The Metamorphoses of Education: Ovid in the Twelfth-Century Schoolroom

Description

The aim of this thesis is to explore the earliest known commentary on Ovid’s Metamorphoses, extant in the manuscript clm 4610, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, and thus to shed some light on the early reception on the Metamorphoses. Ovid’s Metamorphoses is today one of the most well-known works of literature from ancient Rome. This, however, has not always been the case. Ovid came upon the medieval literary scene surprisingly late compared to many of the other ancient authors. From the period before 1100 the Metamorphoses is preserved in only a handful of manuscripts. In addition to the manuscripts transmitting the text itself two commentaries on the work dated to around 1100 are extant. These commentaries, which seem to have been produced in the monastic environment in Bavaria, are the earliest witnesses to the reception of the Metamorphoses during the middle ages. These commentaries are, as far as we know, the first in burgeoning trend of commenting on the Metamorphoses. From the late twelfth century onwards there appear an increasing amount of commentaries on the work, which have received some attention in the scholarly world. These earliest witnesses, however, have in large been neglected. The core of this thesis is found in part II. It consists of an edition and translation of the previously unedited commentary in the manuscript clm 4610. Part I serves the function of contextualising and analysing the edited text. The first chapter, Ovid Enters the Scene, discusses the resurgent popularity of the Metamorphoses around year 1100. The following chapter, Situating the Commentary, contextualises the commentary in clm 4610 with regard to the commentary context, the school context and the Bavarian context. After this, different aspects of the form and function of the commentary are analysed in the chapter Form and Function. The final chapter of Part I consists of Three case studies that further investigate the relationship between clm 4610 and other commentary texts.