Antiquarian Voices : The Roman Academy and the Commentary Tradition on Ovid's Fasti

Ovid’s Fasti, his poem on the Roman calendar, became especially influential during the fifteenth century as a guide to classical Roman culture. Ovid’s treatment of mythological and astronomical lore, his investigation of anniversaries and customs, and his charting of monuments and history offered humanist poets and intellectuals an abundance of material to unravel. They could identify with Ovid as vates operosus, or hard-working seer–poet, suggesting both researcher and inspired authority. Angela Fritsen’s Antiquarian Voices: The Roman Academy and the Commentary Tradition on Ovid’s Fasti offers the first study of the Renaissance exegesis and imitation of Ovid as antiquarian. Fritsen analyzes the Fasti commentaries by Paolo Marsi (1440–1484) and Antonio Costanzi (1436–1490) as well as the connections between the two works. It situates Ovidian Fasti studies in the Roman Academy under the mentorship of Pomponio Leto. Nowhere could the investigation of the Fasti be carried out better than in Rome. The humanists had a guide to the City in Ovid. They also regarded the Fasti as well suited to the ideology of the ancient Roman imperium ’s renewal in modern papal Rome. Antiquarian Voices illustrates how in reviving the Fasti , the humanists returned Rome to its original splendor. The book demonstrates that the humanists were eager to relate the Fasti to their antiquarian pursuits—as well as to their rising personal fame. Cover Half Title Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents List of Illustrations Abbreviations Acknowledgments Preface ONE • Reading Ovid’s Fasti The Author and His Work Aetas Ovidiana The Fate of Ovid’s Severed Book TWO • Fifteenth-Century Revival Time and Place Teaching Particulars The Dedication of the Fasti THREE • Commentary and Professional Identity An Invitation to Comment Aggravations of Print Primacy and Print Authorship FOUR • Antiquarianism I: The Roman Academy, the Fasti, and a New Historicism Ovid as Guide to the City Context: The Roman Academy The Earlier Generation of Antiquarians The Fasti and First-Hand Observation in Rome Travel and Testing Auctoritas FIVE • Antiquarianism II: Christian Fasti and Papal Connections On Superstition and Magic The Roman Academy and Anniversaries The Old and New Rome Propaganda for the Church AFTERWORD APPENDIX I • Renaissance Commentaries on Ovid’s Fasti APPENDIX II • Comparison of Manuscript Glosses in Vat. lat. 1595, Ottob. lat. 1982, and Vat. lat. 3263 Bibliography Indices General Index Index Locorum Index Manuscriptorum Ovid’s his poem on the Roman calendar, became especially influential during the fifteenth century as a guide to classical Roman culture. Ovid’s treatment of mythological and astronomical lore, his investigation of anniversaries and customs, and his charting of monuments and history offered humanist poets and intellectuals an abundance of material to unravel. They could identify with Ovid as or hard-working seer–poet, suggesting both researcher and inspired authority. Angela Fritsen’s __The Roman Academy and the Commentary Tradition on Ovid’s__ __Fasti__ __Fasti__ __Fasti__ __Fasti__ __imperium____Antiquarian Voices__ __Fasti__ the humanists returned Rome to its original splendor. The book demonstrates that the humanists were eager to relate the to their antiquarian pursuits—as well as to their rising personal fame.