Terence's Comedies

Roman playwright Publius Terentius Afer, best known as Terence, was highly regarded in the second century BC for his six comedies, such as “Adelphoe,” which focused on child-rearing, and “Andria,” which contained messages about moderation and charity. Due to the fact that Terence’s plays often carried a moral lesson, they remained popular into the early modern period, and even Martin Luther suggested the plays be used for instruction in schools.

Among the treasures of the Bodleian Library is a mid-twelfth-century manuscript that illustrates all six of Terence’s comedies alongside explanatory notes. This DVD presents a complete facsimile of the entire manuscript and a new transcription specially prepared for this publication. Users can navigate easily through the plays and the accompanying illustrations of the complete facsimile. Users can also zoom in to the illustrations at the beginning of each scene, which are based on earlier Carolingian models that were themselves derived from Late Antique illustrations.

This interactive digital facsimile makes readily available to scholars and students of classical drama and early modern culture an extremely valuable teaching and research tool, as well as a facsimile of a beautiful and fascinating document of the High Middle Ages.