The Art of Love

1971

Special Collections PA6522 A8 1971

[Mount Vernon, N.Y.]: Printed for the Members of the Limited Editions Club [by A. Colish]

Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BC- c.17/18 AD), or Ovid, was a prolific poet extant in the time of Augustus, Rome’s first emperor. His Ars Amatoria or The Art of Love is essentially a ‘how-to’ for courtship and relationships, a Love 101 if you will. Books I and II offer advice to men on finding and keeping a female partner and Book III is aimed at women. Ovid used Greek myths and Roman life in general to advise on such topics as not forgetting your lover’s birthday, not asking her age, and the benefits of mutual sexual satisfaction – all advice still pertinent today. On display are Ovid’s thoughts on women eating and drinking in company – ‘Mind table-manners; eat with finger-tips/ Nor smear a greasy hand all o’er your lips’. A friend and contemporary of Horace, Ovid died in exile.