Exemplary Reading ─ Printed Renaissance Commentaries on Valerius Maximus 1470-1600

This monograph sheds new light on the Renaissance reception of Valerius Maximus, whose collection of Memorable Deeds and Sayings - nowadays little studied - was once considered "the most important book next to the Bible". Offering a close study of all the Latin commentaries on Valerius Maximus printed between 1470 and 1600, the present volume explores how his exempla were read in different times and places and in different intellectual milieus, while also enhancing our general understanding of humanist commentary - which is now, more than ever, a thriving subject of research. Marijke Crab is a postdoctoral research fellow of the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO Vlaanderen) and a member of the Seminarium Philologiae Humanisticae at KU Leuven.