Properzio : Elegie Libro II: Introduzione, testo e commento

The Augustan elegiac poet Sextus Propertius composed four books of elegies; erotic, political, and personal, in the first two decades of the reign of the emperor Augustus.

Propertius unique combination of passionate commitment to love and life with profound Hellenistic learning and wit has endowed his elegies with a vividness and variety which still fascinates after two thousand years.

Of the four books of Propertius, Book 2 has always presented the most impenetrable, difficulties of text and interpretation.

Paolo Fedelis major commentary on the book, written in lucid and elegant Italian, brings to bear on it the learning and judgement acquired in a lifetime of engagement with and experience of the work of Propertius.

Its thorough and detailed treatments of the elegies of Book 2 will greatly improve the accessibility of these complex and tantalising poems to both scholars and students.

Translation and Commentary in Italian