Walter Charleton's The Ephesian Matron / Matrona Ephesia

Nina Tomaszewski

Walter Charleton's The Ephesian Matron / Matrona Ephesia. Contextual studies, bilingual edition and commentary

ISBN 978-3-86821-748-3, 648 S., 7 Abb., kt., € 65,00 (2018)

(BAC - Bochumer Altertumswissenschaftliches Colloquium, Bd. 102)

Retold by Walter Charleton (1620-1707) in The Ephesian Matron, the story of the widow of Ephesus – a well-travelled lady by that time – became the starting point for digressions on the subject of love. In an intriguing mix of fiction and philosophy, Charleton used the ancient story to comment on a contemporary social phenomenon (the fashionable ideal of Platonic love) and contributed to the seventeenth-century debate about the passions. This book attempts to shed light on the at times ambiguous text by studying its various (philosophical, literary, historical and philological) contexts. Particularly the Latin translation (Matrona Ephesia, 1665) is analysed as a so-far entirely neglected context that may e.g. offer insights into the reception of the story but that is also philologically interesting in its own right. Additionally, this book offers the first bilingual edition of Charleton’s The Ephesian Matron and its Latin translation Matrona Ephesia, as well as the first comprehensive commentary.

Buchvorschau / Inhaltsverzeichnis (pdf)

Pressestimmen

"It is always good to see another little-known Neo-Latin work rescued from oblivion, by a philologically skilled, sympathetic editor. The series in which Matrona Ephesia was published has established itself as a primary outlet for such scholarship, and I am looking forward to seeing what Neo-Latin projects come from it next."

Craig Kallendorf, Seventeenth-Century News 77.1/2 (2019)

"Zusammenfassend ergibt sich das Bild einer fundierten Edition, die für Klassische Philologen, Neulateiner, Anglisten und Rezeptionswissenschaftler gleichermaßen brauchbar ist und mehr als nur eine Erweiterung und Verbesserung von Jensens Edition von 1996 darstellt."

Isabella Walser-Bürgler, Anzeiger für die Altertumswissenschaft 71/72 (2018/2019)