It doesn’t pay to sing about the poor! Literary patronage in the Middle Ages is as old as poetry itself. The aristocratic context guaranteed a rich intellectual focus, whether we consider the poetry of praise or blame, and whether fulsome or just simple. Authorized compositions
offered to a patron implied a hope for favorable compensation, and with his (or her) audience assured, the ceremonial promotion of the kingdom by the poet brought glory to the sponsor. Following a benefactor’s tastes within a cultural climate of liberality and magnanimity might bring
unimaginable rewards to a court poet. A quick example from the life of Fortunatus: the renowned Gregory of Tours rewarded the poet with gifts, such as an estate on the Vienne River.
RALPH HEXTER, LAURA PFUNTNER, JUSTIN HAYNES, Appendix Ovidiana. Latin Poems Ascribed to Ovid in the Middle Ages, Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 62, Cambridge, MA-London: Harvard University Press, 2020, 544 pp., 31.50€, ISBN 978-0-674-23838-1
