Christian Guerra teaches Latin at the University of Bern and Italian at the Gymnasium Muttenz, Switzerland.Markus Kersten is a Professor in Classics at the Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany.Ann-Kathrin Stähle teaches Latin and Greek at the Gymnasium Liestal, Switzerland.

• List of ContributorsPrefaceAcknowledgementsList of AbbreviationsA ParatextIntroduction. Stumbling at the Entrance: Late Antique Paratexts between Discursive Enrichment and Interpretive Challenge (Markus Kersten, University of Basel, Switzerland)The Framework of a Tradition: Paratexts from Ausonius to SidoniusChapter 1. Everyone’s a Critic: Ausonius on His Coterie and Its Etiquette (Brian Sowers, Brooklyn College, USA)Chapter 2. Ausonius' Commentary on His Own Work (Étienne Wolff, Paris Nanterre University, France)Chapter 3. Legere or tegere? Reflections on a ‘Key Question’ for the Late Antique Author and his Readers (Luciana Furbetta, University of Trieste, Italy)Chapter 4. Poetics of Conclusion in Sidonius' Letters (Books 7-9, Epist. 9. 12-16) (Annick Stoehr-Monjou, Clermont-Ferrand University, France)Core Issues: Repetition, Revision and CollectionChapter 5. Revising Rewriting: Eudocia, the Cento, and Distributed Authorship (Scott McGill, Rice University, USA)Chapter 6. Quoting Quotations: Multi-layer Intertextuality in Late Antique Poetry (Claudia Schindler, University of Hamburg, Germany)Chapter 7. The Disparaging Assessments, Topical Modesty, and ‘Awkward’ Intertextuality of the Fables of Avianus (Christopher Poms, Graz University, Austria)Chapter 8. Claudian’s carmina minora: A Collection of Short Pieces by a Stumbling Poet? (Adrien Bresson, University of Lyon, France)The Tradition of Framework: Paratexts in Venantius Fortunatus and BeyondChapter 9. Venantius Fortunatus’s vecors otium in His Letter to Bishop Syagrius (Enno Friedrich, Graz University, Austria)Chapter 10. De modicis minimus: Venantius Fortunatus and the Value of His Life of Saint Martin (Elena Castelnuovo, University of Milan, Italy)Chapter 11. The Politics of Rusticitas in Late Antique Hagiography (Raphael Schwitter, University of Zürich, Switzerland)Chapter 12. The Legacy of Late Antique Paratexts in Early Modern Literature (Christian Guerra, University of Basel, Switzerland)NotesBibliographyIndex

The papers assembled here advance scholarship on many aspects of the paratexts that survive around the poetry of Late Antiquity, as these contributions show that professions of simplicity and rusticity continue to trip up modern readers who are all too ready to ignore the contributions of Late Antiquity.