Empire of Letters: Writing in Roman Literature and Thought from Lucretius to Ovid - Brossura

Frampton, Stephanie Ann

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0197651526 ISBN 13: 9780197651520

Casa editrice: OUP USA, 2022

Riassunto

Shedding new light on the history of the book in antiquity, Empire of Letters tells the story of writing at Rome at the pivotal moment of transition from Republic to Empire (c. 55 BCE-15 CE). By uniting close readings of the period's major authors with detailed analysis of material texts, it argues that the physical embodiments of writing were essential to the worldviews and self-fashioning of authors whose works took shape in them. Whether in wooden tablets, papyrus bookrolls, monumental writing in stone and bronze, or through the alphabet itself, Roman authors both idealized and competed with writing's textual forms.

The academic study of the history of the book has arisen largely out of the textual abundance of the age of print, focusing on the Renaissance and after. But fewer than fifty fragments of classical Roman bookrolls survive, and even fewer lines of poetry. Understanding the history of the ancient Roman book requires us to think differently about this evidence, placing it into the context of other kinds of textual forms that survive in greater numbers, from the fragments of Greek papyri preserved in the garbage heaps of Egypt to the Latin graffiti still visible on the walls of the cities destroyed by Vesuvius. By attending carefully to this kind of material in conjunction with the rich literary testimony of the period, Empire of Letters exposes the importance of textuality itself to Roman authors, and puts the written word back at the center of Roman literature.

Su questo libro

Informazioni sull?autore

Stephanie Ann Frampton is a classicist, comparatist, and historian of the book in antiquity. She is Associate Professor of Classical Literature at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dettagli dell'edizione

• Editore: OUP USA
• Data di pubblicazione: 2022
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0197651526
• ISBN 13: 9780197651520
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 224
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile
• Persona responsabile: Penguin Random House Ireland Limited; productsafety@penguin.co.uk; ; Morrison Chambers, 32 Nassau Street; Dublin; D02 YH68; Irlanda