Aegritudo Perdicae 173

The Aegritudo Perdicae is an anonymous work included in the MS Harleianus Latinus 3685. Light has to be shed on a number of passages, among which v. 173 containing the diagnosis of the doctor Hippocrates on the disease of the young Perdiccas. Here the reading that had been handed down, causas habes mater, aroused suspicions between editors owning to contradictions in the metric structure and to the non-proven linguistic use of the habere causam syntagm. The conjecture of Friedrich Vollmer, causa subes, mater, stood out thanks to its accuracy and insight: it perfectly fitted with the hexameter using a typical expression of the scientific medical language, easily corruptible in causas habes. However, Vollmer’s intervention markedly changed the narrative structure of the plot: the greater clearness and the incontrovertibility of the medical response don’t seem in line with the developments that the anonymous poet wanted to give to his story.