Daphnis and Chloe by Longus

On Longus, there is nothing to say. On his book and on Amyot’s translation, the Translator’s Preface gives all the desirable information.

It was in 1807 that Paul-Louis Courier discovered in the Laurentian Library, in Florence, a manuscript of the Pastorales de Longus containing a rather long passage hitherto unknown. Later, he transcribed this fragment, and in 1810 he had a complete edition of the Greek text printed in Rome, which was printed at only fifty-two copies. The same year, he had sixty copies of Amyot’s version printed in Florence, in which he had introduced a translation [Pg 6]of the newly discovered fragment, made by him in the style of the first translator.

In 1813, he published at Firmin Didot a “complete translation according to the Greek text of the best manuscripts”. In this translation he had preserved as much as Amyot’s.