Epos 2024

The epic in the Latin Occident (4th to 15th century)

Tenth International Medieval Latin Congress, Nuremberg, City Library (Katharinensaal) and Department of Economics and Social Sciences at FAU, Lange Gasse 20

Wednesday, September 25 to Saturday, September 28, 2024

 

Tradition and topicality of a theme

Stories of heroic deeds, crimes and personal and collective tragedies have become sadly topical since the resurgence of war in Europe. The International Congress in Nuremberg will focus on the genre that for many centuries turned such stories into literature, the Latin epic in Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. What was the content of epics? Not just the glorification of admirable figures from myth and history in euphonious verse, often following ancient authors such as Virgil, who continued to be widely read, commented on and translated. The epics often offered a critical examination of the heroes and their adversaries, which appeals to us because they question the martial aspect as a value and a means. The epic was also used for religious and educational purposes.

International speakers, school program and exhibition

The International Medieval Latin Congress is returning to Germany for the first time since 1988 after stops in Florence, Toronto, Vienna and Prague, among other places. Top researchers from Europe and overseas (Canada, USA) will appear in Nuremberg and present the results of their work for discussion.

Scholarships will be offered for younger researchers.

 

 

Programmkomitee

Prof. Dr. Michele C. Ferrrari (Erlangen),Chairman

Prof. Dr. Peter Orth (Cologne)

Akad. Dir. Dr. Stefan Weber (Erlangen)

Christian Schmidt, contact person and congress manager

 

Organizer

Chair of Latin Philology of the Middle Ages and Modern Times (Prof. Dr. Michele C Ferrari) at the FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg

Co-organizer: City of Nuremberg, Nuremberg City Library

Sponsorship

The conference is sponsored by the Manfred Roth Stiftung and the Universitätsbund.

The conference is also supported by the FAU Nuremberg-Erlangen, the Luise Prell Stiftung, the Evangelical Reformed Church of St. Martha, the Staatsbibliothek Bamberg and HWB Mittellatein.

 

„UER MS 393, f. 1v (south german, about 1200)“

 

 

Your access via ConfTool:  https://www.conftool.net/kongress-epos2024

 

If you have any questions about the congress, please contact the congress team at kongress-epos2024@fau.de

 

Register for the congress

Registration for the congress will take place electronically from November 1, 2023. Participants (both speakers and audience members) can register via Conftool.

Registration and registration for the congress will be open until September 15, 2024 (registration with access to the program will no longer be possible after 15.9.2024, but it will be possible to attend the lectures).

 

CfP submission of contributions (ended on 01.03.2024)

Call for papers – Epic in the Latin West (4th-15th Centuries)

 

Epic, beyond other genres, has been both a guarantor of cultural continuity for millennia and a site of fundamental innovations in literary style and content in Western culture. It has also occasioned heated controversies, because of the complex associations it bears, eg, with nationalism, colonialism or racism. How do such debates relate to Medieval Latin – or do they?

The conference Epic in the Latin West (4th-15th Centuries) proposes to explore the genre in its highly varied developments from Late Antiquity to the Early Modern Period. Medieval Latin gave expression to an overwhelming number of epics, many of them still little studied. The center of gravity will be the Latin of the Middle Ages, but connections with Classics, other vernaculars, and modernity from the Renaissance to the present day are also possible topics. What do these earlier centuries have to say to the twenty-first?

Many avenues might be investigated, such as:

 

    • Epic Heroes and Heroines: adaptation of classical heroes (from Homer, Virgil, Lucan, and others); questions of gender; rise of new heroes (biblical and saintly); effects of Christianity on the nature of heroism.
    • Texts and Genres: epic and other genres (eg, historical writing, hagiography, philosophy, or theology); defining features of epic; orality and literacy in composition and transmission; stylistics and metrics; verse in relation to prose.
    • Reception: intertextuality, concentrating on Latin but also relating to the vernaculars; text transmission and philological aspects; quotation and paraphrase; text and image; lyrics and music; epic and other media (romances, novels, film, and recent media forms, so long as the connection with Medieval Latin is strong).

The conference will take place under the aegis of the International Medieval Latin Committee (president: Prof. Dr. Jan Ziolkowski, Harvard). Mornings will feature plenary lectures (keynote speeches) by internationally recognized specialists, while the afternoon will have papers given in panel sessions (each 20 minutes plus 10 minutes discussion). The conference languages ​​are German, English, French, Italian, Latin, and Spanish.

