The fortunes of Apuleius and the Golden Ass : a study in transmission and reception
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The fortunes of Apuleius and the Golden Ass : a study in transmission and reception
(Martin classical lectures)
Princeton University Press, c2008
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [319]-353) and indexes
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This book traces the transmission and reception of one of the most influential novels in Western literature. The Golden Ass, the only ancient Roman novel to survive in its entirety, tells of a young man changed into an ass by magic and his bawdy adventures and narrow escapes before the goddess Isis changes him back again. Its centerpiece is the famous story of Cupid and Psyche. Julia Gaisser follows Apuleius' racy tale from antiquity through the sixteenth century, tracing its journey from roll to codex in fourth-century Rome, into the medieval library of Monte Cassino, into the hands of Italian humanists, into print, and, finally, over the Alps and into translation in Spanish, French, German, and English. She demonstrates that the novel's reception was linked with Apuleius' reputation as a philosopher and the persona he projected in his works. She relates Apuleius and the Golden Ass to a diverse cast of important literary and historical figures--including Augustine, Fulgentius, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Bessarion, Boiardo, and Beroaldo.
Paying equal attention to the novel's transmission (how it survived) and its reception (how it was interpreted), she places the work in its many different historical contexts, examining its representation in art, literary imitation, allegory, scholarly commentary, and translation. The volume contains several appendixes, including an annotated list of the manuscripts of the Golden Ass. This book is based on the author's Martin Classical Lectures at Oberlin College in 2000.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations ix Preface xi Chapter 1: Apuleius: A Celebrity and His Image 1 Chapter 2: Exemplary Behavior: The Golden Ass from Late Antiquity to the Prehumanists 40 Chapter 3: A Mixed Reception: Interpreting and Illuminating the Golden Ass in the Fourteenth Century 76 Chapter 4: Making an Impression: From Florence to Rome and from Manuscript to Print 129 Chapter 5: Telling Tales: The Golden Ass in Ferrara and Mantua 173 Chapter 6: Apuleius Redux: Filippo Beroaldo Comments on the Golden Ass 197 Chapter 7: Speaking in Tongues: Translations of the Golden Ass 243 Conclusion: The Fortunes of Apuleius and the Golden Ass 296 Appendix 1: Ancient Readers of Apuleius (ca. 350 to ca. 550 AD) 300 Appendix 2: Manuscripts of Apuleius' Metamorphoses 302 Appendix 3: Extant Manuscripts of the Metamorphoses Written before 1400 309 Appendix 4: The Florentine Connection 311 Appendix 5: Adlington and His Sources for Met. 11.1 315 Bibliography 319 Index of Manuscripts 355 General Index 357
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