Producing Ovid's 'Metamorphoses' in the Early Modern Low Countries

Printers in the early modern Low Countries produced no fewer than 152 editions of Ovid's Metamorphoses. John Tholen investigates what these editions can tell us about the early modern application of the popular ancient text. Analysis of paratexts shows, for example, how editors and commentators guide readers to Ovid's potentially subversive contents. Paratextual infrastructures intended to create commercial credibility, but simultaneously were a response to criticism of reading the Metamorphoses. This book combines two often separated fields of research: book history and reception studies. It provides a compelling case study of how investigation into the material contexts of ancient texts sheds new light on early modern receptions of antiquity.