Description
Book SynopsisJohn Ridewall's Fulgencius metaforalis is a moralising commentary on Fulgentius's sixth-century Mitologiae, an introduction to the classical gods and their stories. Composed in Oxford in the 1330s and subject to almost immediate local (and broader English) use, the work was a pan-European success, and more than 100 manuscripts preserve Ridewall's text in some form. Fulgencius metaforalis has been edited before, nearly a century ago, by a great medievalist, Hans Liebeschütz; he, however, did not recognise that the manuscript he presented was a fragment, containing only about one-third of the whole. This volume provides Ridewall's entire text, as usually communicated, with a translation. In addition, it contains a substantial introduction; this outlines various difficulties in the transmission of Fulgencius and evidence for the work's extensive medieval reception. Annotation to the text identifies and indexes Ridewall's sources – most of his mythographic knowledge reflects either Remigius of Auxerre's commentary on Martianus Capella or the Third Vatican Mythographer; and offers one manuscript tabula/index, useful for seeing how readers may have accessed the work piecemeal (by manuscript consultation, not, as frequently claimed, as a set of 'memory diagrams').
Table of ContentsAbbreviations
Preface
Introduction
The author: on John Ridewall
The Fulgencius and its dissemination
The use and influence of the text
Constructing Fulgencius: Ridewall's library
Editing Fulgencius metaforalis
Appendix: notes on the manuscripts
Bibliography
Fulgencius metaforalis: The text
Book 1
1 Idolatry
2 Saturn/Prudence
3 Jupiter/Love and Friendship
4 Juno/Memory
5 Neptune/Intelligence
6 Pluto/Foresight
7 Apollo/Truth
8 Phaeton/Ambition
9 Mercury/Eloquence
10 Danae/Modesty and Women's Greed
11 Ganymede/Sodomy
12 Perseus/Courage
13 Alceste/Marital Continence
Book 2
1 Paris/Injustice
2 Minerva/Contemplative Life
3 Juno/Worldly Life
4 Venus/The Life of Pleasure
Appendix: Two inserted discussions
Textual notes
The A tabula
A brief commentary
Indexes
Biblical references
Fontes
