Ancient Civilization - History, Literary Criticism - General & Miscellaneous, Ancient Roman Literature - Literary Criticism, Ancient Roman Civilization & Influence
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Overview
This authoritative history of Latin literature offers a comprehensive survey of the thousand-year period from the origins of Latin as a written language to the early Middle Ages. At once a reference work, a bibliographic guide, a literary study, and a reader's handbook, Latin Literature: A History is the first work of its kind to appear in English in nearly four decades. From the first examples of written Latin through Gregory of Tours in the sixth century and the Venerable Bede in the seventh, Latin Literature offers a wide-ranging panorama of all major Latin authors. Including names, dates, edition citations, and detailed summaries, the work combines the virtues of an encyclopedia with the critical intelligence readers have come to expect from Italy's leading Latinist, Gian Biagio Conte. Many of the entries -- those on Virgil and Petronius, for example -- provide elegantly compact formulations of work on the very frontier of current study, and virtually all entries offer something of interest for the lay reader and expert alike.Editorials
Booknews
A great book that bears no comparison to the fragmented and frequently impoverished alphabetical references so commonly and increasingly seen. This authoritative history of Latin literature--a revised translation of the original Italian-language edition of 1987--offers a comprehensive survey of the thousand-year period from the origins of Latin as a written language to the early Middle Ages i.e., through the Venerable Bede in the seventh century, providing a wide-ranging panorama of all major Latin authors. Including names, dates, edition citations, and detailed summaries, the work combines the concision and ease of use of a standard reference with the critical intelligence of Conte, Italy's leading Latinist. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR booknews.comNew York Review of Books
Conte gives the sort of biographical and historical information that might be expected in a book of this type, but with a more sophisticated awareness of the fragility of much of it than one finds in many other text books. He also gives an unfailingly intelligent and interesting account of the works themselves... His mastery of the vast range of literature that he covers is remarkable.— Jasper Griffin
Reader's Review
It will quickly become not only the preferred textbook but the standard resource for mainstream evaluations of the major surviving Latin authors through the early Middle Ages... Conte covers this era by discussing the principle writers in Latin with a remarkably concise thoroughness.London Review of Books
Conte has achieved a monumental feat most scholars would shrink from attempting... [With] its relish for forgotten or underrated authors and its tight focus on cultural significance, his history shows the restlessness many late 20th-century Latinists feel with the state of their subject.— Emily Gowers
Book Details
Published
March 1, 1994
Publisher
The Johns Hopkins University Press
Pages
827
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780801846380