Spring 2006

E 392M • Classical Backgrounds of Med/Ren Literature

Course Description

In this course we will read in modern English translations classical works that had a major impact on the literature of the pre-modern period. The focus of the discussion and assignments will be on the aspects of the works that were particularly valued in earlier periods, although we will also examine some of the modern critical approaches. We will study the history of the transmission of these works in the Middle Ages and their printing history in the Renaissance, and examine the impact of these traditions on modern editing and textual criticism.

Texts

Homer, Odyssey or Iliad

One or two ancient Greek novels

Virgil, Georgics, Eclogues, Bks. 1-6 of the Aeneid

Ovid, Metamorphoses and Heroides

Seneca, Agamemnon or another drama

[Other primary texts will be chosen after consultation with the students]

Reynolds and Wilson: Scribes and Scholars: A Guide to the Transmission of Greek & Latin Literature

Reynolds, Texts and Transmission (selections)

Kristeller, Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum (selections)

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