Reading Ovid in Medieval Wales

by Paul Russell

Overview

Reading Ovid in Medieval Wales provides the first complete edition and discussion of the earliest surviving fragment of Ovid’s Ars amatoria, or The Art of Love, which derives from ninth-century Wales; the manuscript, which is preserved in Oxford, is heavily glossed mainly in Latin but also in Old Welsh. This study, by Classical and Celtic scholar Paul Russell, discusses the significance of the manuscript for classical studies and how it was absorbed into the classical Ovidian tradition. This volume’s main focus, however, is on the glossing and commentary and what these can teach us about the pedagogical approaches to Ovid’s text in medieval Europe and Britain and, more specifically, in Wales.
 
Russell argues that this annotated version of the Ars amatoria arose out of the teaching traditions of the Carolingian world and that the annotation, as we have it, was the product of a cumulative process of glossing and commenting on the text. He then surveys other glossed Ovid manuscripts to demonstrate how that accumulation was built up. Russell also explores the fascinating issue of why Ovid’s love poetry should be used to teach Latin verse in monastic contexts. Finally, he discusses the connection between this manuscript and the numerous references to Ovid in later Welsh poetry, suggesting that the Ovidian references should perhaps be taken to refer to love poetry more generically.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814253779
Publisher:	Ohio State University Press
Publication date:	04/08/2023
Series:	Text and Context
Edition description:	1
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Paul Russell is Professor of Celtic in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic at the University of Cambridge.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations xi

List of Manuscript Sigla xiii

List of Abbreviations xv

Acknowledgments xix

1 Introduction 1

The Ovidian Commentary Tradition 3

The Brittonic Glossing Tradition 8

Oxford, Bodleian Library, Auctarium F. 4.32 12

2 Ovid, sirs amatoria, Book I 16

Previous Scholarship 16

The Main Text of Ars Amatorm 16

The Welsh Glossing 23

The Latin Glossing 29

Oxford, Bodleian Library MS, Auct. F. 4. 32, fols. 37r-47r: The Main Text 32

Facsimile Images 32

Page Layout 32

Collation 35

Scribes 36

Decoration 45

Marginal Annotations 46

The Nature of the Glossing 55

(a) The Glossing of Latin Verse 57

(b) Construe Marks 64

(c) The Order of Glossing 67

(d) Latin Glosses and Comment 69

(e) Old Welsh Glosses 78

(f) Glosses of Uncertain Origin 83

(g) On Misunderstanding Ovid 84

(h) Evidence for an Irish Element in the Glossing 85

Conclusion 88

5 The Learned Context: Other Glossed Manuscripts of Ovid's Ars amatoria 1 89

Introduction 89

The Glossed Manuscripts of Ovid, Ars amatoria I 92

St Gall, Stiftsbibliothek, 821 (S_A) 92

London, British Library, Additional 14086 (A) 95

BERN, Burgerbibliothek 478 (B) 105

Paris Bn Latin 15155 (Excerpts) (P₂) 105

Oxford, Bodleian Library, Canon. Class. 1 (S. C. 18582) (O_B) 105

Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson Q. D. 19 (S. C. 16044) (O) 106

London, British Library, Additional 49369 (Olim Holkham 322) (H) 107

Perpignan, Médiathèque, 19 (Olim Bibliothèque Municipale, 10) (W) 107

Oxford, Bodleian Library, Canon. Class. 18 (S. C. 18599) (O_C) 111

Significant Parallel Glosses 111

Glosses Which Can Help in Understanding O 114

Conclusions 118

4 Ovid, Ars amatoria I: Edition 120

5 Notes to the Edition 153

Old Welsh Orthography 153

Vowels 154

Consonants 155

Notes 156

6 Postscript: The Later Life of Ovid in Medieval Wales 203

Introduction 203

Ofydd: Poet, Love Poet, and Love Poetry 204

The Cywyddwyr and Ofydd 208

Knowledge of Classical Texts in Medieval Wales, 900-1400 211

Surviving Books and Monastic Catalogues 211

Intertextual Knowledge of Classical Texts in Medieval Wales 214

Education in Medieval Wales 217

Preliminary Conclusions 220

Fferyll, Owned, and Arguments by Analogy 221

Fferyll(T) "Virgil" 222

Dwned "Donatus" 226

Conclusion 229

Appendices 231

1 Ofydd 231

2 Fferyll(T) 233

3 Dwned 234

Bibliography 237

Editions of Ovid Consulted 237

Other Primary Texts 238

Secondary Literature 242

Indices

Index of Glosses in Textual Order 257

Alphabetical Index of Glosses 265

Index of Manuscripts Cited 283

General Index 287

Editorial Reviews

“This important book will become the standard edition of this particular manuscript and will attract a readership from fields such as Classics, Celtic Studies, literature, linguistics, and book history.” —Helen Fulton, University of Bristol, UK

From the Publisher