Ovid. Scribal copy of Thomas Heywood's translation of Ovid's De arte amandi, or, The art of love

Folger bibliographic ID: 344155
Folger call number: V.a.655
Folger holdings ID: 495010
Accession Number: 269373

General notes

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Item information about Folger V.a.655

Sotheby's catalog description: Heywood, Thomas [OVID'S DE ARTE AMANDI OR THE ART OF LOVE] Contemporary manuscript copy in a scribal secretary hand, complete with "The prohemium or Introduction," the poem divided into three Books with marginal notes in the same hand and catchwords, 244 pages, oblong octavo (100 x 162 mm), early seventeenth century; occasional slight soiling. Contemporary panelled calf with gilt lozenge centrepiece; restored at corners, rubbed Sotheby's catalog note: If there be any in this Multitude that in the art of Love is dull and rude Mee let them reade & theise my lines rehearse he shalbe made a doctor by my verse..." One of four known manuscripts of the first complete English translation of Ovid's Art of Love, and the only complete copy in private hands. Ovid's erotic Ars Amatoria was one of the most popular classical works of the English Renaissance, and Heywood's translation, first published anonymously as Love's School in 1600, went through at least twelve editions in the seventeenth century. Heywood had translated the work some years before the translation was published, and later complained that it had been published against his will, and was a work that "out of my juniority and want of judgement, I committed to the view of some private friends, but with no purpose of publishing, or further communicating them." Sotheby's catalog literature note: CELM HyT 3.8 Acquired at the Robert S. Pirie sale, Sotheby's, New York, 2-4 December 2015, lot 450 Sotheby's catalog provenance:Faunce-De-Laune family of Sharstead Court, Kent — H.W. Pratley (Sotheby's, 21 July 1988, lot 17). acquisition: Purchased at the foregoing sale through Bernard Quaritch

Extended title: Scribal copy of Thomas Heywood's translation of Ovid's De arte amandi, or, The art of love 17th century

author: Ovid, 43 B.C.-17 A.D. or 18 A.D.
translator: Heywood, Thomas, approximately 1574-1641
former owner: Pirie, Robert S.