Latin Grammar

Donatus' most famous work is a system of Latin Grammar, which has formed the groundwork of most elementary treatises upon the same subject, from the period when he flourished down to our own times. It has usually been published in the form of two or more distinct and separate tracts: 1. Ars s. Editio Prima, de literis, syllabis, pedibus, et tonis; 2. Editio Secunda, de octo parlibus orationis; to which are commonly annexed, De barbarismo; De soloecisnmo; De ceteris vitiis; De metaplasmo; De schmatibus; De tropis ; but in the recent edition of Lindemann these are all more correctly considered as constituting one connected whole, and are combined under one general title, taken from the Santenian MS. preserved in the Royal Library of Berlin,

It was the common schoolbook of the middle ages; insomuch, that in the English of Longlande and Chaucer a donat or donet is equivalent to a lesson of any kind, and hence came to mean an introduction in general. Thus among the works of Bishop Pecock are enumerated The DONAT, into Christian religion, and The folower to the DONAT, while Cotgrave quotes an old French proverb, Les diables estoient encores a leur DONAT, i. e. The devils were but yet in their grammar. These, and other examples, are collected in Warton's History of English Poetry, sect. viii.

Commentaries on Terence

In addition to the Ars Grammatica, we possess introductions (enarrationes) and scholia, by Donatus, to five out of the six plays of Terence, those to the Heautontimorumenos having been lost. The prefaces contain a succinct account of the source from which each piece was derived, and of the class to which it belongs; a statement of the time at which it was exhibited; notices respecting the distribution of the characters; and sundry particulars connected with stage technicalities. The commentaries are full of interesting and valuable remarks and illustrations ; but from the numerous repetitions and contradictions, and, above all, the absurd and puerile traits here and there foisted in, it is manifest that they have been unmercifully interpolated and corrupted by later and less skilful hands. Some critics, indeed, have gone so far as to believe that Donatus never committed his observations to writing, and that these scholia are merely scraps, compiled from the notes of pupils, of dictata or lectures delivered viva voce; but this idea does not well accord with the words of St. Jerome in the first of the passages to which a reference is given at the end of this article.

Commentary on Virgil

Servius, in his annotations upon Virgil, refers, in upwards of forty different places, to a Donatus, who must have composed a commentary upon the Eclogues, Georgies, and Aeneid. " Scholia in Aeneida" bearing the name of Donatus, and corresponding, for the most part, with the quotations of Servius, are still extant, but, from their inferior tone and character, have been generally ascribed to Tiberius Claudius Donatus, who is noticed below. They are divided into twelve books, to which a supplemental thirteenth was to have been added ; the concluding portions of the fourth and eighth, and the commencement of the sixth and twelfth, are wanting. Their chief object is to point out the beauties and skill of the poet, rather than to explain his difficulties; but the writer, in a letter subjoined to the twelfth book, announces his intention, should a life already far advanced be prolonged, of compiling, from ancient authorities, a description of the persons, places, herbs, and trees, enumerated in the poem.