The A-Version Ancestor of BmBoCot

A thorough study of the A-version materials of the BmBoCot group, which attest A.2.86-3.30 in between C.Prol.1-2.131 and the B remainder. These materials call for particular scrutiny for three reasons: Kane did not know of their existence when he edited A, Bryan Davis’s analysis of the production of these copies can be refined, and a rigorous analysis of them resolves the conflict between the treatment of this group by Kane-Donaldson in their B edition and Russell-Kane in their C edition. The essay begins by confirming Davis’s conclusions regarding the extent of A material. It then engages in variational analysis of the manuscripts, arguing that, contrary to earlier claims, Bm and Bo share one exemplar, while Cot used another. The essay next treats the agreements between this group and the TH2 group, especially H2, which suggest that all five copies share descent from a common ancestor. That copy lacked most of the errors in BmBoCot, which were introduced in the exclusive ancestor of those three copies, but the ancestor of all five copies, too, had some error and thus was not L’s holograph. The Cot scribe, whose text is closest to that of the BmBoCot ancestor, engaged in progressive de-translation of his exemplar’s dialect. The essay concludes with an edition of A.2.82-3.30 of that ancestor’s text.