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In the first book on intertextuality in Pliny the Younger, Professor Marchesi invites a new reading of Pliny's collection of private epistles: the letters are examined as the product of an authorial strategy controlling both the rhetorical fabric of individual units and their arrangement in the collection. By inserting recognisable fragments of canonical authors into his epistles, Pliny imports into the still fluid practice of letter-writing the principles of composition and organisation that for his contemporaries characterised other writings as literature. Allusions become the occasion for a metapoetic dialogue, especially with the collection's privileged addressee, Tacitus. An active participant in the cultural politics of his time, Pliny entrusts to the letters his views on poetry, oratory and historiography. In defining a model of epistolography alternative to Cicero's and complementing those of Horace, Ovid and Seneca, he also successfully carves a niche for his work in the Roman literary canon. ... Read more

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"Excerpt from the book..."

Some slight memoir and critical estimate of the author of this
collection of Letters may perhaps be acceptable to those who are
unfamiliar with the circumstances of the times in which he lived.
Moreover, few have studied the Letters themselves without feeling a warm
affection for the writer of them
... Read more

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Harvard Classics, Vol. 9, Part 4

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The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars.
Western literary study flows out of eighteenth-century works by Alexander Pope, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Frances Burney, Denis Diderot, Johann Gottfried Herder, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and others. Experience the birth of the modern novel, or compare the development of language using dictionaries and grammar discourses.
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The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification:
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Bodleian Library (Oxford)

N007318

Pagination is continuous.

Edinburgh : printed by A. Donaldson and J. Reid. For Alex. Donaldson, 1762. 2v.(vi,473,[1]p.) ; 12° ... Read more

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Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo (61/63 - ca. 113), better known as Pliny the Younger, was a lawyer, author, and natural philosopher of Ancient Rome. Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, helped raise and educate him and they were both witnesses to the eruption of Vesuvius on August 24th, 79 AD.
... Read more

Product Description
The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars.
Western literary study flows out of eighteenth-century works by Alexander Pope, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Frances Burney, Denis Diderot, Johann Gottfried Herder, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and others. Experience the birth of the modern novel, or compare the development of language using dictionaries and grammar discourses.
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The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification:
++++
Bodleian Library (Oxford)

N007318

Pagination is continuous.

Edinburgh : printed by A. Donaldson and J. Reid. For Alex. Donaldson, 1762. 2v.(vi,473,[1]p.) ; 12° ... Read more

Product Description
A haunted house is defined as a house that is believed to be a center for supernatural occurrences or paranormal phenomena. A haunted house may allegedly contain ghosts, poltergeists, or even malevolent entities such as demons. Haunted houses are often seen as being inhabited by spirits of deceased who may have been former residents or were familiar with the property. Supernatural activity inside homes is said to be mainly associated with violent or tragic events in the building's past such as murder, accidental death, or suicide?sometimes in the recent or ancient past. Among many cultures and religions it is believed that the essence of a being such as the 'soul' continues to exist. Some philosophical and religious views argue that the 'spirits' of those who have died have not 'passed over' and are trapped inside the property where their memories and energy are strong. Entities which are said to 'haunt' homes are often believed to make noises, appear as apparitions, and shift or launch physical objects. This is sometimes manifested into 'poltergeist activity', poltergeist meaning 'noisy spirit'. ... Read more

