Speculari additamentum: spurcum aut necessarium? Análisis del spurcum additamentum en Metamorphoses X.21 de Apuleyo

Spurcum additamentum is the modern designation of a passage that appears in the margin of some manuscripts of Metamorphosis of Apuleius of the fourteenth century preserved in the Laurentian Library and in which the preliminaries of the copulation of the donkey with the matron are described (book X, chap. 21 between 1 and 2). The naming and attribution of authorship of this text have given rise to numerous discussions. Some scholars, such as Merlkelbach (1952), Mazarin (1950), Zimmerman (2000), Hildebrand (1842), Robertson (1924), Fraenkel (1953) and Mariotti (1956) among others, argue that the passage should not be attributed to Apuleius, but to some medieval scholar with knowledge in medicine and fond of reading authors who knew the works of Apuleius. However, we put aside the prejudices and the insulting name of spurcum, and analyze and interpret the text De institutione musica 1.12-20 by Boethius, De re rustica 5-6 by Columella and De re rustica 2.7-8 by Varro, to begin to think that this additamentum, as Lytle (2003), Winkler (1985) and Pennisi (1970) maintain, is fundamental to a better intellect of the Latin text, which, for a long time, has been "castrated" by our limited familiarity with the context of its production.