Tracce di latino volgare e tardo nella trattatistica ortografica tardoantica

Ancient grammatical works were often used by modern scholarship on the history of Latin language as witness of vulgar and/or late Latin. The use of late Latin grammarians for this purpose is correct only if we pay attention to the complex structure of their treatises, built on ancient sources adapted to the present needs. Works such Appendix Probi III and the orthographical corpus of Ps. Caper and Agroecius can be easily used as case studies. We can find in these works both examples of ancient grammatical quaestiones, not always connected with the actual linguistic framework, and specific discussions inserted by their compilers, concerned with the growing spread of incorrect uses, pronunciations and spellings (e.g. Consentius). A number of examples of these cases from Ps. Caper works is provided by the present paper.