Compitum

Ovide, Contre Ibis ; texte établi par Jacques André, émendé, présenté et traduit par Olivier Sers. Théocrite, La Syrinx, texte établi par Félix Buffière, traduit et annoté par Olivier Sers, Paris, 2017.

Éditeur : Les Belles Lettres
120 pages
ISBN : 978-2-251-44654-7
13,90 €

Quel est le point de rencontre improbable, locus communis rassemblant mnémotechniquement Théocrite, Callimaque, Apollonius de Rhodes, Ovide, L.-F. Céline et J.-P. Sartre ? Qu'arriva-t-il au gracieux poète de l'Art d'aimer pour qu'il entreprenne à cinquante ans d'évoquer en 388 vers plus de 230 tortionnaires ou suppliciés par plus de cent genres de supplices différents, en usant dans deux cas sur trois de définitions par énigmes ? Comment put-il y parvenir ? Les antiques furent-ils oulipiens ? Leur mémoire survitaminée ?
Olivier Sers répond à toutes ces questions et à bien d'autres dans son introduction à sa traduction du Contre Ibis. Établie vers pour vers (alexandrin, décasyllabe), celle-ci dévoile à droite du texte, en italiques, les noms exprimés par énigmes. Lui font suite le texte du calligramme de Théocrite La Syrinx, dont les liens avec l'Ibis sont pour la première fois mis en lumière, un bilan des supplices, et un copieux index des noms propres, l'ensemble fournissant toutes informations utiles sur les anecdotes évoquées, leur contexte, les techniques de codage employées par le poète, et les mobiles de sa reconversion inattendue dans l'oulipisme.

Source : Les Belles Lettres

Victorin de Poetovio, Opera quae supersunt. Explanatio in Apocalypsin una cum recensione Hieronymi. Tractatus de fabrica mundi. Fragmentum de vita Christi, Turnhout, 2017.

Éditeur : Brepols
Collection : Corpus Christianorum Series Latina (CCSL 5)
314 pages
ISBN : 978-2-503-57122-5
180 €

De l'œuvre de Victorin de Poetovio, qui, d'après ce qu'en dit Jérôme, était considérable, peu de chose nous est parvenu. Mis à part un court traité sur la semaine primordiale (CPL 79) et une note sur la chronologie de la vie du Christ prise dans les archives d'Alexandre de Jérusalem, l'essentiel de son héritage littéraire est constitué par un commentaire de l'Apocalypse composé vraisemblablement sous Gallien, dans les années 260 (CPL 80). Jusqu'il y a un siècle, ce commentaire était connu seulement à travers une édition revue et corrigée par Jérôme. Encore lisait-on le plus souvent cette édition sous une forme profondément remaniée durant le haut moyen âge, car c'est celle-là qui est reproduite par Migne.

Jason König et Greg Woolf (éd.), Authority and Expertise in Ancient Scientific Culture, Cambridge, 2017.

Éditeur : Cambridge University Press
486 pages
ISBN : 978-1-107-06006-7
£ 105.00

How did ancient scientific and knowledge-ordering writers make their work authoritative? This book answers that question for a wide range of ancient disciplines, from mathematics, medicine, architecture and agriculture, through to law, historiography and philosophy - focusing mainly, but not exclusively, on the literature of the Roman Empire. It draws attention to habits that these different fields had in common, while also showing how individual texts and authors manipulated standard techniques of self-authorisation in distinctive ways. It stresses the importance of competitive and assertive styles of self-presentation, and also examines some of the pressures that pulled in the opposite direction by looking at authors who chose to acknowledge the limitations of their own knowledge or resisted close identification with narrow versions of expert identity. A final chapter by Sir Geoffrey Lloyd offers a comparative account of scientific authority and expertise in ancient Chinese, Indian and Mesopotamian culture.

Martin Jacobsson (éd.), Augustinus: De Musica, Berlin-Boston, 2017.

Éditeur : De Gruyter
Collection : Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum
viii, 237 pages
ISBN : 978-3-11-047146-5
99,95 €

This is the first critical edition of all six books of Augustine's De musica. Originally meant as part of a series of treatises on the liberal arts, it is especially important because of its presentation of metrics. Book six offers a theological discussion of perception based on the concept of numerus ("rhythm"). Thus, De musica is a fascinating document of Augustine's intellectual development from secular learning to Christian philosophy.

Source : De Gruyter

Robert Babcock, The 'Psychomachia' Codex from St. Lawrence (Bruxellensis 10066-77) and the Schools of Liège in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries, Turnhout, 2017.

Éditeur : Brepols
Collection : Bibliologia (BIB 42)
328 pages
ISBN : 978-2-503-56871-3
75 €

This monograph focuses on Brussels, Royal Library, MS 10066-77, a tenth-century volume comprised of illustrated copies of Prudentius' Psychomachia and the bestiary known as the Physiologus, to which tenth- and eleventh-century readers added a dozen short school texts. Largely for its illustrations, the manuscript has been considered a monument of Ottonian illumination and one of the principal treasures of the Royal Library in Brussels. The allure of its illustrated texts resulted in inadequate attention to the minor additions to the volume. This study reveals that these have a coherent origin (in Liège) and purpose (the study and teaching of allegory); and that they provide detailed evidence for teaching in the Liège schools of the period. Among the additions are philosophical, mathematical, prosodiacal, and lexical works. These can be specifically related to the studies of Liège writers of the tenth and eleventh centuries, and evidence is presented showing that some of these writers demonstrably used this very manuscript. A Latin glossary is among the most interesting additions, as it preserves a record of a local Latin vocabulary used by Liège writers of the period. The monograph concludes with a survey of tenth- and eleventh-century writers from Liège, and what ancient texts they knew. A comparison of their common reading culture, supplemented by evidence from surviving manuscripts and from medieval booklists, allows a fuller picture of the texts that were known and taught in the Liège schools at the time, and provides a new basis for assessing the teaching in these schools.

Jussi Rantala, The Ludi Saeculares of Septimius Severus: The Ideologies of a New Roman Empire, Londres, 2017.

Éditeur : Routledge
220 pages
ISBN : 9781138290143
95 £

This is the first monograph to examine in detail the Ludi Saeculares (Secular Games) of Septimius Severus and argues that the games represented a radical shift from Antonine imperial ideology. To garner popular support and to legitimise his power, Severus conducted an intensive propaganda campaign, but how did he use the ludi to strengthen his power, and what were the messages he conveyed through them? The central theme is ritual, and the idea of ritual as a process that builds collective identity. The games symbolised the new Severan political and social vision and they embodied the idea of Roman identity and the image of Roman society which the emperor wished to promote. The programme of the games was recorded in a stone inscription and this text is analysed in detail, translated into English and contextualised in the socio-political aims of Septimius Severus.