News, Events, CFPs, Jobs and Funding, Reading Groups
CfP: COMPARING REAL AND IMAGINED COMMUNITIES IN THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD
Reflecting functional mechanisms, pragmatic purposes, and moral values of politically organised communities was at the heart of numerous early modern literary genres. Whereas the large corpus of political philosophy and theory might come to mind first, there emerged also more functional sorts of texts, e.g. in the fields of political administration or diplomacy, and a large number of detailed descriptions.
When it comes to delineating the characteristics and organisational structure of political communities in detail, two genres stand out in the early modern period: On the one hand, state descriptions explore contemporary political and administrative systems. Early examples include Lodovico Guicciardini’s description of the Low Countries (1567) and William Camden’s Britannia (1586), but also collections such as Pierre d’Avity’s Les principautez (1613) or whole series such as the ‘Elzevirian Republics’ (1620s and 30s) and the ‘Rengerische Staaten’ (early 18th ct.). On the other hand, literary utopias design fictive communities as discursive counterparts. The most prominent example is certainly Thomas More’s Utopia, which reflects on the contemporary socio-political circumstances in England and, by extension, in Europe in the 16th century. In its aftermath, a number of aemulatores flooded the literary market with their utopian state constructions, some of which were not only meant to be morally edifying treatises, but were also read as guidelines for the construction of a ‘better world’ (e.g. Kaspar Stiblin’s Commentariolus de Eudaemonensium Republica, Johann Valentin Andreae’s Christianopolis or Francis Bacon’s Nova Atlantis). The Italian Dominican Tommaso Campanella (1568–1639) best exemplifies this intellectual trend of connecting the two genres in question: He published a description of the early modern Spanish empire (Monarchia di Spagna) as well as his utopian Città del Sole (Latin version: Civitas Solis, 1623). In the 17th and 18th century, utopian novels with increasingly sophisticated and multi-layered plot lines such as Jacob Bidermann’s Utopia (1640), Samuel Gott’s Nova Solyma (1648) or Ludvig Holberg’s Nicolai Klimii Iter Subterraneum (1741) made a further contribution to the field by addressing contemporary political institutions and societal circumstances often in a satirically inverted form. Due to the fact that early modern utopias frequently operate with intricate narratives, exaggerations and distortions of the contemporary reality, they are often placed in a different discourse than state descriptions, which are rooted in a concrete historical and political reality and are often designed in a purely descriptive way.
Despite this predilection for a narrative design (in the case of utopias) vis-a-vis a descriptive presentation of the contents (in the case of state descriptions), these two genres share many common features: Significantly, they served as objects for systematic comparisons between political communities in various debates and contexts. Practices of comparing were widely used and reflected. For instance, Pierre d’Avity viewed the purpose of state descriptions in enabling readers to compare the state they live in to others and draw conclusions about the quality of their life conditions. During the political consolidation of the Dutch provinces, Hugo Grotius paid tribute to their constitutional system by holding it against the background of ancient states in his Parallelon Rerumpublicarum. In a similar manner, Francesco Sansovino incorporated the second book of More’s Utopia in a series of real state descriptions in his Del governo de i regni e delle republiche cosi antiche come moderne libri XVIII (Venice, 1561). The Spanish bishop and judge Vasco de Quiroga evidently also read Thomas More’s Utopia as a blueprint for an ideal society as he took this treatise as a model to organise the so-called Republicas de los Indios, i.e. ‘hospital towns’ which he set up in the Mexican region Michoacán to restore the societal order after a period of civil unrest. Quiroga’s purpose was to imbue the indigenous population with Christian values and a pious lifestyle in imitation of More’s Utopians.
How do different kinds of formal organisation of knowledge stimulate, induce, and influence certain types of comparisons?
In what kind of debates did comparisons between political communities serve as arguments? How did such debates distinguish or equate ‘real’ and ‘imaginary’ models?
In what ways did specific descriptions shape conditions and theoretical conceptions ofcomparing in early modern times?
What aspects of the materiality of texts facilitated certain practices of comparing?
How do comparisons between political communities interact with early modernevolutions in the field of history and political theory?
In what ways were comparative approaches involved in practical political decisions anddebates? How did they contribute to legitimising or subverting attempts of nation-building?
In which early modern genres do comparisons between real and imagined communitiesprevail and what was their intended target audience?
