Astronomicon
Marcus Manilius
(Author)
A. E. Housman
(Editor)
Description
Both the author and the date of this five-volume poem, the first Western document to link the houses of the zodiac with the course of human affairs, are uncertain. The author's name may be Marcus Manilius, or Manlius, or Mallius, and the latest datable event mentioned in the books themselves is the disastrous defeat of Varus' Roman legions by the German tribes in 9 CE. The writing shows knowledge of the work of Lucretius, but the work is not referred to by any subsequent writer, suggesting that it was never widely disseminated. A manuscript was rediscovered by Poggio Bracciolini in 1416 or 1417, and editions were produced by Scaliger and Bentley, but this immensely erudite edition of 1903-1930 by the scholar and poet A. E. Housman (1859-1936) is regarded as authoritative. Volume 1 covers the creation and arrangement of the heavens and their division into spheres.
Product Details
Price
$39.09
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Publish Date
May 19, 2011
Pages
186
Dimensions
5.5 X 8.5 X 0.43 inches | 0.53 pounds
Language
Latin
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9781108040471
BISAC Categories:
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Born in 1859 in the village of Fockbury in Worcestershire, Alfred Edward Housman was the eldest of seven children. He was educated at Bromsgrove School and later read Classics at St. John's College, Oxford. His poem A Shropshire Lad was published in 1896. After a period as a Clerk in the Patent Office in London he returned to academia becoming Professor of Latin at Cambridge University. He died in 1936 and his ashes are interred in the shadow of the walls of St Laurence's church, Ludlow.