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Who is Perotti?

Niccolo Perotti [1429-1480 A.D.] was a now obscure Humanist, a contemporary of Poggio, Valla, Aeneas Sylvius and Filelfo. He was a Renaissance scholar of fifteenth century Italy. He was born in 1429 at Fano Italy. He lived and worked under the enlightened pontificate of Nicholas V. From 1449 to his death produced many Latin translations of Greek works. His translation of Polybius into Latin was the standard Latin text on Polybius until 1610. His most popular work was Rudimenta grammatices written in 1468.

Perotti's first translation of the Enchiridion was completed around 1450 and had been forgotten for the last five centuries. He made a second translation in 1475 (passing it off as his first translation). Politian's version became the standard Latin version until Wolf's translation from a far better text appeared in 1560. Perotti's version, despite its occasional defect, far more faithfully reproduces the contents of the original.

Perotti's Latin is not the best; he often inserts Greek constructions and makes 'poor Latin'. He strived to attain a style that is classical, but repeats the errors of other 15th century scholars that were common in his day.

The notes included in the book of Oliver (listed at the bottom of the translation) give insights into the difficulties of Greek constructions and the proper Latin gloss for various words. Oliver's opinions about both the textual history of the Enchiridion and the source of Perotti's version and Politanus' version.

Perotti's numbering of the Enchiridion is the same as the modern day numbering as presented in the 1916 Greek text of Schenkl.

EPICTETI PHILOSOPHI ENCHIRIDIVM

INCIPIT FELICITER

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Chapter 1

[1.1] EORUM QUAE sunt, quaedam in nobis sunt, quaedam non sunt in nobis. In nobis quidem opinio, appetitio, declinatio, et, ut breviter dicam, quaecumque nostra opera sunt. Non in nobis vero corpus, possessio, gloria, et , ut brevi, complectar, quaecumque non sunt opera nostra. [1.2] Et ea quidem quae in nobis sunt, natura libera sunt, a nullo vetita, a nullo impedita; quae vero non in nobis, imbecillia, servilia, impedita, aliena. [1.3] Memento quod si ea quae natura libera sunt servilia putaveris, et quae aliena, propria, multa tibi aderunt impedimenta; gemes, turbaberis, accusabis deos atque homines. Si vero quod tuum est id dumtaxat tuum esse existimaveris, alienum vero ita ut est alterius esse, nemo te umquam ad aliquam re coget, nemo prohibebit; neminem accusabis, nemini irasceris, nihil ages invitus, nemo tibi nocebit; inimicum habebis neminim, mali hibil patieris. [1.4] Cum igitur res tales tantasque appetes, memento non posse ad eas perveniri motu mediocri, sed aliqua omnino derelinquere oportet, aliqua in aliud tempus differre. Quod si et haec velis et una imperare ac divitiis frui, fortassis neque haec consequeris, cum priora appetas, et illorum omnino expers ens per quae dumtaxat libertas beatitudoque acquiritur. [1.5] Omni tuae imaginationi fac discas confestim ita dicere: “ imaginatio es; non id es quod videris.” Post hoc earn diligenter examina, et iuxta praecepta quae dedimus pensicula—et praesertim iuxta primum illud maximumque praeceptum, utrum circa ea sit quae in nobis sunt, an circa ea quae non sunt in nobis. Quod si circa quippiam eorum quae non sunt in nobis id esse compereris, fac tibi continuo in promptu sit id nihil ad te attinere.

 

Text from Niccolo Perotti's Version of The Enchiridion of Epictetus. edited, with an introduction and a list of Perotti's writings, by Revilo Pendelton Oliver. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 1954.