THE ART OF LOVE.
- London: The Folio Society, 1996.
- small 4to.
- full natural cloth with gold title on spine, pictorial cover label; maroon slipcase
- 96 pages + 8 leaves of plates in color
Price: $25.00 other currencies
Order Nr. 78346
Third printing. A modern translated edition of Ovid's famous ancient (tongue-in-cheek) manual of seduction. Often cited as the volume that helped garner Ovid his exile in Tomis (8-17 CE), the Ars Amatoria adapts the erotic poetic form of the ancients to a mock didactic purpose. The translator has tried to keep the formal character of the poetry, like most modern redactors, while reintroducing the rhyming element to restore something of Ovid's original sense. Eight full color plates accompany this volume and are playfully ribald, complete with a score of ithyphallic gentlemen chasing ladies of the demimonde.