Ovid in the Middle Ages

This book explores the extraordinary influence of Ovid upon the culture - learned, literary, artistic and popular - of medieval Europe.

Ovid is perhaps the most important surviving Latin poet and his work has influenced writers throughout Europe to the present day. This volume presents a groundbreaking series of essays on his reception across Europe in the Middle Ages.Ovid is perhaps the most important surviving Latin poet and his work has influenced writers throughout the world to the present day. This volume presents a groundbreaking series of essays on his reception across in the Middle Ages. The collection includes contributions from distinguished Ovidians as well as leading specialists in medieval Latin and vernacular literature, clerical and extra-clerical culture and medieval art, and addresses questions of manuscript and textual transmission, translation, adaptation and imitation. It also explores the intersecting cultural contexts of the schools (monastic and secular), courts and literate lay households. It elaborates the scale and scope of the enthusiasm for Ovid in medieval Europe, following readers of the canon from the Carolingian monasteries to the early schools of the Île de France and on into clerical and curial milieux in Italy, Spain, the British Isles and even the Byzantine Empire.