Earliest Extant MSS of Classical Authors. The following list, taken in part from information in F. W. Hall, ACompanionto Classical Texts (Oxford, 1913) gives some sense of the lateness of our earliest manuscripts of selected classical authors. It should not be inferred that these are necessarily the 'best' texts.  In many cases the 'preferred' manuscripts are even later.

AESCHYLUS (525-456 B.C.): 11th century

ANTIPHON (d. 411 B.C.): 14th century

ARATUS (c. 310-245 B.C.): 11th century

ARCHIMEDES (c. 287-212 B.C.): 15th/16th century

ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C.):

1. Logic: 10th/11th century
2. Psychology & Metaphysics: lOth/llth century
3. Ethics and Politics: 10th century
4. Rhetoric and Poetics: 10th/11th century
5. Natural philosophy:  10th/11th century

(Here is a good example of the point made above: The best MSS of the bellum Gallicum stem from 11th/12th century.)

DEMOSTHENES (383-322 B.C.): 13th/14th century

DIOGENES LAERTIUS (early 3rd century A.D.): 12th century

EUCLID (fl. c. 300 B.C.): 9th century

EURIPIDES (c. 480-406 B.C.): 12th century

HERODOTUS (c. 480-425 B.C.): 10th century

HESIOD (700? B.C.)

1. Papyri: 4th/5th century

2. Parchment: 12th century

1. Papyri: 3rd century B.C.

2 . Codices: 10th /11th century (A.D.)

MANILUS (fl. c. 15 A.D.): 11th century

MENANDER (342-291 B.C.): fragments only survive of his comedies.

Earliest: 4th/5th century Papryi.

PAUSANIAS (fl. c. 150 A.D.): 15th century

PINDAR (522-442 B.C.): 13th century

PLATO (427-347 B.C.): 9th century

PTOLEMY (fl. c. 150 A.D.):

1. Almagest: 9th century
2. Handy Tables: 9th century

SOPHOCLES (496-406 B.C.): 11th century

STRABO (c. 64 B.C. - 19 A.D.): 12th century

SUIDAS (c. 976 A.D.): 13th century

TACITUS (fl. 100 A.D.):

All writings descend from a codex of 10th century, found in 1455, now lost except for eight leaves, the remainder known through 15th century copies.

VIRGIL (70-19 B.C.): 2nd/3rd century

VITRUVIUS (lst century B.C.): 9th century

DIOPHANTUS (Ist century A.D.): 13th century

BIBLE:  
OT (Hebrew, Aramaic) 6th-9th century A.D. and Dead Sea texts
NT (Greek) 3rd (?) century A.D.