According to Ramsay, the language of the "Cynegetica" is pure, and not unworthy of the age to which it belongs, but there is frequently a harshness in the structure of the periods, a strange and unauthorised use of particular words, and a general want of distinctness, which, in addition to a very corrupt text, render it a task of great difficulty to determine the exact meaning of many passages. Although considerable skill is manifested in the combination of the parts – Ramsay continues – the author did not possess sufficient power to overcome the obstacles which were triumphantly combated by Virgil. It is remarkable that both the second-century poets Oppianus and Nemesianus arrogate to themselves the honour of having entered upon a path altogether untrodden. Whether we believe them to be sincere and ignorant, or suspect them of deliberate dishonesty, their bold assertion is sufficient to prove that the poem of Grattius had in their day become almost totally unknown. The Cynegetica has been transmitted to modern times through the medium of a single manuscript, which was brought from Gaul to Italy by Actius Sannazarius about the beginning of the sixteenth century, and contained also the "Cynegetica" of Nemesianus, and the "Halieutica" ascribed to Ovid. A second copy of the first 159 lines was found by Jan van Vliet appended to another manuscript of the Halieutics. The "Editio Princeps" was printed at Venice in February 1534, by Aldus Manutius, in a volume, containing also the "Halieutica" of Ovid, the "Cynegetica" and "Carmen Bucolicum" of Nemesianus, the Buolica of Calpurnius Siculus, together with the "Venatio" of Hadrianus; and reprinted at Augsburg in July of the same year. The best editions are those contained in the "Poetae Latini Minores" of Burmann (vol. i. Lug. Bat. 1731), and of Wernsdorf (vol. i. p. 6, 293, ii. p. 34, iv. pt. ii. p. 790, 806, v. pt. iii. p. 1445), whose introductions provide all the requisite preliminary information. A translation into English verse with notes, and the Latin text, by Christopher Wase, was published at London in 1654, and a translation into German, also metrical, by S. E. G. Perlet, at Leipzig, in 1826.