Publius Ovidius Naso, De Medicamine Faciei Feminae

EDITION DETAILS

Author:
Title:
Literary form:
Edition:
Language:
Illustrations:
Illustration technique:
Paper:
Binding:
Publisher and bookbinder: Kurtiak & Ley Publishers and Bookbinders
Polish–Latin Edition
Limited to 360 copies
30 on Egyptian papyrus · 330 on handmade paper

Enquire about availability

Description
Reviews (0)

Among the rare literary survivals of classical antiquity, De Medicamine Faciei Feminae
occupies a singular place. Barely more than one hundred lines of Ovid's original poem have
endured, preserved through the care of medieval scribes. Such a work called not merely for
publication, but for a form worthy of its origin.
Composed in the first century CE, the poem naturally belonged to the world of the scroll
rather than the codex. Its return to this ancient form became the guiding principle of the
edition.
The proportions of the scroll, the sequence of the text, the placement of the illustrations, and
the rhythm of the composition were all conceived in accordance with the traditions of the
classical book. Ancient descriptions of papyrus, surviving archaeological evidence, and
museum collections informed the work, allowing the publication to recover something of the
material language in which such a text would once have been encountered.
Rather than recreating an archaeological object, the edition seeks to restore the intellectual
and aesthetic coherence of the ancient book. The scroll becomes not an historical curiosity,
but the natural home of Ovid's surviving poem.
Published in Polish alongside the original Latin, the edition is limited to 360 copies, including
30 produced on Egyptian papyrus and 330 on handmade paper.