Jennifer Ferriss-Hill - Horaces Ars Poetica

1. ix
2. xi

Nonumque prematur in annum / membranis intus positis

( AP 38889)

WHILE THESE lines from the Ars Poetica might well be used to preface any work, in particular one devoted wholly to the poem, they are particularly apt in the present case since I almost wrote my PhD dissertation on the Ars Poetica. The problem, however, was that I had not quite figured out what to say about the work, though I found it intriguing. It took writing my dissertation and first book on Old Comedy and Roman Satire (Roman Satire and the Old Comic Tradition, Cambridge University Press, 2015) for the arguments and readings presented here to begin to coalesce. The present project has accordingly undergone a long gestationone that exceeds even Horaces recommended nine years. Throughout these years I have been fortunate to enjoy the support and wise counsel of many friends and colleagues who have variously attended talks, corresponded by email, offered their expertise (especially on the reception of the Ars Poetica in later periods), recommended further readings and avenues of exploration, and graciously read portions of the manuscript: Jafari Allen, David Armstrong, Jaswinder Bolina, Ava Brillat, Anne Cruz, Caleb Dance, Mike Fontaine, Ernesto Fundora, Aaron Kachuck, Rebecca Katz, John Kirby, Jeanne Neumann, Sarah Nooter, Bijan Omrani, Frank Palmeri, John Paul Russo, Wilson Shearin, Mihoko Suzuki, Hugh Thomas, Richard Thomas, Han Tran, and Robyn Walsh. To all these and more I owe an inexpressibly huge debt of gratitude. It goes without saying that any remaining errors are entirely my own responsibility.

I am also grateful to Joshua Katz for encouraging me to pursue publication with Princeton University Press, where I was fortunate to work with Jessica Yao and Rob Tempio. Jessica was a model editor, encouraging and involved in every detail from the start while also seeing the book through two rigorous rounds of review; Rob Tempio expertly shepherded the book through to completion, with Matt Rohal and Debbie Tegarden. The anonymous readers selected by the press were exceptionally helpful, and this book would be far weaker were it not for their suggestions. I have conveyed my thanks to them several times already and am pleased to be able to do so here again. I could not have hoped for a better editorial team and process.

This project has been generously funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities through a summer stipend, and by the University of Miami in the form of two Provost Research Awards, a sabbatical leave, and a semester of associate professor post-tenure teaching release. I am also grateful to all in attendance on those occasions at which I presented portions of the project: several meetings of both the Classical Association of the Middle-West and South and the Antiquities Interdisciplinary Research Group convened at the Center for the Humanities at the University of Miami.

Finally, to my family: thank you for indulging me once again as I wrote another book; I hope that I have gotten at least a little better at doing it without causing undue disruption to everyone around me.