Framing Classical Reception Studies. Different Perspectives on a Developing Field, 2020
Heritage studies - Intertextuality - Digital Humanities
For Cristoforo Landino (1425-1498), a fi... more Heritage studies - Intertextuality - Digital Humanities
For Cristoforo Landino (1425-1498), a fifteenth century Florentine poet, the ruins of Rome were proof that the glory of the eternal city had definitely faded, in favor of his native Florence. By modelling his elegies on Propertius’ celebration of the Roman imperial monuments, Landino praised his patron Piero de’ Medici as the new Augustus, while presenting himself as a classical Roman poet. Janus Vitalis (1485-1559) however, humanist poet and papal servant of Leo X, saw the ancient ruins as the embodiment of Rome’s eternal greatness. In a Latin epigram, modelled on Martial, he presented papal Rome as the phoenix that was reborn from the ashes even greater than before.
These are only two of the manifold images of the city of Rome that we find in humanist Latin poetry, and that range from Rome as the capital of a powerful empire to a ruined city; but also from Rome as the iconic centre of Christian faith to the target of the Protestant Reformation. These can be understood both as a continuation of the ancient and medieval tradition of (literary) images of Rome, and as an expression of the unique combination of the humanists’ admiration of ancient Rome with their attitude towards Renaissance Rome. What makes these poems so interesting is precisely this combination of scholarship and political engagement with regard to Rome in a crucial period of her history, expressed in the literary language of Rome.
In analyzing the various images of Rome that we find in Latin poems written during this period my goal is twofold: first, I am interested in the construction of these images from elements of the ancient Roman legacy. Secondly, I aim to understand their (rhetorical) function in the literary, political or religious context in which they participate. With regard to both aspects, my focus is not only on the individual poems, but also on the comparative perspective. This means that I aim to create a typology of recurring images of Rome and wish to understand their function in relation to one another, for they clearly do not stand in isolation.
Framing Classical Reception Studies. Different Perspectives on a Developing Field, 2020
Heritage studies - Intertextuality - Digital Humanities
For Cristoforo Landino (1425-1498), a fi... more Heritage studies - Intertextuality - Digital Humanities
For Cristoforo Landino (1425-1498), a fifteenth century Florentine poet, the ruins of Rome were proof that the glory of the eternal city had definitely faded, in favor of his native Florence. By modelling his elegies on Propertius’ celebration of the Roman imperial monuments, Landino praised his patron Piero de’ Medici as the new Augustus, while presenting himself as a classical Roman poet. Janus Vitalis (1485-1559) however, humanist poet and papal servant of Leo X, saw the ancient ruins as the embodiment of Rome’s eternal greatness. In a Latin epigram, modelled on Martial, he presented papal Rome as the phoenix that was reborn from the ashes even greater than before.
These are only two of the manifold images of the city of Rome that we find in humanist Latin poetry, and that range from Rome as the capital of a powerful empire to a ruined city; but also from Rome as the iconic centre of Christian faith to the target of the Protestant Reformation. These can be understood both as a continuation of the ancient and medieval tradition of (literary) images of Rome, and as an expression of the unique combination of the humanists’ admiration of ancient Rome with their attitude towards Renaissance Rome. What makes these poems so interesting is precisely this combination of scholarship and political engagement with regard to Rome in a crucial period of her history, expressed in the literary language of Rome.
In analyzing the various images of Rome that we find in Latin poems written during this period my goal is twofold: first, I am interested in the construction of these images from elements of the ancient Roman legacy. Secondly, I aim to understand their (rhetorical) function in the literary, political or religious context in which they participate. With regard to both aspects, my focus is not only on the individual poems, but also on the comparative perspective. This means that I aim to create a typology of recurring images of Rome and wish to understand their function in relation to one another, for they clearly do not stand in isolation.
In life, the emperor Domitian (81-96 CE) marketed himself as a god; after his assassination he wa... more In life, the emperor Domitian (81-96 CE) marketed himself as a god; after his assassination he was condemned to be forgotten. Nonetheless he oversaw a literary, cultural, and monumental revival on a scale not witnessed since Rome’s first emperor, Augustus.
In tandem with an exhibition in the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden and the Mercati Traianei in Rome, planned for 2021-2022, this volume offers a fresh perspective on Domitian and his reign. This collection of papers, produced by a group of international scholars, gives a wholistic and interdisciplinary approach to the emperor and his works that begins with an overview of Rome and its imperial system and ends with a reappraisal of Domitian and his legacy.
The subject of memory sanctions after his death, Domitian’s reputation has suffered as a result of the negative press he received both in antiquity and thereafter. Building upon recent scholarship that has sought to re-evaluate the last of the Flavian emperors, the papers in this volume present the latest research on Domitian’s building programmes and military exploits as well as the literary sources produced during and after his reign, all of which paint a picture of an emperor who – despite being loathed by Rome’s elite – did much to shape the landscape of Rome as we know it today.
