William Morris' Synthetic Aeneids: Virgil as Physical Object
J. Allan Mitchell
William Morris' Aeneid translation of 1875 (The Aeneids Virgil) is today criticized for its archaism and anachronism; it ought rather to be read as a deliberate layering historical periods in the reception Roman epic. This strategy paralleled other project early 1870s, an original illuminated vellum codex poem Latin, which also telescopes trajectory source text by styles details. should understood similarly ambitious, if more democratic, attempt create ‘cumulative’ Aeneid.
Translation and Literature