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During a Fulbright year (1993-94) in Turkey, I discovered these letters while working in the library of the Christian shrine, Meryamana Evi, located in the mountains above the ruins of Ephesus.Written in Latin and Greek on vellum and papyrus, they were apparently composed by a Roman matron named Calpurnia to her husband, Gaius Plinius, whom she also addresses as Caecilius and Lucius. According to tradition, the shrine of Meryamana Evi is the ancient heart of the Johannine Community whose members composed the Gospel of St. John; it is recognized by Roman Catholics as the location of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven. I found the manuscript among a jumble of archaeological documents, votives left by cured pilgrims, and religious relics donated for decades by Christian and Muslim visitors from all over the world.I traced the manuscript to an ancient papyrus dump discovered by Grenfel and Hunt in the 1890's near 'Behneseh' at Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, 300 kilometers south of Alexandria.During the last decade, I have been trying to authenticate my discovery.My attempts were complicated by tragic circumstances of the 1999 earthquake in northwestern Turkey that resulted in the disappearance of the original manuscript; to protect it, I have copyrighted my translation under the title Letters from Calpurnia, Pliny's Wife.This collection, with the letters organized into eight books and an epilogue, is as sequential as I have been able to determine. The selected, annotated bibliography reflects sources I have used in my research.Links to the bibliographic sources may be found on the website indicated in the bibliography.I am currently compiling additional letters for a second volume, with commentary by my friend and colleague, Dr. Arthur Saunier. Apparently, Calpurnia wrote most of the letters* I include here to her husband Pliny the Younger, from Ephesus between 111-113 A.D. while he was Emperor Trajan's legatus in Bithynia, a Roman province in what is now northwestern Turkey.It was from there that Pliny wrote his famous letter to Trajan about the behavior and fate of local Christians.Having studied the letters of Calpurnia side by side with her husband's published letters, I now read Pliny's epistle to Trajan as a frantic plea, couched in legitimate Roman terms, for the safety of innocent members of the new Christian cult, which included his wife. In her letters, Calpurnia tells Gaius about her fascination with this new religious cult, whose god she feels holds the best hope of curing the infertility she has suffered since a miscarriage during the first year of their marriage.

It appears that Gaius, in an effort to distract Calpurnia from this risky mission and to keep her mind occupied, asks his wife to send him mundane information like recipes and remedies (which I would caution against trying), notations and lyrics for the music she composes on the kithyra, and her opinions about Roman religion and politics. Gaius also arranges to send her manuscripts from the extensive library of his Uncle Pliny the Elder, together with those he discovers in a network of libraries during his travels throughout the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, telling her to translate parts of them from the original into either Latin or Greek.Calpurnia obediently sends Gaius her translated summaries of bits and pieces of works as diverse as Asclepius's Treatice on Dreams and Soranus's Gynecology.She explains her midwife experience with Soranus, whom she has met at Ephesus, and describes the snake treatment she takes for her infertility at the Asclepion center of healing at Pergamum.Included in her letters are prescriptions for anthrax and other diseases.She also expresses anxiety about the behavior of her young artist protégé, the genius Stephanos (whose artist ancestor, Stephanus, is mentioned in Book XXXVI of Pliny the Elder's Natural History), and worries about what to do with the blood-stained Shrou ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Channeling Calpurnia
What an unusual, fascinating book!Letters from Calpurnia, Pliny's Wife A.D. 111-113 brings to life not only a particular period in the years following the crucifixion of Jesus Christ but also a particular woman whose life is impacted by his followers.Mixing scholarship and speculation, Judith Harrington serves up food for thought about parallels to modern times, the historicity of the gospels, the meaning of words, and the role of women.

Calpurnia is the perfect medium for such a literary endeavor.Historically the third wife of ancient Roman lawyer/senator Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus-- that "Pliny the Younger" we read about in world history -- she has been somewhat of a cipher, referenced only in a few of Pliny's extant letters.But Harrington invests her thirty-something protagonist with so many winsome qualities that it's easy to understand why he wrote, "I read your letters over and over as though seeing you with each reading - which only rekindles my desire."In addition to prodigious verbal skills, Calpurnia expresses a lively curiosity, sly humor, healthy libido, astute powers of observation, and multiple intelligences.She discourses on recipes, etiquette, astronomy, astrology, medicine, architecture, fertility, literature, philosophy, etymology, history, geology, psychology, anthropology, sociology, sports, engineering, mythology, and herbology.This bright and articulate character doesn't take long to win credibility as our guide to the early second century CE, and it's fun to read her discoveries.Whoever knew that a poultice of human gall-bladder was a remedy for cataracts?

What's more, Calpurnia is a very nice person.She extends herself on behalf of Stephanos, a young artist; ministers compassionately to women in childbirth; and intercedes tearfully with her husband on behalf the fledgling Christians in the Johannine community she has met.Harrington writes that the lives of Pliny and Calpurnia "bear witness to the strength, commitment, and compassion that prevailed as alternatives to the power, excess, and cruelty prevalent in the Roman Empire" in their time, and we believe her.

Letters from Calpurnia is not beach reading, nor will it make the required reading list at any seminaries.Helpfully, an appendix supplies maps, timelines, and conversion tables to translate Roman sundial time into clock hours; however, casual readers might find family trees conspicuous by their absence.And like The Da Vinci Code, this book presents some fascinating - if unorthodox - takes on what relics survived from the Christ's life and who was who within his inner circle.If you're intrigued by lore about the Shroud, or if you've always wondered why the Book of John speaks so cryptically about "the disciple whom Jesus loved," this is your book.

