Heroides
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
The Heroides attract some brief marginal notes focusing mainly on the letters of Penelope (see image), Phaedra (4) and Ariadne (10).
The interest in the figures of Penelope and Phaedra is typical since medieval and Renaissance commentaries on the Heroidesusually focused on Penelope as exemplar of female chastity and fidelity, and Phaedra the negative example of incestuous passion.
The annotations highlight ethical significance in Penelope's letter ("Love is full of worries"), and her exemplary fidelity ("Care for her husband's well-being").
In the Phaedra letter, the annotator admires her skilful manipulation of language and persuasive techniques ("She excuses her love by reason of natural instinct" and "she persuades love with promises"), and highlights some sentiments about love ("The old love more passionately than the young"; "Love does not seek what is permitted").
This is typical of commentaries of that era, which often treated moral issues in a cursory fashion and devoted most of their attentions to linguistic and stylistic explanation.