This call for papers is open to scholars at all career stages who would like to present in the panel sessions. Interested individuals should submit their proposals by 1 March 2024 (starting from 1 November 2023) here:

www.conftool.net/kongress-epos2024

 

Please note that presenters must also register for the congress. Please send, in addition to your CV, the title of your contribution and an abstract in English (max. 300 words). The papers themselves may be delivered in any of the conference languages ​​named above. In selecting papers, the organizers are looking to create a spectrum that is thematically and methodologically as broad as possible.

Some Sebaldus Bursaries in the amount of 400€ each will be available to traveling speakers under 35 years of age whose proposals are accepted. After the proposal has been accepted and the speaker has agreed to attend, successful recipients will be notified by the conference organizers. A separate application for a Sebaldus Bursary is not necessary. It is not possible to combine a Sebaldus Bursary with a bursary from the HWB Mittellatein Foundation (see below).

For 10 young scholars, travel bursaries in the amount of 400€ each will be available on a competitive basis through the generosity of the HWB Mittellatein Foundation. Please send your application before 30 June 2024 , including a full CV and a short statement describing your interest in Medieval Latin to: Dr. iur. Felix Berschin, password “HWB Mittellatein”, Max-Reger-Str. 41, 69121 Heidelberg (Germany).

Download the Call for papers here

 

 

Event location

Opening

Nuremberg, City Library (Katharinensaal) Katharinensaal at Katharinenkloster 6 (opposite the Katharinenruins)

 

Presentations

Nuremberg, Department of Economics and Social Sciences at FAU, Lange Gasse 20

 

 

Photos of the event locations

Nürnberg, Fachbereich Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften der FAU, Lange Gasse 20

Lange Gasse 20

 

 

Main entrance, Lange Gasse 20

 

 

Hallway to the lecture halls 5 and 6, Lange Gasse 20

 

 

Lecture Hall 5

 

Lecture Hall 6

 

 

Lower foyer and entrance to the seminar room 0.424 and to the cloak room, Lange Gasse 20

 

 

Seminar room 0.424

 

 

Door to the conference office, seen from the Lobby, Lange Gasse 2

 

 

Door to the conference office, Lange Gasse 20

 

 

Nürnberg, Stadtbibliothek (Katharinensaal). Katharinensaal am Katharinenkloster 6

Katharinenruins and building Katharinensaal

 

 

Building, Katharinensaal

 

 

Katharinensaal

 

If you have any questions about accessibility, please contact the congress manager Christian Schmidt (kongress-epos2024@fau.de).

 

Congress Program

The complete and always up-to-date program can be found in Conftool. An overview of the program will be published here from April.

 

Teacher training (FIBS)

The epic genre is an important part of Latin lessons in schools and its treatment lays the foundations for the continuation of the subject. It did not end with the Roman Empire and stories about heroic deeds, crimes and personal and collective tragedies are still relevant today. Post-classical epics not only glorified admirable figures from myth and history in euphonious verse, often following ancient authors such as Virgil, who were widely read, commented on and translated, they also often offered a critical examination of the heroes and their opponents, which still appeals to us today because they question the martial aspect as a value and a means. Furthermore, the post-classical epic was also used for religious and educational purposes.

 

As part of the congress „The Epic in the Latin Occident (4th to 15th century)“ [Nuremberg, 25-28.9.2024], three separate training sessions (see below) on post-classical epic poetry will be offered for teachers of Latin. It is possible to register for more than one of these training courses or to attend just one session. An accompanying sheet for school use, prepared by the chair’s school representative and teachers associated with the chair, is available from the conference office (Ms. Elke Charpin) together with the certificate of attendance. Attendance at other events of the congress (e.g. the specialist lectures in the afternoon; also on other days) is open to registered teachers, but is not specifically certified. In addition to registering in FIBS, we strongly recommend free registration and registration via the congress website (https://www.conftool.net/kongress/epos-2024/) in order to gain access to the complete program, additional events and any updates.

See also here: https://zfl.fau.de/outreach/fau-lehrkraefte-schulen/fortbildungen-fuer-lehrkraefte/#search

 

Contact person and congress manager

 

Christian Schmidt

Contact person and congress manager

Lehrstuhl für Lateinische Philologie des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit
Kochstr. 4/3
D-91054 Erlangen
Room 3.015
Tel. +49 / 09131 / 85-22441
E-Mail: kongress-epos2024@fau.de

 

60 years of Medieval Latin in Erlangen

In 2024, our chair celebrates its 60th anniversary, as Franz Brunhölzl was appointed associate professor and head of the newly established Department of Medieval Latin Philology in January 1964. This anniversary will be celebrated during the Tenth International Medieval Latin Congress „The Epic in the Latin Occident (4th to 15th century)“. Further information on our history can be found here: https://www.mittellatein.phil.fau.de/lehrstuhl/archiv/