Ancient letter collections possess clear autobiographical elements and potential, since their constituent letters regularly contain fragments of the author’s life story. But it is not clear that autobiographical narration was the primary purpose of ancient letter collections. This was a situation of some frustration to early modern editors of ancient letter collections, who regularly supposed that the primary function or use of letters was in fact to tell the author’s life story. In the first centuries of print, editors undertook a programme of re-arrangement of ancient letters designed either to intensify the autobiographical elements of letter sequences or – through chronological re-arrangement – to put letters in the sequence of the author’s life.
Durham University, United Kingdom - ORCID: 0000-0001-8737-7481
Chapter Title
Autobiographical Elements in Printed Editions of Late Antique Latin Letter Collections
Authors
Roy K. Gibson
Language
English
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0676-1.04
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2025
Copyright Information
© 2025 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Book Title
In aula ingenti memoriae meae. Forme di autobiografia nella letteratura tardolatina
Book Subtitle
Atti dell’International Workshop - Siena, 13 e 14 giugno 2024
Editors
Filomena Giannotti, Daniele Di Rienzo
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
240
Publication Year
2025
Copyright Information
© 2025 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press, USiena Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0676-1
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0675-4
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0676-1
eISBN (epub)
979-12-215-0677-8
Series Title
Studi di Antichistica