Framing Classical Reception Studies contains a representative number of analytic and synthetic co... more Framing Classical Reception Studies contains a representative number of analytic and synthetic contributions by scholars from diverse parts of the field of Classical Reception Studies. Together, they afford a synoptic view and typology of an extremely large and continuously diversifying discipline. Attentive to questions such as what, by whom, in what contexts and to what ends Classics have functioned and are functioning in our culture, all contributors ask themselves from what conceptual or disciplinary frame they approach the reception of the cultures of classical Greek and Roman antiquity. Within this questioning format, the book also contains suggestions for future agendas of research, and forcefully argues for the political, cultural and cognitive relevance of classical receptions in the Academy.
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Papers by Nathalie de Haan
For Cristoforo Landino (1425-1498), a fifteenth century Florentine poet, the ruins of Rome were proof that the glory of the eternal city had definitely faded, in favor of his native Florence. By modelling his elegies on Propertius’ celebration of the Roman imperial monuments, Landino praised his patron Piero de’ Medici as the new Augustus, while presenting himself as a classical Roman poet. Janus Vitalis (1485-1559) however, humanist poet and papal servant of Leo X, saw the ancient ruins as the embodiment of Rome’s eternal greatness. In a Latin epigram, modelled on Martial, he presented papal Rome as the phoenix that was reborn from the ashes even greater than before.
These are only two of the manifold images of the city of Rome that we find in humanist Latin poetry, and that range from Rome as the capital of a powerful empire to a ruined city; but also from Rome as the iconic centre of Christian faith to the target of the Protestant Reformation. These can be understood both as a continuation of the ancient and medieval tradition of (literary) images of Rome, and as an expression of the unique combination of the humanists’ admiration of ancient Rome with their attitude towards Renaissance Rome. What makes these poems so interesting is precisely this combination of scholarship and political engagement with regard to Rome in a crucial period of her history, expressed in the literary language of Rome.
In analyzing the various images of Rome that we find in Latin poems written during this period my goal is twofold: first, I am interested in the construction of these images from elements of the ancient Roman legacy. Secondly, I aim to understand their (rhetorical) function in the literary, political or religious context in which they participate. With regard to both aspects, my focus is not only on the individual poems, but also on the comparative perspective. This means that I aim to create a typology of recurring images of Rome and wish to understand their function in relation to one another, for they clearly do not stand in isolation.
For Cristoforo Landino (1425-1498), a fifteenth century Florentine poet, the ruins of Rome were proof that the glory of the eternal city had definitely faded, in favor of his native Florence. By modelling his elegies on Propertius’ celebration of the Roman imperial monuments, Landino praised his patron Piero de’ Medici as the new Augustus, while presenting himself as a classical Roman poet. Janus Vitalis (1485-1559) however, humanist poet and papal servant of Leo X, saw the ancient ruins as the embodiment of Rome’s eternal greatness. In a Latin epigram, modelled on Martial, he presented papal Rome as the phoenix that was reborn from the ashes even greater than before.
These are only two of the manifold images of the city of Rome that we find in humanist Latin poetry, and that range from Rome as the capital of a powerful empire to a ruined city; but also from Rome as the iconic centre of Christian faith to the target of the Protestant Reformation. These can be understood both as a continuation of the ancient and medieval tradition of (literary) images of Rome, and as an expression of the unique combination of the humanists’ admiration of ancient Rome with their attitude towards Renaissance Rome. What makes these poems so interesting is precisely this combination of scholarship and political engagement with regard to Rome in a crucial period of her history, expressed in the literary language of Rome.
In analyzing the various images of Rome that we find in Latin poems written during this period my goal is twofold: first, I am interested in the construction of these images from elements of the ancient Roman legacy. Secondly, I aim to understand their (rhetorical) function in the literary, political or religious context in which they participate. With regard to both aspects, my focus is not only on the individual poems, but also on the comparative perspective. This means that I aim to create a typology of recurring images of Rome and wish to understand their function in relation to one another, for they clearly do not stand in isolation.
In tandem with an exhibition in the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden and the Mercati Traianei in Rome, planned for 2021-2022, this volume offers a fresh perspective on Domitian and his reign. This collection of papers, produced by a group of international scholars, gives a wholistic and interdisciplinary approach to the emperor and his works that begins with an overview of Rome and its imperial system and ends with a reappraisal of Domitian and his legacy.
The subject of memory sanctions after his death, Domitian’s reputation has suffered as a result of the negative press he received both in antiquity and thereafter. Building upon recent scholarship that has sought to re-evaluate the last of the Flavian emperors, the papers in this volume present the latest research on Domitian’s building programmes and military exploits as well as the literary sources produced during and after his reign, all of which paint a picture of an emperor who – despite being loathed by Rome’s elite – did much to shape the landscape of Rome as we know it today.