We are looking forward to receiving contributions from researchers from all pertinent fields of early modern studies. The conference will take place in spring 2026 (presumably in Münster). We plan on publishing the proceedings in a collected volume after the conference. The language of contributions and discussions is English. The deadline for submissions is February 15th 2025.We are confident that the conference will be funded by external donors (travel expenses, accommodation). We are, however, unable to cover the costs of flights from overseas and ask participants from these countries to apply for appropriate funding.Please send an abstract of your contribution (ca. 250 words) and a preliminary title to both organisers, Lukas Reddemann (lukas.reddemann@uni-muenster.de) and Katharina-Maria Schön (katharina-maria.schoen@univie.ac.at).
CfP: RELICS: Roundtable on Gender in Latin Studies
Dear Colleagues,
In the past two years, the research group relics organised online roundtable discussions on the future of Latin studies and education. Excellent impulse talks and vivid discussions made the events a success, which is why we have decided to continue the effort. We continue to focus on topics which last years’ discussions highlighted as particularly relevant for the field. This year, we will look at women as authors of Latin literature from various points of view.
In recent years the study of women authors has grown in importance in Latin studies. This invites us to rethink the field’s boundaries and traditions. We seek perspectives on women, past and present, who used Latin to express themselves. Some view modern feminist theories as vital to the field, while others question their applicability. Does integrating today’s feminist and gender theories risk overlooking the unique contexts of historical texts? Another point of interest is the role of social class and other identity markers in shaping women’s representations. Questions of representation and canon formation remain at the heart of these debates: which texts are privileged, and how do we teach these texts? Finally, we seek input on regional variations in approaches to gender in Latin studies. How do perspectives from different countries interact, and is it possible to trace broader regional approaches shaped by distinct cultural and scholarly traditions? We invite scholars of all career stages to share their ideas on gender in Latin studies with us.
We plan to hold the event on 11 March 2025 over Zoom. The exact time will be decided on the basis of participants’ time zones and will be communicated later. For now, we invite concrete expressions of interest: short thoughts that you would consider worth discussing or more elaborate proposals for a substantial contribution to the discussion. From this, we will select speakers to give impulse talks of five minutes that will serve as a basis for the ensuing discussion.
Proposals and any remaining questions should be sent by 13 January to relics@ugent.be.
With kind regards,
Alex Tadel (University of Warwick)
Simon Smets (KU Leuven)
Conference: Neo-Latin and issues of style: places and periods 1450–1750
The Society for Neo-Latin Studies (SNLS) is organizing an international conference on Neo-Latin style, to be held in London on 18 and 19 September 2025.
The conference aims to take a more in-depth look at the question of ‘Neo-Latin style’ by asking the following questions: What is meant by ‘style’? What is the early modern and the contemporary terminology to describe this phenomenon? Is there such a thing as ‘Neo-Latin style’? What features of Neo-Latin texts need to be investigated to be able to define their ‘style’? Does the style of Neo-Latin texts develop over the period traditionally defined as that of Neo-Latin literature and, if so, how? Are there any noticeable stylistic differences between texts in prose and in verse and between texts of literary genres? What is the relationship between ‘style’ and translation? How might ‘Neo-Latin’ style differ from the style of classical antiquity? Can one discern any patterns in the use or imitation of particular classical and / or other contemporary authors? Does style differ between texts produced in different countries (by writers with different vernaculars as their native languages)? How might modern research tools and methods (e.g. access to digitized and searchable texts, databases, digital humanities) contribute to research on Neo-Latin style? What has the subject already achieved in terms of research on Neo-Latin style (for instance, the recent research network on ‘Baroque Latinity’) and what would be projects for the future? These (and other) questions will be looked at in broader overviews or by means of individual case studies.
A provisional programme is available here.
All welcome! Please register here to attend (free of charge).
Teaching Neo-Latin: texts, materials, didactic challenges: A digital workshop
Event typeWorkshop AddressONLINE VIA ZOOM Event dates
CALL FOR PAPERS: STAGING SILENCE FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE RENAISSANCE
3–4 July 2025 / St John’s College, Cambridge
This two-day, in-person conference will explore developing traditions of silence in dramatic texts from antiquity to the Renaissance. Papers are sought from scholars across a range of fields, including classical reception, comparative literature, and medieval and/or early modern English literature. Topics may include:
-
- mute characters and/or characters who never appear on stage;
-
- characters who gain or lose the power of speech (welcoming
perspectives e.g. from disability studies); -
- dramatic silence as represented on page and/or stage (e.g. book
history approaches and/or performance studies); -
- the history and/or function of animals on stage;
-
- the relationship of dramatic silence to music and/or
inarticulacy; -
- representations of dramatic silence in contemporary discursive
texts; -
- dumb shows;
-
- silence in neo-Latin drama.
