Ovid the poet
The Brotherton Ovid
Incunabula – the first European printed books
The Brotherton Ovid
Condition and binding
Provenance - who owned the books?
Dietrich von Plieningen
Leonhard von Eck
Oswald von Eck
Georg Franz Burkhard Kloss
William Horatio Crawford
Edward Allen Brotherton
Other individuals associated with the books
Sebastian Linck
Philipp Melanchthon
Samuel Leigh Sotheby
J. Alexander Symington
Ovid the poet
The works of Ovid
Medieval and Renaissance reception
The annotations
Heroides
Amores
Art of Love and Cures for Love
Fasti
The drawings
List of illustrations to the Fasti
[Opera] Volume 1
[Opera] Volume 2
[Opera] Volume 3
Of the classical poets, Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) has perhaps held the broadest and most enduring appeal for generations of readers.
Unlike most ancient writers, Ovid's work continued to be read throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance. A large number of his works survive, covering a range of themes from mythological epic to love elegy and poems of exile.
His poems are prized as much for their wit and linguistic inventiveness as for their memorable stories and descriptions.
Most of our knowledge of Ovid's life comes to us via his works. He told us a great deal about himself – although critics have doubted if some of the "facts"; in his poetry are to be taken seriously.
Ovid was born at Sulmo in 43 BC, the year after the murder of Julius Caesar. His lifetime saw the rise to power of Rome's first emperor, Augustus.
Ovid belonged to a wealthy family of equestrian rank; he was sent to Rome to be educated in oratory and proved to be a talented public speaker. To his father's displeasure, he chose to pursue his first love, poetry, rather than a legal or political career.