lepidum novum: of the external rather than of the internal character of the book; cf. Catul. 22.6 “novi libri” ; Catul. 78. lepidissima coniunx; Pl. Ps. 27 “lepidis litteris, lepidis tabellis, lepida conscripta manu” ; Stat. Silv. 49.7 “noster [libellus] purpureus novusque charta” ; Mart. 4.10.1 “dum novus est, rasa nec adhuc mihi fronte libellus” . The tone is as if the young author held in his hands his first completed volume, and were charmed by its aspect; of its intrinsic merits he speaks modestly in vv. 8-10. In Catul. 6.17 “lepidus” refers to the dainty character of the verse itself (cf. Mart. 8.3.19; Mart. 11.20.9 “lepidos libellos” ), and Ausonius evidently understood it in that sense here; Aus. 23.1-4 “‘cui … libellum’ Veronensis ait poeta quondam … at nos inlepidum, rudem libellum.”
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Catullus. Catullus. E. T. Merrill. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1893.
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