Presenze inattese. Gaio e Ulpiano nell'Ars Prisciani

The paper explores the background (‘Quellenforschung’ as well as cultural and historical context) of the four quotations from works of the classical Roman jurists Gaius and Ulpian that appear in three places in Priscian’s Ars. The paper argues that they (like many other sporadic citations from unusual authors close to Priscian’s time and/or to his interests) are additions by Priscian himself to the stock of linguistic examples he inherited form the grammatical tradition. This is proved on the basis of an investigation of the text, the context and the manuscript attestation of each of them, the use of distinctive transition words (e. g. tamen, or quoque), the absence of any mention of these authors elsewhere not only in Priscian but in the whole corpus of grammatical texts in Latin, and so on. It is not that the use of juristic texts as evidence of linguistic usage (though very rare) was totally unparalleled in Priscian’s models; indeed, the paper points to the presence of quotations of legal content from an Aufidius and a Melius in the Ars Prisciani in contexts which suggest that they were already mentioned in Flavius Caper’s works. The paper concludes with insights about how Priscian, as an intellectual who maintained close lifelong relationships with the political establishment, may have come across these works: their secure presence in Justinianic Constantinople implies earlier availability and circulation. Priscian may have had direct access to them or they may have been supplied by people in his network (e. g. former students) involved in legal work under Justinian.