech.
The Latin text (without apparatus criticus) is based on Ehlers's Teubner edition (1980), but when P. disagrees with Ehlers's text, she explains in the notes of the commentary.
The commentary covers the greater part of the book and, at present, it is the only commentary analysing in detail the entirety of Book 8 (C. Lazzarini's L'addio di Medea: Valerio Flacco, Argonautiche 8,1–287 [2012] is limited to the first 287 lines): it is organised in three sections (‘Le vicende di Colchide’ vv. 1–174; ‘La navigazione sul mare’ vv. 175–216; ‘Le nozze di Medea’ vv. 217–467), each one beginning with an introduction focusing on the comparison between that specific section and Valerius' intertextual models, in primis Apollonius Rhodius' Book 4 and Virgil's Aeneid. These introductions consist of a detailed analysis of how Valerius developed his text by reworking material from his models; although well written and helpful in exemplifying Valerius' poetic technique, they seem too long to fit the usual style of a philological commentary.
P.'s commentary offers the basic information necessary for understanding the difficult Valerian text: two aspects are central to P.'s analysis, the intertextual level and the stylistic one. The intertextual parallels mentioned to explain Valerius' Latin are always precise and helpful: they generally come from the existing Valerian scholarship, but also from a fresh consultation of the TLL and OLD. Stylistic remarks are frequent and necessary in order to appreciate Valerian stylistic refinement, although indulging sometimes in a perspective that is too ‘aesthetic’ (as, for instance, at p. 125 the note to ingentem media inter nubile flammam: ‘Il contrasto tra la luce (flammam) e il buio (nubila) … caro a Valerio … è potenziato dal chiasmo che produce la giustapposizione dei termini antitetici nubila e flammam, nonché del pleonasmo media inter, che, per imitazione piuttosto inflazionata nel poema … di una struttura virgiliana molto fortunata … ha qui valore fortemente espressivo’).
Some of P.'s notes are particularly pertinent: for instance, on p. 214 lemma v. 171 sic genetrix, P. explains that sic followed just by a noun is uncommon as a conclusion of a direct speech in Valerius' poem, but that this use is more frequently employed by Virgil and even more by Silius in his Punica. P.'s explanations of the difficult Valerian diction are comprehensive, but not everything mentioned in the notes is useful. For instance, long quotations from Valerian scholarship could be most easily resolved with simple references. Three striking examples can be found at p. 151 (note to verse 84), where a long quotation from Nordera 1969 covers 20 lines, at p. 293 in the note to v. 242, and at p. 174 where a long passage of more than ten lines from Perutelli's La poesia epica latina is quoted. Other remarks are superfluous given several existing scholarly commentaries on Valerius. For example, at p. 124 in the note to v. 56, P. indulges in a long explanation about what the cum inversum is, which could be summarised by adding a reference to the copious bibliography on the use of this construction in Latin epic.
A reduction to the essential would have allowed for a deeper linguistic analysis. For instance, at p. 297 in the note to v. 246 et dextrum pariter vertuntur in orbem P. limits herself by noting only that Valerius is alluding to a specific moment of the confarreatio, the rite of the Roman marriage. P. might have noticed that the main point here is the Romanisation to which Valerius submits the Greek argonautical myth, a topic which is recurrent in almost all the books of Valerius' Argonautica and that is underlined by many commentaries on Valerius' poem. However, the note to this verse is in need of some linguistic remarks: nothing is said about the expression in dextrum orbem depending on vertuntur as well as on the sense of orbem in this passage. Similarly at p. 292 in the note to v. 240 laetaque iam Cybele festaeque per oppida taedae, P. focuses mainly on the explanation of the rite mentioned by Valerius, disregarding the linguistic analysis. Probably, in some cases, different divisions in lemmata would have been helpful to suggest a deeper linguistic analysis: those adopted by P. are not always clear and require that the reader keep in hand the Latin text in order to understand the Valerian diction analysed in the notes. For instance, at the beginning of the commentary, the division into lemmata at p. 45 v.1 at trepidam in thalamis et iam sua facta paventem/Colchida, then v. 2 circa omnes pariter and furiaeque minaeque patris, after that vv. 3–4a habent and nec caerulei timor aequoris ultra/nec miserae terra ulla procul is not helpful for following the complicated Valerian sentence.
The abbreviation system used in the notes is unusual: P. abbreviates ‘Hof-Szant.’ instead of the more commonly used ‘H.-Sz.’ and the names of Latin and Greek authors are not abbreviated according to the OLD.
The bibliography at the end of the volume is accurate and up to date, and the indexes are useful and easy to consult.
This new commentary on Valerius' Argonautica Book 8 is an interesting aid to the analysis of the last book of this poem: it offers good starting points for future exegesis.
