Courier and the Ink-Blot Scandal

Exhibition
Highlights

Introduction
Some Early Editions
Some Specialized Versions
Courier and the Ink-Blot Scandal
The Vale Press Edition
Some 20th-Century Editions

Daphnis & Chloe

Courier and the Ink-Blot Scandal

Longus. Gli amori pastorali di Dafni e Cloe, di Longo. Translated by Annibal Caro. Paris: Renouard, 1800.
The scholar and publisher A.A. Renouard produced this small-size edition in Italian of Daphnis and Chloe in Paris. Renouard was a close friend and colleague of Courier, and was much involved in the ink-blot scandal (see below). (Purchase, 1950).

The Scandal of the 'tache d'encre'

As early as the sixteenth century it was recognized that part of the text of Daphnis and Chloe was missing. This gap was called 'the great lacuna'. Paul-Louis Courier, a French military man and Greek scholar who was born in 1773, found in November of 1809 a manuscript at Florence which contained the four known Greek novels, and on examining the text of Longus he discovered that it contained the missing passage. On the 10th, he transcribed the passage and, according to his story, at the end of the day he marked his place in the manuscript with a sheet of paper. That sheet unfortunately had some ink on the reverse which he did not notice, and a large portion of the newly discovered text was covered with ink when he returned the following day.

Courier was taken before the authorities for his mistake, and forbidden to publish his transcription. He nevertheless went right ahead and did so, printing first an edition of 61 copies in Florence of a French version incorporating the newly discovered text (1810), then in Rome a small edition of the new text in Greek, and finally a whole new edition of the Greek, also printed in Rome. In 1813, he printed in Paris an edition in French that is known as the Amyot-Courier edition, and it was frequently reprinted thereafter.

Courier came to a sad end. He was murdered in 1825 by three of his farm workers, who had all, according to Giles Barber (Daphnis and Chloe: The Markets and Metamorphoses of an Unknown Bestseller), been sharing his wife's bed. The assassins were acquitted, and when new evidence surfaced of their guilt at a later date, the law prevented their being re-tried for the same crime, and they went free.

Fragment de Daphnis et Chloe, decouvert dans un manuscript grec de Longus. 1813, [Translated by Paul-Louis Courier].
Exhibited here are several items relating to Courier's discovery of the missing portion of the text of Longus. Courier's Fragment de Daphnis et Chloe, decouvert dans un manuscript grec de Longus [etc.] is the first French edition of Courier's announcement, and is known in only one other copy.

"Circular Letter" by Courier (hand-addressed to Renourd), October 1812.

Courier's circular letter (October 1812) relating to the discovery is here in the copy hand-addressed to A.A. Renouard. A contemporary newspaper announcement notes Courier's find under "Variétés."

Courier to Renouard, 30 September 1809, Florence, Italy.

Also exhibited at right and below is one unpublished Courier letter to Renouard about Daphnis and Chloe dated from Florence, 30 September, that discusses among other things Courier's opinion of the Amyot translation. (Collection purchased 2000).

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