Facets of Apuleius’ Golden Ass in the Brotherton Collection at Leeds

Facets of Apuleius’ Golden Ass in the Brotherton Collection at Leeds

Resource exploring aspects of The Golden Ass of Apuleius, through works from the Brotherton Collection in Leeds University Library, Special Collections.

Apuleius

Resource exploring aspects of The Golden Ass of Apuleius, through works from the Brotherton Collection in Leeds University Library, Special Collections.

Apuleius, Opera, 1588

Resource exploring aspects of The Golden Ass of Apuleius, through works from the Brotherton Collection in Leeds University Library, Special Collections.

Philander, The Golden Calf, 1749

Resource exploring aspects of The Golden Ass of Apuleius, through works from the Brotherton Collection in Leeds University Library, Special Collections.

Voltaire, La Pucelle d'Orleans, 1762

Resource exploring aspects of The Golden Ass of Apuleius, through works from the Brotherton Collection in Leeds University Library, Special Collections.

William Adlington, Cupid and Psyche, 1903

Resource exploring aspects of The Golden Ass of Apuleius, through works from the Brotherton Collection in Leeds University Library, Special Collections.

Harold Edgeworth Butler, Cupid and Psyche, 1922

Resource exploring aspects of The Golden Ass of Apuleius, through works from the Brotherton Collection in Leeds University Library, Special Collections.

Boccaccio, 1511

Resource exploring aspects of The Golden Ass of Apuleius, through works from the Brotherton Collection in Leeds University Library, Special Collections.

Minturno, 1559

Resource exploring aspects of The Golden Ass of Apuleius, through works from the Brotherton Collection in Leeds University Library, Special Collections.

Thomas Shadwell, Psyche, 1675

Resource exploring aspects of The Golden Ass of Apuleius, through works from the Brotherton Collection in Leeds University Library, Special Collections.

Thomas Shadwell, Psyche, 1675 (2)

Resource exploring aspects of The Golden Ass of Apuleius, through works from the Brotherton Collection in Leeds University Library, Special Collections.

De la Fontaine, Les Amours de Psyche, 1814

Jean de la Fontaine, Les Amours de Psyché et de Cupidon, 1814

Resource exploring aspects of The Golden Ass of Apuleius, through works from the Brotherton Collection in Leeds University Library, Special Collections.

Joseph Beaumont, Psyche, or love's mystery, 1702

Resource exploring aspects of The Golden Ass of Apuleius, through works from the Brotherton Collection in Leeds University Library, Special Collections.

Thomas D'Urfey, A new song in honour of the glorious assembly at Court on the Queens birthday

Resource exploring aspects of The Golden Ass of Apuleius, through works from the Brotherton Collection in Leeds University Library, Special Collections.

Mary Tighe, Psyche or The legend of love, 1812

Resource exploring aspects of The Golden Ass of Apuleius, through works from the Brotherton Collection in Leeds University Library, Special Collections.

Christoph Wieland, Fragments of Psyche, 1767

Resource exploring aspects of The Golden Ass of Apuleius, through works from the Brotherton Collection in Leeds University Library, Special Collections.

William Morris, The earthly paradise, 1868-70

Resource exploring aspects of The Golden Ass of Apuleius, through works from the Brotherton Collection in Leeds University Library, Special Collections.

A note by William Morris on his aims in founding the Kelmscott Press, 1898

Resource exploring aspects of The Golden Ass of Apuleius, through works from the Brotherton Collection in Leeds University Library, Special Collections.

William Morris collected by Alf Mattison

Resource exploring aspects of The Golden Ass of Apuleius, through works from the Brotherton Collection in Leeds University Library, Special Collections.

Robert Bridges, Eros and Psyche, 1885

Resource exploring aspects of The Golden Ass of Apuleius, through works from the Brotherton Collection in Leeds University Library, Special Collections.

Victor de Laprade, Psyché, 1857

Resource exploring aspects of The Golden Ass of Apuleius, through works from the Brotherton Collection in Leeds University Library, Special Collections.

Edward Carpenter, The story of Eros and Psyche, 1900

Resource exploring aspects of The Golden Ass of Apuleius, through works from the Brotherton Collection in Leeds University Library, Special Collections.

Walter Pater, Marius the Epicurean, 1885

Resource exploring aspects of The Golden Ass of Apuleius, through works from the Brotherton Collection in Leeds University Library, Special Collections.

Georges Jean-Aubry and Manuel de Falla, Psyché : poème, 1927

Resource exploring aspects of The Golden Ass of Apuleius, through works from the Brotherton Collection in Leeds University Library, Special Collections.

Pierre Louÿs, Psyché, 1927

Resource exploring aspects of The Golden Ass of Apuleius, through works from the Brotherton Collection in Leeds University Library, Special Collections.

This slideshow is an introduction to the wide-ranging reception of Apuleius in the holdings of the Brotherton Library. It is intended as a snapshot which guides the reader through many centuries, languages, and types of reception, and more items will be added to it in due course.

Apuleius’ tale of Cupid and Psyche has been popular with readers throughout the centuries, readers who themselves produced their own responses to and versions of the story. Often treated as a standalone text, Cupid and Psyche has given rise to treatments as diverse as plays, masques, operas, poems, sculptures, paintings and novels, with a huge range of diverse approaches to the text. They range from philosophical and religious explanations of the story on one side, to erotic fiction on the other.

The resource was curated by Dr Regine May, and includes some well-known and some lesser known examples of these works.