Seeking out rare and precious texts, or book hunting, was a favorite pursuit of the Renaissance humanists, but the activity had been practiced with enthusiasm (and often guile) since antiquity. This paper discusses the phenomenon over time, looking at representative book hunters from Aulus Gellius (second century CE) to Poggio Bracciolini (1380-1459), who was probably the most famous book hunter of them all. I will consider the discoveries of Catullus, Cicero’s Letters to Atticus, and Apuleius as well as several of the most famous finds of Poggio himself, emhasizing in each case the circumstances and method of discovery, the importance of the find, and the fate of the discovered book. The paper will close with a brief epilogue on some modern book hunters.
Bryn Mawr College, United States
Chapter Title
Poggio and Other Book Hunters
Authors
Julia Haig Gaisser
Language
English
DOI
10.36253/978-88-6453-968-3.13
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2020
Copyright Information
© 2020 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Book Title
Poggio Bracciolini and the Re(dis)covery of Antiquity: Textual and Material Traditions
Book Subtitle
Proceedings of the Symposium Held at Bryn Mawr College on April 8-9, 2016
Editors
Roberta Ricci
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
220
Publication Year
2020
Copyright Information
© 2020 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/978-88-6453-968-3
ISBN Print
978-88-6453-967-6
eISBN (pdf)
978-88-6453-968-3
Series Title
Atti
Series ISSN
2239-3307
Series E-ISSN
2704-6230