Patrimonio universitario: las ediciones ilustradas de las obras de Ovidio en la Biblioteca Xeral de la Universidade de Santiago de Compostela

Abstract

When the Biblioteca Digital Ovidiana conducted a search of Spanish libraries for Ovid’s illustrated works, it revealed the presence of a sizeable corpus of books dating the 15th to 18th centuries in the Historical Collection of the University of Santiago de Compostela’s General Library. From the first incunabula to the philological edition that features the image as information and the finest illustrated translations of the mythological poem, which saw the light of day in the 16th century –when the Metamorphoses was widely published– the library contains a selection of copies of the illustrated editions of the Roman poet’s work, one that provides an outstanding example of the heritage held in Galicia’s universities. This article seeks to analyze this Ovidian corpus by presenting a set of old editions whose illustrations have been invariably overlooked.