Julia Haig Gaisser, The Fortunes of Apuleius and the Golden Ass. A Study in Transmission and Reception, Princeton: Princeton University Press, coll. "Martin Classical Lectures", 2008. Pp. xiii, 365.
- ISBN 9780691131368.
- $53.00.
Recension par Robert H. F. Carver (University of Durham) dans Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2010.01.14.
Extraits en ligne sur books.google et amazon.fr.
Présentation de l'éditeur:
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 ayoung man changed into an ass by magic and his bawdy adventures andnarrow escapes before the goddess Isis changes him back again. Itscenterpiece is the famous story of Cupid and Psyche. Julia Gaisserfollows Apuleius' racy tale from antiquity through the sixteenthcentury, tracing its journey from roll to codex in fourth-century Rome,into the medieval library of Monte Cassino, into the hands of Italianhumanists, into print, and, finally, over the Alps and into translationin Spanish, French, German, and English. She demonstrates that thenovel's reception was linked with Apuleius' reputation as a philosopherand the persona he projected in his works. She relates Apuleius and theGolden Ass to a diverse cast of important literary andhistorical figures--including Augustine, Fulgentius, Petrarch,Boccaccio, Bessarion, Boiardo, and Beroaldo. Paying equal attention tothe novel's transmission (how it survived) and its reception (how itwas interpreted), she places the work in its many different historicalcontexts, examining its representation in art, literary imitation,allegory, scholarly commentary, and translation. The volume containsseveral appendixes, including an annotated list of the manuscripts ofthe Golden Ass.
This book is based on the author's Martin Classical Lectures at Oberlin College in 2000.
Julia Haig Gaisser is Eugenia Chase Guild Professor Emeritus in the Humanities at Bryn Mawr College. She is the author of Catullus, Catullus in English, Pierio Valeriano on the Ill Fortune of Learned Men, and Catullus and His Renaissance Readers.
Table des matières:
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