The Jeweled Style: Poetry and Poetics in Late Antiquity

by Michael Roberts

In The Jeweled Style, Michael Roberts offers a new approach to the Latin poetry of late antiquity, one centering on an aesthetic quality common to both the literature and the art of the period--the polychrome patterning of words and phrases or of colors and shapes. In Roberts's view, the writer or artist of this period works as a jeweler, carefully setting compositional units in a geometric framework, consistently demonstrating a preference for effects of patterning over realistic representation, and for a unity situated at a higher level than the literal, historical sequence of the narrative.

Roberts's introductory chapter is followed by an anthology of representative narrative and descriptive poetry from the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. Next, Roberts traces the use of "jewels" as a literary metaphor from the first century A.D. to late antiquity. He then compares the works of late antique literature to wall and floor mosaics, ivory diptychs, Christian sarcophagi, and contemporary styles of dress. Emphasizing that the poetry of this period is not uniform, he differentiates the main genres of Christian narrative poetry--biblical and hagiographical epic--from secular examples of the jeweled style, such as the poetry of Ausonius and Sidonius. Roberts concludes by examining the influence of late antique aesthetics on the medieval poetics of Matthew of Vend�me and Geoffrey of Vinsauf.

Elegantly written and augmented by twenty-three illustration, The Jeweled Style will be welcomed by many readers, including Latinists and other classicists, medievalists and Renaissance scholars specializing in literature, Byzantinists, and art historians.

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Michael Roberts is Robert Rich Professor of Latin at Wesleyan University.

Reviews

[Jared · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I should like to opt for generosity, to try to understand late antique poetry in its own terms. For, after all, such poets as Ausonius, Prudentius, Claudian, and Sidonius were admired, not only in their own day but also by readers of Latin literature for many centuries. Our understanding of late antique and medieval aesthetics has much to gain if we can find a more sympathetic way to read the poetry of late antiquity."

[Dana Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An modern academic classic that I finally read in the course of research on Paulinus of Nola's poetry. Was familiar with the basic thesis but I especially liked the long middle chapter comparing late antique poetic style with trends in visual art.