Richard Hunter - Plutarch: How to Study Poetry (De Audiendis Poetis)

Plutarch's How to study poetry opens a window on to many aspects of reading practice in the Graeco-Roman world; we hope that this edition will not only make this work better known and more accessible, but that it will also encourage modern readers to reflect upon the presuppositions which they themselves bring to their reading, and upon the history of those presuppositions.

The origins of this edition are as follows. For several years DR had intended to produce an edition and had prepared a draft commentary, but felt unable to complete the task. RH has taken over and expanded the whole. DR's notes have either been simply reproduced or subsumed into new discussions; except on a couple of occasions or when textual suggestions are involved, no attempt is made to distinguish between the contributions of the two editors. Most of the Introduction is the work of RH. In keeping with the style of Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics , we have also tried to foreground our understanding of what the text means, rather than the names of earlier scholars who have helped or hindered its exegesis; an important debt, however, to the edition of Ernesto Valgiglio (Turin 1973) should be recorded.

Particular thanks are due to Andrew Dyck, Pat Easterling, Doreen Innes and David Sedley. Michael Sharp and Elizabeth Hanlon of Cambridge University Press have been supportive and imaginative as ever.