Ars Amatoria (Art of Love)

Ovid's Ars Amatoria, a Latin didactic poem in three books from the end of the first century BCE, instructs readers in the pursuit and management of love affairs in Augustan Rome. The first two books advise men on where to find women in theatres, at the races, and in the porticoes, how to court them, and how to keep them; the third book turns to women and their own tactics of dress, letter, and delay. Mythic examples sit beside city streets. The tone is urbane and ironic: love is treated as a craft with rules and rooms. It is a mock-handbook, not a romance about one couple.

Quarter bound in black leather with gilt spine title, brown cloth covers. Endpapers printed in dark brown with a pattern. Grey card slipcase.