BAC 102

Walter Charleton’s The Ephesian Matron / Matrona Ephesia.
Contextual studies, bilingual edition and commentary

Nina Tomaszewski

Retold by Walter Charleton (1620-1707) in The Ephesian Matron, the story of the widow of Ephesus – a well-travelled lady by that time – became the starting point for digressions on the subject of love. In an intriguing mix of fiction and philosophy, Charleton used the ancient story to comment on a contemporary social phenomenon (the fashionable ideal of Platonic love) and contributed to the seventeenth-century debate about the passions.

This book attempts to shed light on the at times ambiguous text by studying its various (philosophical, literary, historical and philological) contexts. Particularly the Latin translation (Matrona Ephesia, 1665) is analysed as a so-far entirely neglected context that may e.g. offer insights into the reception of the story but that is also philologically interesting in its own right.

Additionally, this book offers the first bilingual edition of Charleton’s The Ephesian Matron and its Latin translation Matrona Ephesia, as well as the first comprehensive commentary.

ISBN 978-3-86821-748-3, 643 S., kt., Euro 65,- 2018

https://www.wvttrier.de/p/walter-charleton-s-the-ephesian-matron-matrona-ephesia