The Moralized Ovid

Written in about 1340 in Avignon by the Benedictine preacher Pierre Bersuire, —commonly referred to by its Latin title, , to distinguish it from the anonymous French vernacular —was arguably the most influential interpretation of Ovid’s in the High Middle Ages. It circulated widely in manuscript form and was frequently printed during the Renaissance. Originally intended as a sourcebook of exempla for preachers’ sermons, provides not only a window into the reception of classical literature in the fourteenth century but also amazingly vivid details of daily life in the Middle Ages across all strata of society. The work begins with a detailed description of the Greco-Roman gods, inspired in part by Bersuire’s friend and fellow proponent of classical poetry, Francesco Petrarch. It then retells selected major myths from Ovid’s , each followed by numerous allegorical interpretations that draw from biblical stories, contemporary events, and the natural world. This edition presents the first full English translation alongside an authoritative Latin text.