Reading Ovid in Medieval Wales

“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

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.

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

Contents

List of Illustrations
List of Manuscript Sigla
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgments

1 - Introduction
     The Ovidian Commentary Tradition
     The Brittonic Glossing Tradition
     Oxford, Bodleian Library, Auctarium F. 4. 32

2 - Ovid, Ars amatoria, Book I
     Previous Scholarship
          THE MAIN TEXT OF ARS AMATORIA
          THE WELSH GLOSSING
     Oxford, Bodleian Library MS, Auct. F. 4. 32, fols. 37r-47r: The Main Text
          FACSIMILE IMAGES
          PAGE LAYOUT
          COLLATION
          SCRIBES
          DECORATION
     Oxford, Bodleian Library MS, Auct. F. 4. 32, fols. 37r-47r: The Glosses and Marginal Annotations
          THE NATURE OF THE GLOSSING
               (a) The Glossing of Latin Verse
               (b) Construe Marks
               (c) The Order of Glossing
               (d) Latin Glosses and Comment
               (e) Old Welsh Glosses
               (f) Glosses of Uncertain Origin
               (g) On Misunderstanding Ovid
               (h) Evidence for an Irish Element in the Glossing
     Conclusion

3 - The Learned Context: Other Glossed Manuscripts of Ovid’s Ars amatoria I
     Introduction
     The Glossed Manuscripts of Ovid, Ars amatoria I
          ST GALL, STIFTSBIBLIOTHEK, 821 (S_A)
          LONDON, BRITISH LIBRARY, ADDITIONAL 14086 (A)
          BERN, BURGERBIBLIOTHEK 478 (B)
          PARIS BN LATIN 15155 (EXCERPTS) (P₂)
          OXFORD, BODLEIAN LIBRARY, CANON, CLASS. 1 (S.C. 18582) (O_B)
          OXFORD, BODLEIAN LIBRARY, RAWLINSON Q.D. 19 (S.C. 16044) (O)
          LONDON, BRITISH LIBRARY, ADDITIONAL 49369 (OLIM HOLKHAM 322) (H)
          PERPIGNAN, MÉDIATHÈQUE, 19 (OLIM BIBLIOTHÈQUE MUNICIPALE, 10) (W)
          OXFORD, BODLEIAN LIBRARY, CANON. CLASS. 18 (S.C. 18599) (O_G)
     Significant Parallel Glosses
     Glosses Which Can Help in Understanding O
     Conclusions

4 - Ovid Ars amatoria I: Edition

5 - Notes to the Edition
     Old Welsh Orthography
          VOWELS
          CONSONANTS
     Notes

6 - Postscript: The Later Life of Ovid in Medieval Wales
     Introduction
     Ofydd:Poet, Love Poet, and Love Poetry
          THE CYWYDDWYR AND OFYDD
     Knowledge of Classical Texts in Medieval Wales, 900–1400
          SURVIVING BOOKS AND MONASTIC CATALOGUES
          INTERTEXTUAL KNOWLEDGE OF CLASSICAL TEXTS IN MEDIEVAL WALES
          EDUCATION IN MEDIEVAL WALES
          PRELIMINARY CONCLUSIONS
     Fferyll, Dwned, and Arguments by Analogy
          FFERYLL(T) “VIRGIL”
          DWNED “DONATUS”
     Conclusion
     Appendices
          1. OFYDD
          2. FFERYLL(T)
          3. DWNED

Bibliography
     Editions of Ovid Consulted
     Other Primary Texts
     Secondary Literature

Indices
     Index of Glosses in Textual Order
     Alphabetical Index of Glosses
     Index of Manuscripts Cited
     General Index