A New Work by Apuleius: The Lost Third Book of the De Platone: Edited and Translated with an Introduction and Commentary by

by Justin A. Stover

Overview

A New Work by Apuleius presents what may be the first lengthy Latin text from antiquity to be published in almost a century. Marshalling evidence from the text, intertextual relationships, stylistics, stemmatics, codicology, and philosophy, it lays out a compelling case for attributing this work—a summary of 14 of Plato's dialogues—to the second-century polymath Apuleius, author of the Apology, the Florida, the Metamorphoses, and the De Platone, an introduction to Plato for Latin readers.

First discovered by Raymond Klibansky, the text is transmitted in one important, but neglected, manuscript of Apuleius' philosophical works. In this volume, Stover reveals that this new work is in fact the lost third book of the De Platone, and provides the key to understanding Apuleius' use and interpretation of Plato. The volume demonstrates that the new work is one of the only extant examples of scholastic ephemera from antiquity, allowing us to see how Apuleius shaped his notes from reading Plato into an independent treatise. Situated between the Latin and Greek worlds as a Latin summary of a Greek text, the new work offers a fascinating insight into the practice of translation in the Latin world, the scholarly methods of antiquity, the development of Middle Platonism, and sheds new light on an under-appreciated facet of a celebrated author.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198735748
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/17/2016
Pages:	236
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Justin A. Stover is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at All Souls College, University of Oxford.

Table of Contents

1. IntroductionI. Manuscripts and TransmissionII. Genre, Doctrine, and DatingIII. By Apuleius? IV. The Exposito and the Apuleian CorpusV. Audience and PurposeVI. Apuleius as TranslatorVII. Edition, Translation, Commentary2. De Platonis pluribus libris compendiosa exposito: Text and Translation3. Commentary4. Appendix: Apuleius and al-Fārābī's Philosophy of Plato, Coleman ConnellyIndexes

Editorial Reviews

"Stover's book is a fundamental contribution to scholarship, especially inasmuch as it discovers a previously unknown interesting text, edits it with great philological skill, locates it within the Middle Platonist scenario, and in this way opens new frontiers for the already lively research of post-Hellenistic Platonist philosophy." — Federico M. Petrucci, GNOMON

"This brief and unassuming volume offers an admirable model for the exercise of textual criticism, translation, and philological commentary. It is a volume that holds potential interest for several audiences of classicist readers: those interested in ancient philosophy; those devoted to the second-century ce Latin prose master Apuleius; and those who might be intrigued by the publication of a "new" text of classical Latin ... those who peruse the pages of this editio princeps with either casual or more sustained attention will be rewarded with a rich, indeed lavish philological treatment that is at once learned, judicious, and inspiring. Both editor and press are to be commended for a fine addition to the Apuleian and Latin philosophical bibliography, a text and commentary that does more than fair justice to an obscure work that has defied the ravages of time." —Lee M. Fratantuono, Classical Journal Online

From the Publisher