ABSTRACT
The anthologists behind manuscript miscellanies seldom restricted themselves to copying epigrams in one kind of stint alone. Major contributors were as comfortable making long seriatim additions to their collections as they were with more ad hoc modes of copying. Although minor contributors to manuscripts of verse may engage in the task of copying in just one mode especially likely amidst ad hoc copies more extensive engagement with epigrams results in more varied tactics. The copying of epigrams in miscellanies offers an interesting way to consider how these different agencies worked in theory and in practice. In miscellanies the author function often appears elusive and distant. There is usually some distance between the texts they copied and their authorial origin; but, moreover, they are copied in a scheme of what Arthur Marotti calls social sexuality', in which copyists felt free to adapt texts to their own tastes.