Speakers will include Elisabeth Dutton (Fribourg), Barbara Ravelhofer (Durham), and Julie Stone Peters (Columbia).
Please submit a 250-word abstract for a 20-minute paper to John Colley (stagingsilence@gmail.com) by noon on Thursday 9 January 2025. Preference will be given to papers with an interdisciplinary and/or comparative focus. It’s anticipated that early career speakers will be able to apply for travel bursaries.
Neo-Latin and issues style: places and periods 1450–1750
Call for Expressions of Interest
The Society for Neo-Latin Studies (SNLS) is planning an international conference on Neo-Latin style, to be held in London on 18 and 19 September 2025.
This conference aims to bring people together to stimulate discussion on Neo-Latin material across the two days by offering a range of formats for interaction. Thus, in addition to a keynote lecture and traditional paper sessions (with papers of 20 minutes plus discussion), there will be roundtable discussions, papers followed by comments by respondents as well as a display of posters throughout the conference. Expressions of interest to contribute to any of these formats are now invited.
The conference aims to take a more in-depth look at the question of ‘Neo-Latin style’ by asking the following questions: What is meant by ‘style’? What is the early modern and the contemporary terminology to describe this phenomenon? Is there such a thing as ‘Neo-Latin style’? What features of Neo-Latin texts need to be investigated to be able to define their ‘style’? Does the style of Neo-Latin texts develop over the period traditionally defined as that of Neo-Latin literature and, if so, how? Are there any noticeable stylistic differences between texts in prose and in verse and between texts of literary genres? What is the relationship between ‘style’ and translation? How might ‘Neo-Latin’ style differ from the style of classical antiquity? Can one discern any patterns in the use or imitation of particular classical and / or other contemporary authors? Does style differ between texts produced in different countries (by writers with different vernaculars as their native languages)? How might modern research tools and methods (e.g. access to digitized and searchable texts, databases, digital humanities) contribute to research on Neo-Latin style? What has the subject already achieved in terms of research on Neo-Latin style (for instance, the recent research network on ‘Baroque Latinity’) and what would be projects for the future? These (and other) questions may be looked at in broader overviews or by means of individual case studies.
The conference will start at around midday on the first day and conclude soon after lunch on the second day, so that most attendees would only need to stay in London for one night (unless they wish to stay for longer). All presenters are expected to attend in person, though the option to join online as audience members will be set up in due course. At the moment it is not expected that there will be much funding for this conference (though funding applications are in progress). Thus, presenters and other in-person attendees should expect to pay for their own travel and accommodation; in return, there will not be any conference fees, and refreshments during the day will be provided.
Anyone interested in offering a paper, a response, a poster or participating in a roundtable discussion should send an expression of interest to the organizers (Gesine Manuwald at g.manuwald@ucl.ac.uk and Lucy Nicholas at lucy.nicholas@sas.ac.uk) by 31 October 2024. This expression of interest should include name and affiliation, indicate the format for which the contribution is intended and, where appropriate, a title for the contribution and an abstract of up to 300 words. Informal enquiries before the deadline will also be welcome.
"Carmina nunc mutanda": confessionalizing tendencies in Neo-Latin and Greek poetry of the Reformation period
Day 1: Thursday 23 May: 2.00 - 6.00pm
Day 2: Friday 24 May: 10.00am - c.5.00pm
Room G7, Ground Floor, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU
The association of poetry with the religious realm is long-established. Cicero’s conviction that poets were infused with ‘a divine spirit’ and ‘bestowed on us by God’ endured and continued to hold sway in the Early Modern imagination. This conference aims to explore how these established associations interact with the new confessional impulses which emerge in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It will look at how the Neo-Latin poetry of this era engages with and reflects the concerns and conflicts of the European reformations. Particular attention will be given to the attempts made by individuals or institutions to craft a distinctive poetics in service of particular religious positions, Protestant or Catholic. A key objective will be to examine what Neo-Latin poetry had to offer this confessional impulse: was it functioning as an act of devotion, a didactic tool to promulgate a particular message, a lever for conversion, an alternative to preaching, a mode of theology or scriptural exegesis, or a medium for communicating ideas about doctrinal or moral reform? We also welcome approaches that consider the perceived purpose of classical learning in any of these religiously partisan productions.
