For a Pre-history and Post-history of the Corpus Leidense With a List of the Manuscripts of De natura deorum

The present article examines the Corpus Leidense, the group of eight Ciceronian treatises among which the De natura deorum was also transmitted, focusing on its archetype. The second and longer section contains the first complete list of the 174 identified manuscripts of De natura deorum, with 57 new items added to the 117 already listed by Pease in 1955. The items have been divided into three groups: the first contains the antiquiores, with minimal information; the second contains the remaining witnesses listed by Pease, on which additional data are reported; the third group presents the manuscripts that do not appear in any previous list.