Book Launch – Giustina Monti’s New Publication on the Letters of Alexander the Great

Dear All,

You are invited to the presentation of the book Alexander the Great. Letters: A Selection (Liverpool University Press, 2023), authored by Dr Giustina Monti (School of Humanities and Heritage).

Friday 24 November, 6pm – MB0302 (Cargill lecture theatre, Minerva Building)

In conversation with Dr Antonella Liuzzo Scorpo, the author – Dr Giustina Monti – will present the original contribution of her book, which is the first critical edition with an English translation and commentary of the most important letters of Alexander the Great.

At the end, there will be time for questions from the audience.

Refreshments available from 5.45 pm

The event is free, but please Click here to book:
https://forms.microsoft.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=xEculd4FgkKDr19LRrFij0jcUd0d3gxDgxKutK1z2VxUQ1RTNFo2NkRMWUtENzQ5WTNVODQxN002Ty4u

Synopsis:

This book offers the first critical edition with an English translation and commentary on some of the letters attributed to Alexander and transmitted by mainly Plutarch and Arrian. The vast majority of the texts examined here are constituted by Alexander’s ‘private’ letters, but the book also includes some letters regarded as official.
The book brings to wider attention a much-neglected corpus by employing an innovative approach. The traditional study of epistolography tends to focus on literary rather than historical aspects of the genre, whereas this book, by exploring the culture behind the action of writing at Alexander’s court and the diverse approaches in relation to the letters, suggests that different criteria and new ways of writing history, prompted by Eastern standards, were introduced at his court. Finally, the book discusses the provenance of the letters, especially who among the historians contemporary with Alexander knew and handed the letters down.

Story submitted by Antonella Liuzzo Scorpo
aliuzzoscorpo@lincoln.ac.uk