ABSTRACT
In this chapter I would like to explore a new piece of evidence that up to this point in time has remained overlooked. I will consider images of the mark A.V. in the manuscript known as F, Laurentianus 68.2, and will also explore the theoretical implications of this mark for our readings of the works of Apuleius contained in this manuscript: Apuleius’ Apology, Metamorphoses, and Florida. Inasmuch as this mark, as we shall see, provides evidence for an African origin of the Florida (if not necessarily its archetype), this little abbreviation, I believe, may have great implications for what must be one of the central questions facing Apuleian studies-namely, the discrepancy between provincialism and post-colonialism. The issue at stake here is, what should we take as the implied center of the discourse? A provincial approach would take Rome for granted as the center; such works in this category would be Ovid’s Tristia and Juvenal’s Satires, which, though written in the provinces, or by a provincial, take Rome as the putative center of readership. Post-colonialism, in contrast, posits as its implicit center of readership (and writing) the province itself.
