Fasti (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781499125313)

No one, I should think, who has even done nothing more than look into Ovid's Fasti, will refuse his assent to the following words of Hercules Ciofanus, one of the earliest editors of this poem: Ex omnibus, says he, veterum poetarum monumentis nullum hodierno die exstat opus, quod, aut eruditione aut rebus quae ad Romanam antiquitatem cognoscendam pertineant, hos Ovidii Fastorum libros antecellat. In effect we have here ancient Roman history, religion, mythology, manners and customs, and moreover much Grecian mythology, and that portion of the ancient astronomy which regards the rising and setting of the different constellations. These altogether form a wide field of knowledge; and in my opinion there is not, in the whole compass of classical literature, a work better calculated to be put into the hands of students. Accordingly the Fasti are read at some of our great public schools and at several of the private ones, and I have lately had the gratification of seeing this very edition adopted at one of the most eminent of the great schools. The name of the master of that school, did I feel myself at liberty to mention it, would be a warrant for the goodness, at least the relative goodness, of the present edition. At the same time I will candidly confess that the work falls far short of my own ideas of perfection in this department of literature. Circumstances, which it is needless to mention, caused it to be executed in a very hurried manner and without the necessary apparatus of books. It was in fact undertaken, written, and printed in little more than two months. This is mentioned in explanation of, not in excuse for, its defects-for no such excuse should be admitted. The text is that of Krebs, the latest German editor; from which however I have occasionally departed, especially in the punctuation. In the notes will be found the most important various readings of the fifty-eight MSS. of this poem which have been collated. I have also adopted the Calendar of Krebs' edition, as being on the whole the best, and as its copiousness enables it to supply the place of arguments to the several books.

Author: Ovid
ISBN-10: 1499125313
ISBN-13: 9781499125313
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Language: English
Published: 04/14/2014
Pages: 150
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 11.02h x 8.50w x 0.32d