Harrington says she's at work on a prequel to this volume.I can't wait!

... Read more

Product Description
Some slight memoir and critical estimate of the author of this
collection of Letters may perhaps be acceptable to those who are
unfamiliar with the circumstances of the times in which he lived.
Moreover, few have studied the Letters themselves without feeling a warm
affection for the writer of them.He discloses his character therein so
completely, and, in spite of his glaring fault of vanity and his endless
love of adulation, that character is in the main so charming, that one
can easily understand the high esteem in which Pliny was held by the
wide circle of his friends, by the Emperor Trajan, and by the public at
large.The correspondence of Pliny the Younger depicts for us the
everyday life of a Roman gentleman in the best sense of the term.We
see him practising at the Bar; we see him engaged in the civil
magistracies at Rome, and in the governorship of the important province
of Bithynia; we see him consulted by the Emperor on affairs of state,
and occupying a definite place among the "Amici Caesaris."Best of all,
perhaps, we see him in his daily life, a devoted scholar, never so happy
as when he is in his study, laboriously seeking to perfect his style,
whether in verse or prose, by the models of the great writers of the
past and the criticisms of the friends whom he has summoned, in a
friendly way, to hear his compositions read or recited.Or again we
find him at one of his country villas, enjoying a well-earned leisure
after the courts have risen at Rome and all the best society has betaken
itself into the country to escape the heats and fevers of the capital.
We see him managing his estates, listening to the complaints of his
tenants, making abatements of rent, and grumbling at the agricultural
depression and the havoc that the bad seasons have made with his crops.
Or he spends a day in the open air hunting, yet never omits to take with
... Read more

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Mark Antony, Pliny the Younger, Fabius Maximus, Sextus Julius Frontinus, Publius Licinius Crassus, Appius Claudius Pulcher, Spurius Postumius Albinus, Gnaeus Julius Verus, Attus Navius. Excerpt:Appius Claudius Pulcher (Latin : APP CLAVDIVS APP F APP N PVLCHER) was a Roman politician of the 2nd century BC. Life Son of Gaius Claudius Pulcher (who was consul in 177), he was appointed consul in 143 BC, and, to obtain a pretext for a triumph , attacked the Salassi, an Alpine tribe. He was at first defeated, but afterwards, following the directions of the Sibylline Books , gained a victory. On his return the celebration of the triumph was refused; but he triumphed at his own expense, and when one of the tribunes attempted to drag him from his car, his daughter Claudia, one of the Vestal Virgins , walked by his side up to the capital. Next year he was an unsuccessful candidate for the censorship, though he afterwards held that office with Quintus Fulvius Nobilior , probably in 136 BC. He allied with Tiberius Gracchus who married his daughter Claudia. Appius backed Tiberius' land reform bill and in 133 BC with Tiberius and Tiberius' brother, Gaius Gracchus , was chosen commissioner for the division of the lands. Their post allowed them to survey the ager publicus , publicly owned land that Tiberius wanted to distribute among veterans of the Punic War. Another faction in the Senate opposed them and Tiberius was assassinated in 132 BC. Appius lived at enmity with Publius Scipio Aemilianus . He died shortly after Tiberius Gracchus, probably in 130 BC. He was one of the Salii , an augur , and princeps senatus . Cicero, says, that his style of speaking was fluent and vehement. He married Antistia. Notes References (URLs online) This entry incorporates public domain text originally from: Po... ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars.
Western literary study flows out of eighteenth-century works by Alexander Pope, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Frances Burney, Denis Diderot, Johann Gottfried Herder, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and others. Experience the birth of the modern novel, or compare the development of language using dictionaries and grammar discourses.
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The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification:
++++
Trinity College Library Watkinson Collection

T132379



Dublin : printed by George Faulkner, 1751. 2v. : ill. ; 8° ... Read more

Product Description
Volume: 1General Books publication date: 2009Original publication date: 1751Original Publisher: Printed by J. Bettenham for P. VaillantSubjects: RomeAuthors, LatinLatin lettersHistory / Ancient / GeneralHistory / Ancient / RomeLiterary Collections / LettersLiterary Criticism / Ancient ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more