The scattered references to Catullus's poetry can be listed: St. Jerome, Martianus Capella, and Macrobius in the fifth century; Priscian and Boethius in the sixth century; and Isidore in the seventh. Hildemar of Corbie appears to echo Catullus in A.D. 841, and Hiericus of Auxerre quotes a phrase from Catullus in A.D. 873. Bishop Rather, who organized the
scriptorium of Verona, records in A.D. 965 that he is reading Catullus, whom he had not read before. Two others, William of Malmesbury and Marcus Grabman, appear to echo Catullus's poetry in the twelfth century. In general Catullus remained unknown until a manuscript known as V surfaced in Verona about 1305, only to disappear before the end of the century. Two copies were made from V (O and X). One of these copies is now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the other, which was probably owned by Petrarch, was copied twice (G and R in 1375) and then it, too, disappeared.
The fortuitous discovery of V gave Catullus and his poetry a second life, although at first he was quoted, improbably, as a moralist. Soon he became one of the special favorites of European lyric, as his verse responded well to different readers in different ages.
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