# Plays by Terence [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [MINIATURIST, French]() - Date: 1401-1450 - Technique: Manuscript \(MS Arsenal 664\) ## Commentary This celebrated manuscript contains the plays by Terence. Classical Latin plays by Seneca, Plautus and Terence were read during the Middle Ages, but the tradition of performance was lost. The miniature from the frontispiece of the French manuscript shows how the Middle Ages imagined classical drama. Within an amphitheatre masked actors mime the action, while 'Calliopius' reads the script from a booth labeled 'scena'. The audience, 'Popolus Romanus' is at the back. In the foreground Terence is being presented with - or presenting - a book. ## Related artworks - [A History of Western Saints]() - [Antiphoner]() - [Aristotle: De Interpretazione]() - [Aristotle: Works]() - [Augustinus Hipponensis: Quaestiones et locutiones in Heptateuchum]() - [Augustinus Hipponensis: Quaestiones et locutiones in Heptateuchum]() - [Augustinus Hipponensis: Quaestiones et locutiones in Heptateuchum]() - [Beatus of Liébana: Commentary on the Apocalypse]() - [Belleville Breviary]() - [Bible Historiale]() - [Bible moralisée, part I.]() - [Bible moralisée, part I.]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()