Nox philologiae

the long version

"In this strikingly original and playful work, Erik Gunderson examines questions of reading the past - an enterprise extending from antiquity to the present day. This esoteric and original study focuses on the equally singular work of Aulus Gellius - a Roman author and grammarian (ca. 120-180 A.D.), possibly of African origin. Gellius's only work, the twenty-volume Noctes Atticae, is an exploding, sometimes seemingly random text-cum-diary in which Gellius jotted down everything of interest he heard in conversation or read in contemporary books. Comprising notes on Roman and classical grammar, geometry, philosophy, and history it is a one-work overview of Latin scholarship, thought, and intellectual culture, a combination condensed library and cabinet of curiosities."--Jacket.