On the original extent and book division of Petronius' Satyrica

This study reexamines the original extent and book division of Petronius’ Satyrica. Drawing on previous scholarship and newly analyzed textual clues, it reassesses evidence from manuscripts, glosses, and citations— particularly in Paris, BnF lat. 7975 and London, BL Harley 2735, erroneously attributed to Heiric of Auxerre. It argues that the Satyrica comprised at least 21 books, possibly up to 24, and identifies probable book divisions through internal markers and comparison with other ancient fiction. The transmission of the work is situated within broader medieval manuscript practices, suggesting that the extant portions derive from a second volume that reached Visigothic Spain, where traces of the text appear as early as Isidore of Seville, and that the fragments preserved in Leiden, UB Voss. lat. F. 111, and in a now-lost codex from Beauvais used by Claude Binet may ultimately derive from it.