The Fortunes of Apuleius and The Golden Ass

by Gaisser, Julia Haig

• ISBN13: 9780691131368
• ISBN10: 0691131368
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-01-03
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

This book traces the transmission and reception of one of the most influential novels in Western literature. TheGolden 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 theGolden Assto 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 theGolden Ass.This book is based on the author's Martin Classical Lectures at Oberlin College in 2000.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
Apuleius: A Celebrity and His Image	p. 1
Exemplary Behavior: The Golden Ass from Late Antiquity to the Prehumanists	p. 40
A Mixed Reception: Interpreting and Illuminating the Golden Ass in the Fourteenth Century	p. 76
Making an Impression: From Florence to Rome and from Manuscript to Print	p. 129
Telling Tales: The Golden Ass in Ferrara and Mantua	p. 173
Apuleius Redux: Filippo Beroaldo Comments on the Golden Ass	p. 197
Speaking in Tongues: Translations of the Golden Ass	p. 243
Conclusion: The Fortunes of Apuleius and the Golden Ass	p. 296
Ancient Readers of Apuleius (ca. 350 to ca. 550 AD)	p. 300
Manuscripts of Apuleius' Metamorphoses	p. 302
Extant Manuscripts of the Metamorphoses Written before 1400	p. 309
The Florentine Connection	p. 311
Adlington and His Sources for Met. 11.1	p. 315
Bibliography	p. 319
Index of Manuscripts	p. 355
General Index	p. 357
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