ABSTRACT
Turning from cultural to literary context, the Heroides lends thematic coherence to a lyric collection that otherwise seems random and scattered. Ovid's work takes the form of fictional epistolary poems in elegiac couplets written from the point of view of 15 mythological women famously mistreated by their heroic lovers. Several adopt a moralizing, or ironically moralizing, tone echoing the negative emotions expressed by the women in the Heroides and emphasizing the evils of perfidy. The conceptual frame of Ovid's Heroides in vernacular translation, as we have seen, anchors this manuscript to middle-class Florentine culture, as does its inelegant physical form. The Florence 61 and Magliabechiano 1040 are codicologically and paleographically complex. This chapter talks about the collection of lyric poetry copied at the end of Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, II.II.61 flaunts its individuality through its arresting appearance. It explains the historical record that preserves information regarding Amelio Bonaguisi's life and family beyond what can be gleaned from Florence 61 itself.
