"As Mind to the Body": Prudence and Artificial Memory in the Illustrations and Commentary of George Sandys' Ovid's Metamorphosis Englished (1632)

This thesis is an analysis of an English verse translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, published in 1632 by the Englishman George Sandys. This book included a full English commentary and was illustrated by several full-plate engravings. This study examines the edition's elaborate utilization of the rhetorical practices of artificial memory and related concepts of rhetorical invention. It demonstrates that these rhetorical practices were chosen and implemented for their inherent structural appropriateness for the cultivation of prudence, or practical wisdom. It reveals that the lessons in practical wisdom encoded in the work through the techniques of artificial memory were particularly aimed at political issues and the concerns of rulers. From the work's preoccupation with prudence as appropriate for a ruler, and from the dedication and prefatory texts, it becomes clear that it was intended to provide a means of counsel, or advice, to the King Charles I in an elaborate poetic format.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Year dc:date.available

2013

Author dc:creator

• Hellman, James

Contributors dc:contributor

• Joshua Eckhardt

• artificial memory
• Counsel
• George Sandys
• Metamorphoses
• Ovid
• Arts and Humanities
• English Language and Literature

Statement dc:rights

• © The Author

Identifier

https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/506

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-1505