Hosted by the Warburg Institute, University of London. Organised by Nathaniel Hess (Frances Yates Fellow, Warburg Institute) and Lucy Nicholas (Lecturer in Latin and Greek Language and Culture, Warburg Institute). Generously supported by the Institute of Classical Studies(Opens in new window)Link opens in a new window, University of London, and the Society for Neo-Latin Studies(Opens in new window)Link opens in a new window.
“Teaching Neo-Latin: texts, materials, didactic challenges”
The Warburg Institute, the International Association for Neo-Latin Studies (IANLS), the Society for Neo-Latin Studies (SNLS), the Ludwig-Boltzmann-Institute for Neo-Latin Studies (LBI) and the Seminarium Philologiae Humanisticae of KU Leuven will organize a digital workshop “Teaching Neo-Latin: texts, materials, didactic challenges” on 30 October 2024. It will be hosted by the Warburg Institute (London).
The aim of the online encounter is to bring together (especially early career) researchers and teachers interested or involved in the teaching of Neo-Latin texts at both school and university level.
The aim of the workshop is to explore ways to assemble teaching material and to deliver the teaching. It will reflect on the tools and platforms already available, and those which are still needed in order to successfully implement Neo-Latin teaching more broadly in schools and universities.
Participants will be invited to give a brief presentation of 20-25 minutes in which they present a Neo-Latin text, or extract(s) from (different) Neo-Latin text(s) that they consider adequate for didactic purposes. The talk should focus on pedagogical questions: how would you set up teaching material for the text(s) in question – e.g. by giving a short introductory text that leads the students over to the Latin text; accompanying the Latin by vocabulary aids and notes; having the material followed by questions or assignments helping students to get more involved in the text? How would you organize your class/your session(s)? Reflecting on challenges and possible solutions can be part of the presentation. Additionally, the participants will be invited to share in advance the text to be taught and some corresponding pedagogical material they consider useful/necessary to teach it (a [first draft of a] commentary they have made, or guiding questions for the students when reading the text, or visual material, or …). The material will be distributed among all participants in order to foster a lively and constructive discussion. If participants are interested, the finalized material might be published in a digital and open access form after the workshop in order to make it available for as many teachers as possible.
If you are interested in participating, please send a brief abstract of max. 300 words and a brief CV by 15 June 2024 to: lucy.nicholas@sas.ac.uk and c.pieper@hum.leidenuniv.nl.
The organisers:
Sarah Knight (Leicester/SNLS)
Gesine Manuwald (UCL/SNLS)
Lucy Nicholas (Warburg Institute/SNLS)
Christoph Pieper (Leiden/IANLS)
Raf Van Rooy (Leuven)
Isabella Walser-Bürgler (Innsbruck/LBI)
'Secondariness': A Roundtable of the Cambridge Neo-Latin Seminar
2-6:30pm, Friday 31 May
SR/24, English Faculty, Cambridge University
Sheldon Brammall (Birmingham) • Jack Colley (Cambridge) • Philip Hardie (Cambridge) • Anna-Maria Hartmann (Cambridge) • Justin Haynes (Georgetown) • Gesine Manuwald (UCL) • Katie Mennis (Cambridge) • Leah Whittington (Harvard)
Neo-Latin has often been perceived as a profoundly ‘secondary’ medium: temporally secondary, relative to classical Latin, and in terms of language acquisition; inventively and emotionally secondary, in its supposed reliance on allusion and received ideas; even qualitatively secondary, compared to both classical and vernacular creativity. Participants will address neo-Latin's supposed secondariness from a range of perspectives and fields.
Papers will discuss Pietro Bembo, Thomas Campion, Costanzo Felici, Ben Jonson, Petrarch, Edmund Spenser, Marco Girolamo Vida, and more.
For a full programme, please visit: https://www.english.cam.ac.uk/seminars/NeoLatin.htmlLink opens in a new window
Register to attend in person or online by emailing kamm5@cam.ac.uk
CNLS Convenors: Tania Demetriou, Anna-Maria Hartmann, Andrew Taylor