Editing Metamorphoses (section)

==Manuscript tradition==
[[Image:Bartolomeo di Giovanni - The Myth of Io - Walters 37421.jpg|upright=1.35|thumb|This panel by [[Bartolomeo di Giovanni]] depicts the second half of the story of [[Io (mythology)|Io]]. In the upper left, Jupiter emerges from clouds to order Mercury to rescue Io.<ref>{{cite web
 |publisher= [[The Walters Art Museum]]
 |url= http://art.thewalters.org/detail/18298
 |title= The Myth of Io
 |access-date= 4 October 2012
 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130516084101/http://art.thewalters.org/detail/18298
 |archive-date= 16 May 2013
 |url-status= dead
 }}</ref>]]

In spite of the ''Metamorphoses''{{'}} enduring popularity from its first publication (around the time of [[Exile of Ovid|Ovid's exile]] in 8 AD) no manuscript survives from antiquity.{{sfn|Anderson|1997|p=31}} From the 9th and 10th centuries there are only fragments of the poem;{{sfn|Anderson|1997|p=31}} it is only from the 11th century onwards that complete manuscripts, of varying value, have been passed down.{{sfn|Anderson|1997|pp=31–32}}

The poem retained its popularity throughout [[late antiquity]] and the Middle Ages, and is represented by an extremely high number of surviving manuscripts (more than 400);{{sfn|Tarrant|2004|p=vi}} the earliest of these are three fragmentary copies containing portions of Books 1–3, dating to the 9th century.<ref>Reynolds, L. D., ed., ''Texts and Transmission: A Survey of the Latin Classics'', 277.</ref>

But the poem's immense popularity in antiquity and the Middle Ages belies the struggle for survival it faced in late antiquity. The ''Metamorphoses'' was preserved through the Roman period of [[Christianization]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2010}} Though the ''Metamorphoses'' did not suffer the ignominious fate of the ''Medea'', no ancient [[scholia]] on the poem survive (although they did exist in antiquity<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.2307/310573|author=[[Brooks Otis]]|title=The Argumenta of the So-Called Lactantius|journal=[[Harvard Studies in Classical Philology]]|year=1936|volume=47|pages=131–163|jstor=310573}}</ref>{{page needed|date=May 2023}}), and the earliest complete manuscript is very late, dating from the 11th century.

Influential in the course of the poem's manuscript tradition is the 17th-century Dutch scholar [[Nikolaes Heinsius the Elder|Nikolaes Heinsius]].{{sfn|Tarrant|1982|p=343}} During the years 1640–52, Heinsius collated more than a hundred manuscripts and was informed of many others through correspondence.{{sfn|Tarrant|1982|p=343}}

Collaborative editorial effort has been investigating the various manuscripts of the ''Metamorphoses'', some forty-five complete texts or substantial fragments,{{sfn|Tarrant|2004|loc=Praefatio}} all deriving from a [[Gauls|Gallic]] archetype.<ref name="Gallic">{{cite journal | doi=10.2307/310594 | author=Richard Treat Bruere| title=The Manuscript Tradition of Ovid's Metamorphoses| journal=Harvard Studies in Classical Philology| year=1939| volume=50| pages=95–122 | jstor=310594}}</ref>{{page needed|date=May 2023}} The result of several centuries of critical reading is that the poet's meaning is firmly established on the basis of the manuscript tradition or restored by conjecture where the tradition is deficient. There are two modern critical editions: William S. Anderson's, first published in 1977 in the Teubner series, and [[R. J. Tarrant]]'s, published in 2004 by the Oxford Clarendon Press.