Filologia, grammatica ed erudizione nel mondo antico

This article outlines the state of the art in the field of ancient scholarship, the changes that have occurred and the results that have been achieved in recent decades, the paths along which these studies have advanced and must still advance. Three subjects are specifically addressed: 1) what was the role of Aristotle and the Peripatos in the birth of Alexandrian philology; 2) what kind of questions should we ask of the results of the ancients’ critical and exegetical activity, what answers should we expect, and what is their significance for our research; 3) what is the value and the historical-cultural role of the critical and philological activity of the Alexandrians? The abundance of citations of literary texts in erudite works originating from commentaries written by the philologists of the Hellenistic-Roman age is a highly important testimony of the exegetical activity of ancient scholars and the depth of their literary knowledge, although a correct assessment of the proportions of this phenomenon is made difficult by the loss of a vast amount of erudite sources and quotations of passages during the transmission process.